YouTube Indicates What the Future is For Audiophiles - Interesting Demographics.

Audiophilia will probably not be much like the present going forward. It is fairly obvious that the retail model will be reduced to small, relatively rare specialists and a few larger entities like Magnolia relying on a presence within a larger entity carrying video and computer/wireless/network products. Even the market for conventional network products will be displaced by virtual 5G secure private "networks." Vinyl is enjoying a resurgence, but I doubt that it will grow much larger.Its requirements in equipment, space and cost will work against it as a medium. It won’t disappear, but it will be constrained. There were reasons why vinyl LP was displaced by CD. The future for magnetic tape is even more dim. It exists as a legacy product and has little capacity for growth: expensive, reliant on scarce repair services for costly and increasingly out-of-production recorders. Even tube gear in its revival has probably reached its zenith, mainly because the technology is vintage, the production of necessary replacement tubes is tenuous and limited to relatively few countries/manufacturers and long supply lines. The fact that there is such a high-priced market for specific vintage tubes suggests that new production is not surpassing the quality of the old. I am sure tubes won’t go away tomorrow, but twenty years from now, who can say? Much of the tube interest is by older consumers who will stop consuming in one way or another in 20 years.

Lifestyle products have a bright future, however, and at every price level. Bose and others are regularly disparaged on Audiogon, as are the more modern iterations in Sonos and Bluesound and others, but that is where the growth is. Higher end makers from Europe: Linn, B&O, Electrocompaniet and others have got the memo, as have makers of traditional speakers now expanding their lines to active products that offer performance and compatability with modern living spaces. Clunky, bulky and expensive multi-box hobbyist products that require their own dedicated "listening rooms" will find fewer buyers.

BAACH-SP

When this technology (above) becomes cheap enough that many can afford it there is no telling what will happen to music, music composition and general listening. Trying to "predict" what will happen is a fool's errand.

Elvis 1955

How many people under 50 know what a Krell KSA 80 is?  Cheap Audio Man says his audience peaks around 45.  I'm sure if you knew the stats for the young guys reviewing headphones it'd be much younger people.  "High-end" audio got too expensive.  So many companies selling only super-expensive stuff killed themselves.  

@jon_5912 

Hi.. I doubt more than a handful of people under 50 know what a KSA80 is. If you look at the OP there are two videos referenced, the second targeting a younger audience. I did it that way because they represent the two extremes of age groups that the channel draws on. But the stats for both are roughly the same. That was the point of picking out those two videos. I’ve also done vids on REL Carbon Special subs, Dr. Feickert turntables etc, and the stats are the same. As soon as you get relatively high-end, the demographics become fairly predictable.

I said in another post that cheapaudioman’s stats would probably look a lot different. He doesn’t hit the higher end crowd, his stuff is more affordable so reaches a broader audience that includes younger people.

I wasn’t claiming anything definitive about the stats I showed. Though I do think it’s probably a fair reflection of where the high end is at.

There have been some interesting comments in this thread. Thanks again to folks who have chimed in with a variety of comments and opinion.

I believe the dearth of welcoming high-end audio brick and mortar audio stores only adds to the nonengagement of younger persons.  How many of us curiously found our way into one and was knocked out by what we heard?That's how I started at fourteen.  More than five decades later still going.

@barts exactly my experience.  I found my way into a very high end audio store at 15 in 1973, and was blown away by the sound that I heard.  I think that the system might have been Quad ESL's stacked, powered by Mark Levinson separates, and some turntable that I don't recall.  What I do recall is that it sounded as if the band was in the room in front of me.  Incredible.  I have been chasing that sound my whole life, and now, in 2024, I am most of the way there!  The other thing that others have also pointed out is that the '70's was an era filled with incredible rock music, with new and amazing albums being released by amazing groups like Led Zep, ELP, Yes, Tull, etc. and a whole wave of ECM jazz.  Listening to that new album when it was released, like Physical Graffiti or Led Zep IV, or Brain Salad Surgery, to name a few, was a religious experience.  I still listen to that music.  Kids growing up today don't have that kind of music any more, and I think that music fueled the creation of audiophiles.  In addition, we sat around and listened to music as a social activity while smoking pot.  There were no video games, 100 TV channels and movie channels, etc. to choose from.  So we appreciated it more, I think.  I am sad that we are really a dying breed.  My step-son likes to listen to my old dinosaur rock on my system, but has no interest in having his own.  That is the way it is.  I will enjoy my hobby until I croak, and get huge amounts of pleasure in doing so.  What happens after I croak, not my concern, I suppose, other than in a theoretical way.