Average age of audiophiles

I started building my first good system at about 15 and continued to upgrade the system and my guitar collection until grad school captured my attention. Got out of grad school and motorcycle drag racing captured my wallet (you want to talk about a money pit!!) along with my continued obsession with guitars. Quit racing, and completely revamped my dated system. Now at 41 the digital is pretty much there and it's time to upgrade the vinyl again. One thing hasn't changed after all these years is the magic of a good album.

I'm 47 (would be 48 but I was sick a year:-). Started seriously when I was around 16.

Early 40s. Been at it -- s/ware & hardware -- since I was 12.

I'm 47 and have been trying to be an audiophile since age 20. However, raising two kids and paying mortgages, etc. has prevented me from being the text book "audiophile".

I would imagine most of the audiophiles emerged from the "golden age of stereo" from the 1950's, 60, and 70s (or something along those lines). I'm guessing here: But I'm assuming _those_ age groups grew up hot-rodding muscle cars and building 2channel stereos (or, again, something along those lines). Now it seems the recent generations are busy spending their time and money with computers (big money pit), mp3s, and playing video games. I know that's how *I* spent my teenage years (except we didn't have mp3s).

It's only in my 20s, have I begun to get into cars, motorcycles, and hi-end stereos. I'm kind of a rarity among my friends. I'm the only one NOT into the latest cellphone gadget, or HT-in-a-box rig.

Before I got my "rig," I used to either listen on my "boombox" or the big "rigs" at school. Middle School, High School, and College all had decent rigs available within the Music Department. And being a musician, in my spare time I would listen to live performances of band and orchestral music. Often my own recordings or recordings of pieces I was studying or wanted to study. Although I preferred to listen on the "big rigs," I got just as much musical satisfaction out of my boombox. Most musicians are like that, from my experience.