Why Don't More People Love Audio?

I think the vast majority of people don't enjoy music. Before retirement, I worked for Northern California's utility company servicing gas appliances. In 30 plus years of going into homes, I noticed that very few people have any type of audio equipment. If they did, it was an old record player, in a corner, collecting dust. It is as they they got older, their interest in music waned. I've seen many records packed away, the owners seemingly not caring to play them. More people have modest HT systems than 2 channel equipment. In my visits to approximate. 30 to 40 thousand homes, I've seen probably 10-12 high end systems. So here in San Francisco, the number of people with any type of music system is extremly low. Younger people enjoy music but they seem to get by with iPods and those little earbud things. Also, the few music lovers that are out there do not realize that a good system can be put together with relatively few $'s.

i use to spend my time describing good equipment to people and they would always ask "what about bose?". and when i told them about bose the never asked "what about kef, b and w, celestion, dahlquist?. what about magneplanar?" and to go from a pioneer reciever to a yamaha was a real leap. people love music but they hate to look like they don,t know what they are talking about so they stick with name brands they recognize. by the way,, just where does a person find a high end storefront in most of america? presently you could drive all day around st louis and find 5 or 6 of the brands people on audiogon are fans of. and to listen to any combinations is impossible. vexing for a knowledgeable person much less a newcomer. no wonder great audio gear is a very small part of the home electronics industry. and how many salesman are capable of selling it??

I noticed that in less than a month this thread will be 10 years old. Bravo!!!

We audiophiles may be in mystical rapture over a system's properties, but the rest of Them are not. For Them, the song matters more than the sound.

Well, I gotta' admit the song matters to me much more than the sound. I can listen to a good song and a crappy system. Remember AM radio? But to listen to crappy music on ANY system, I'd rather not.