Why Don't More People Love Audio?

People do: mark my words, the iPod will eventually be that which grows the high end business again.

The Ipod is headed in the wrong direction. High end audio will flourish again when labor unions return to power and pot is legalized, or when hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

I think there are several reasons why high end audio is such a limited market. First of all the general public has no idea it exists. The greatest product in the world will not sell if no one is aware of it in the first place. Secondly, people need to be moved emotionally by a system if they are going to shell out extra dollars for a high end rig. Friends of mine thought I should have my head examined for the amount of money I've spent on my system until they came over and experienced an evening of music. When the lights went out and the music started they were awestruck because for the first time an audio system delivered the emotion of music. Every audiophile out there knows exactly what I mean. Another reason is the fact that people tend to be more visual than audio. This is why a family will likely spend several thousand dollars on a new HDTV and next to nothing on audio. Hopefully some day more people will have experienced what hi end is all about!

I agree with Kentb...and must ask if audiophiles are doing our part to educate our friends, or are we just turning up our noses to their systems? I also agree with Michael Fremer (in his PS AUDIO "Coal to Coltrane" a brief history of power - dvd interview) when he said (to paraphrase him) that his 2nd favorite part of listening to music was bringing "non-audio friends" down to listen to music on his rig. His friends had questions/comments like "Why is it I've never heard about this (hi-fi stuff) before?"...and... "The music doesn't even sound like it's coming from the speakers!"...Has everyone seen this dvd?...it's FREE! GO GET IT!!! We must do our part to make people aware of our passion...if we did this I suspect highend stereo would quickly enter the mainstream! A whole lot of people want this sound, they just don't know it yet!

Wishful thinking. Most people don't get it and don't care to. That epiphany you imagine that opens everyone's eyes forever to the wonderfulness of high end audio is fanciful at best.
Over the course of thirty years I demonstrated high end audio to thousands of people. Most were already infected before they came to the store but the rest were immune.
I have a very high resolution extremely musical system at home and I show it off frequently. Many of those who have heard my system are musicians and/or music instructors. They never fail to be impressed but they never consider owning anything like this themselves. No amount of instruction or cajiling on my part can awaken a glimmer of ambition.
These people love music. It is their life. They do it all day every day and quite a bit at night too. They all have some sort of sound system but they don't care about quality at all. Just something that works; that's all they desire.
My relatives have responded the same way in recent years. There was a time when nearly everyone wanted stereo but only a small percentage of us took it any further. My own kids have decent systems hooked up to their computers. Both have NAD preamps and NHT Pro M-OO speakers with S-OO subs. Still they listen to headphones most of the time, occassionally using my rig.
Times have changed and audio as we know it is pretty much doomed. Fashions and priorities are moving away from our thing and our numbers are suffering from attrition.