More potential bad news for some big names...

It's amazing that denial, ignorance, pettiness and even wishing for a human to die finds its way into a supposedly hi-end audio forum.  How sad we have become.  Thank God the people have spoken!

Let’s stop the Politics right now. I go to sites likes to escape it.

  The long term decline of Audio has been going on for a few decades.  We are seeing and another step in the extinction.

  Apple makes more money on Ear Buds than the entire commercial speaker market.

  When my kids went to college 20 years ago I started talking with them about what kind of system to get them for their dorm rooms.  They looked at me like I was crazy.  Their iPods and earbuds were all they, and anyone else in their dorms, wanted.

  Meanwhile my contemporaries, all of whom cared very much about our mid Fi systems when we were young, were doing the same thing.  In my little social circle of the planet I am the only person who cares about audio.

   The consolidation and purchase of many brands by conglomerates that are uninterested in audio, such as Massimo, is accelerating the demise.  There is a lot of hedge fund money looking to buy stuff and uninterested in managing what they buy. 
  What I don’t understand in this thread is the focus on the pandemic as the culprit.  The pandemic was actually good for audio.  People were stuck at home, and many discovered their systems that they hadn’t turned on for years.  The repair shops were jammed as people discovered their components had atrophied from disuse.  Sales of audio equipment jumped.  Perhaps that may have got the hedge funds attention.
  It was a blip.  The long term factors just aren’t in our favor.  The ultra high end is pursuing the customers with Elon Musk sized bank accounts.  The mid Fi companies don’t know what to do.  Crank out cheaply made junk at grossly inflated prices and hope to dupe some people who are Elon wannabes?  Or try to make low cost gear to sell to people who increasingly don’t give a hoot?  The mid fis are deers in the headlights and in a few years will be audio roadkill.

  Let’s enjoy our systems while we can, but realize that we are dinosaurs 

No wonder -  competition is greater every year ,  a better hi fi rig costs as a solid car or more.  Hi-end is only for the elite.

@mahler123 +1

The post from avsjerry needs to be taken down because it’s false info (actually lies) and it’s not valid for this thread. 
You can still get great sounding gear, even some of the best gear at reasonable prices. Usher speakers have always competed with the best for a fraction of the cost. At rmaf years ago, my wife and I boiled down the purchase of 2 speakers: the $100k Raidho or the Revel Salon2 for $20k. We liked the sound of the Revel better.

Look at any of the PS Audio speakers, they punch way above others for a fraction of the cost, same goes for their electronics.

Kids will never buy into the high priced audio goods for a number of reasons, they can’t afford it, they like their AirPods and beats, and they would rather spend a large sum of money on a Porsche/other sports car. I have 2 kids that grew up having access to my nice audio systems and they spend their money on cars.

When the baby boomers are gone, so will be the higher up audio manufacturers, unless the kids that get a large inheritance, turn to audio purchases but I doubt it