Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Actually audio has real snob appeal in many countries in the Far East. Some buyers of expensive stuff love music, others want status. There is no status to hifi in the West. Why, I don't entirely understand. True story: when we first started selling Clayton amps, one guy from Hong Kong came to our setup at HiFi 96, loved the sound, thought about buying our stuff and then was put out to find that our amps sold for under $10K. He said he would lose face and went on to buy a MUCH more expensive set from another long-established company. Of course, the economic crash in the Far East since 1997 has destroyed much of this business and destroyed lots of high end companies along the way. But clearly, advertising would help. It also wouldn't hurt if some big rags hadn't always claimed that all equipment sounds the same. Just my 3 cents worth.

Followup: Why lack of interest in hifi I do think there has also been a shift in taste away from high fidelity. People have been trained to want BAD, electronic sound. By this I mean, that much of the high end is about correctly reproducing acoustic instruments in a real space and being true to real sounds even in pop recordings. However, people are starting to complain that live music isn't as exciting as their stereo, hence the pressure for bright concert halls in classical music. I am also astonished at how often jazz is over amplified in tiny clubs where no mikes are needed. And look at musical theatre. Last time I was in London I was stunned at how often the music was broadcast at ungodly levels over a poor PA system. I talked to a local engineer who claimed that people want that loud ARTIFICIAL electronic sound. Let's forget most rock concerts, where noise and bright lights beat good sound any day. So some of it is lack of exposure. Some of it is lack of status. Some is lack of passion. But also, just face it -- relative to the general population we audiophiles suffer from a disease :) :)

I think all the responses are good but here is my take on this. "Exposure, exposure ". There was a time when I thought the little paper woofers in Bose speakers sounded pretty decent and I really wanted a Bose "system". Then I listened to Sony receivers, and thought these were the very best. Well, you guessed, pretty soon I explored this whole sound affair and now I am a hard core tube diehard. Yes I want tubes in my tuner ( M.D. if you please ). The problem is, my tastes now are way above my means - - easily $100,000. wish list. What's a poor guy to do with a simple $40,000 system ?? Music stirs the soul, it has passion. Rolexes do not, Ferrari's ... maybe, if there is a pretty blond in the passenger seat, then maybe, just maybe. I have friends with almost $1M homes and they listen to Pioneer receivers with cheap JBL speakers. Who buys Mark Levinson Transports and DACs to go with their Lamm SET's ? Not me.

Et's opinion has lot more truth in it. People (haves or have nots) have not listened to what could be possible with great system. If they listened to a very well set-up system,at least half of non-audiophiles will convert. Take me as another example: Just 11 years ago, I thought YAMAHA components and Cerwin-Vega was above the masses! And even then I paid somewhere around 7K for everything. If I knew then I would have put together pretty good system at that price!

I agree that exposure would have a positive effect on participation in enjoying high-end audio, but I think the estimate that at least 1/2 would convert upon hearing a very well set-up system is much too high, especially if your definition of "audiophile" is at all demanding. Certainly far fewer than 1/2 of the people that audition my system convert (or even sit through very many songs) - in fact the only person I've ever had get real interested was somebody who's already on the path. Maybe my system doesn't meet the criteria of exposure being discussed here, but I'd bet that it does, but in any case it's a pretty common theme that non-audiophiles who hear a nice system, even when they acknowledge awesome sound, don't show much interest in actually owning one.

That said, I've always agreed that exposure would do a lot to promote the higher-end industry. Put decent systems into CD stores with a sign saying "Displayed by .....". Repetitive exposure would quite possibly work a lot better than an individual session.