"I think more folks would get into the hobby were it marketed better.My two cents."
I agree Ray. I consider myself an example of someone who was always interested in music but was totally unaware of anything but mainstream audio with the exception of a few brands that virtually everyone knew of because they were well distributed, McIntosh comes to mind. The industry is and has been for many years an abysmal failure at promoting itself. Today's model is the biggest joke, with a few notable exceptions, keep on jacking up the prices with the promise of "greater audio nirvana" to as Rok2id notes, the kool aid crowd. It certainly isn't going to bring in new customers and seems more akin to killing the goose than any type of strategic plan to bring in a new generation of music lovers. Or is the audiophile just a 5% crowd that always was and always will be no matter? I have little knowledge of the industry but it is obviously a matter of little time before the remaining brick and mortars are all gone. The new model seems in home dealers, I know a few of those locally, internet, and audio shows. But again this appears real bad news for the industry, how are high end manufacturers going to discover the potential for their wares without finding a new base of customers that can't hear it first hand? I certainly welcome a more optimistic view than mine but the exponential increase in pricing seems to point in this direction.
