Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Wow, have things changed since this thread was posted! Music downloads have exploded and earbuds are now the hi-fi system of choice for the vast majority of people.

I am taking One To One private classes at my local Apple Store. Not one trainer I've talked to (out of at least 7 different ones) has any idea about high resolution downloads, DACs being used with my MacBook Pro, etc. Every one of them stares at me blankly when I bring up the subject. I even read through a A'gon thread about using a Mac as source and how to get better sound quality. The two Apple people had no idea what anything in the thread was about.

Only one employee at the Apple Store knew that higher resolution downloads should result in better sounding tunes. Every other one of them said the only difference was the high res songs "just take up more storage space".

I've also noticed (at least ALL of my nieces and nephews) that most young people don't "listen" to music. They listen to MTV sized sound bites from songs, and if the only thing they are doing is listening to an iPod they are constantly scrolling through one song after another. A nephew once asked me if I "just sit and listen to music". I said yes, he stared at me like I was from Atlantis

I had exposure to high-end audio at an early age and it has stayed with me all these years. I believe if you are not exposed to it when you are young more than likely you will never get into it. Most of the hobbies I grew up with as a kid are still my hobbies today. I still collect coins and race my slots cars on occasion. The kids growing up today really have no interest in high-end audio. It's unfortunate but when my generation enters retirement age you can kiss high-end audio bye-bye.

Because to a large extent, hi-end audio does not give the customer what they want. Hi-end audio expects people to conform to THEM, not the other way around. You will never get much business with that attitude.

Why don't more people build their own custom computers, slap gigantic heatsinks on the processors, and then tweak the bios settings to make the processor run 1000Mhz faster than it is rated for? You can you know!

Why don't more people enjoy fine wine, or jazz or classical music?

You've asked a question that is almost impossible to answer, but I would speculate as follows.

I. High-information costs

The costs of acquiring, processing, and using information related to component selection are high. It is easy to compare a Pioneer Elite Plasma display to a Sony LCD. It is not so easy to compare two preamps.

II. Lack of awareness

A lot of people don't know this stuff exists.

III. Price

Most people can't afford, or don't want to spend that much.

I think part of the problem with the hobby is that people spend too much time on the gear and not enough time on the actual listening experience and the music.

If you really want to impress someone with your system, put something on that they like and that you know sounds good. When I want to really show off I put Bob Marley's Legend on. I once had a party in a dorm room and I put that album on my B&W speakers and I got compliments on the sound by college girls, of all people. Make your own demo CD for when friends come over.

The problem is that there aren't many compact discs that can hold up under the scrutiny of a high end system without some very sophisticated filtering or upsampling. Not recordings, compact discs. I did not realize this until I heard some of the dCS upsampling gear, which upsamples to DSD and remedies a lot of bad CDs.

If you want to impress the uninitiated, you need a system that you can play really, really loud without becoming distorted or irritating. I think as audiophiles we take for granted the ability to reproduce music accurately at high volume levels, but this is one of the main areas where an audiophile grade system will just kill an off the shelf bose or iPod. Find some music that sounds good really loud and play it.

I don't think it is unreasonable to want share the audio hobby with others, or at least to have the time and effort you put into building a system acknowledged by friends.

In my experience, however, most people even after hearing an awesome system don't even inquire about it. On the other hand, I have had a delivery driver from a chinese restaurant practically force his way into my apartment because he caught a glimpse of my speakers and just had to find out more.

There are so many barriers to entry to this hobby that it is amazing there are as many audio products as there are.

here is a simple answer:

in order to enjoy the sound of your favorite music, you only need a rudimentary personal audio system.

there is no need to acquire components to enjoy one's music.

thus, if you can listen to music on a "boom box" and enjoy it, why consider the time, money and emotion to get involved with audio equipment ?