Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Come to think of it, Alan says that flat-panel TV's are likely the single noisiest appliance found in the home, nowadays. But, no wonder if maybe introductory vinyl- or digital-based systems are not turning on quite as many people as they used to...my experience, so far, anyway.

I think its mostly more things to compete for peoples leisure interests and affections these days including portable audio. Mobile is where its at these days. And even when sitting at home on ones arse, just for entertainment purposes, internet, gizzilions of cable channels, video games, HD TV etc. Times change...

perhaps people love music and the reproduction of recordings in the home, but don't want to be called an "audiophile"--a term which has negative connotations.

i'm sure that when exposed to quality sound, even a tyro would appreciate the sound of instruments. it's just the notion of being considered an audiophile which may not be attractive to most people. i think the term "audiophile" may be associated with "lunatic", for many people.

Years ago when I first went high end. I had three ARC pieces (SP-3, Dual 51, and Dual 75A, a Linn LP12, and a Charlie the Tuner. The sat on their own feet on wooden cabinet shelves and were plugged into a power strip and into the wall. Ics were cheap and the speaker wire was heavy gauge lighting wire. There were perhaps six other guys in town with pretty comparable systems in a town of about 50k and three dealers. Many people had speakers and a receiver and the local dealers sold them. I see many of these systems still in use by friends of my age. Most of these friends don't have home theater systems or even big HD tvs. They are the old amusement style families. I still maintain that in part it is other amusements, but also is the expense of vibration isolation, electrical power, and high quality wires. This is not to say that our sound today isn't far better than long ago, but all that stuff has to be bought and is hard to hide and has low WAF.

If you took away HD large screens, BlueRay, Iphones, Ipads, MP3 noise, etc., you would end up with bored people not more receptive to quality audio.

"I know you never thought about it but ask yourself later. When you turn on your stereo, does it return the favor?"
..........Van Halen "A Different Kind of Truth"