Is the idea of audiophile listening a dying concept as boomers die off?

moto_man  To parody my own statement, my grandparents hated my rock music! In their minds, the only music worth listening to came from 'real' musicians like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. Truth be told, I can actually listen to and enjoy music from their era now, but I hated it when I was younger, just like I can't stand the current generation's music. My point is that every generation has it's 'golden era' of music, and there's nothing wrong with that. We humans call it progress, even when it doesn't sound like it!

simao, Don't be too hard on us old geezers, we're just keeping tradition alive and well!

bipod72 I think you've hit on another aspect of the OP's query. I'm a Boomer,  and at this point in my retired life, I have more  discretionary cash flow and more free time to enjoy it then ever before. I've been channeling a lot of both into my system just playing around and trying new equipment. I try to temper the urges by reminding myself that our worldly treasures eventually wind up being somebody else's junk that they have to get rid of. If I pass before my wife, she'll just have her son pick everything up and get rid of it, which he'll do because he isn't any more interested in it than his mother. If I out live her, the end will be the same because I have no heirs of my own. BTW, I'll go to my grave never regretting that fact.

We now have virtual reality headsets with 3D sound that mimics true reality very convincingly, and I think that trend is going to merge right into the music world as well. Many of us two channel folks have strived to reproduce the 'live' experience in our home systems. I firmly believe that experience will be realized in the very near future with systems that fit on the head and deliver an experience we could only dream about. 

I'm much more concerned about the future of music, given corporate greed and the advent of AI.

How much longer will there be a market for living, breathing musicians, when a computer can "compose" and "perform" in any style?

@rcm1203 I know; I can be an ageist ass sometimes. But I feel people are fossilizing themselves when they write off contemporary music. Still, thanks for the reminder. 

This is a really interesting discussion.  I'm 76 now, and rebuilding my system.  During a recent move I abandoned quite an inventory of equipment, a lot of which was self-constructed and/or purchased after years of upgrades and development.  I had  moved to a smaller place along with all this stuff, said to hell with it, and constructed a mini-system that was surprisingly good and, I thought, perfectly  adequate.  So then came the move and the necessary (!) downsizing.  I moved to the next place and found myself staring at something I had never had:  the perfect listening space.  My mini system was still good, but the possibilities......

Fact is, this is a connoisseurs game, like any other.  It is also fun.  There will always be such people but here's the generational difference:  electronics technology, along with everything else, has changed radically, opening up new possibilities for the great unwashed.  No one in the sixties or seventies could get musical performance out of their low-to-midlevel gear that approached was is now available digitally, or via streaming, into an internet-coupled speaker or a set of earbuds.  Equi[pment on this level in times past was awful.  Remember what it was like the first time you entered a hifi store and heard what was in there?  Also, in those days music was far more diverse and of, frankly, higher quality overall.  Now the entry-level gear is so much better but the source material is, by and large, pedestrian (I would prefer a different term).  It often really doesn't matter what you're listening with. Most people are not connoisseurs and they shouldn't be.  So the market for superior audio quality has declined in the face of enhanced reproduction coupled to degraded material.  Declined, but not gone away.  A couple decades ago, who would have thought that young people would start clamoring for vinyl playback and vacuum tubes?  Saying things like "it just sounds better!".  So I'm an old guy who just can't give it up.  I moved 60 boxes of vinyl down here!

This is a really interesting discussion.  I'm 76 now, and rebuilding my system.  During a recent move I abandoned quite an inventory of equipment, a lot of which was self-constructed and/or purchased after years of upgrades and development.  I had  moved to a smaller place along with all this stuff, said to hell with it, and constructed a mini-system that was surprisingly good and, I thought, perfectly  adequate.  So then came the move and the necessary (!) downsizing.  I moved to the next place and found myself staring at something I had never had:  the perfect listening space.  My mini system was still good, but the possibilities......

Fact is, this is a connoisseurs game, like any other.  It is also fun.  There will always be such people but here's the generational difference:  electronics technology, along with everything else, has changed radically, opening up new possibilities for the great unwashed.  No one in the sixties or seventies could get musical performance out of their low-to-midlevel gear that approached what is now available digitally, or via streaming, into an internet-coupled speaker or a set of earbuds.  Equi[pment on this level in times past was awful.  Remember what it was like the first time you entered a hifi store and heard what was in there?  Also, in those days music was far more diverse and of, frankly, higher quality overall.  Now the entry-level gear is so much better but the source material is, by and large, pedestrian (I would prefer a different term).  It often really doesn't matter what you're listening with. Most people are not connoisseurs and they shouldn't be.  So the market for superior audio quality has declined in the face of enhanced reproduction coupled to degraded material.  Declined, but not gone away.  A couple decades ago, who would have thought that young people would start clamoring for vinyl playback and vacuum tubes?  Saying things like "it just sounds better!".  So I'm an old guy who just can't give it up.  I moved 60 boxes of vinyl down here!