High End Audio-Gaining Higher Ground?

Mapman, It's all good, but BS is most profitable and more BS implies to more profits. Profit is addictive! What you need to do to get more profit? Throw more BS and see what happens. It's just reality. If one BS doesn't work, think of another one and so on and so forth.
BS is part of any BuSiness.

"High End" has everything to do with *intention*. It is not about marketing or price.

I've noticed a myopic viewpoint here. Go to the Munich High End show and see if you still feel the same way. What you will see there is families with baby carriages and about 4x as many women as you do at shows here. Overall, a lot more kids. There is actually something we are up to here in the US that is causing the mainstream of the market here to be males over the age of 45!

I have two girls, one in HS and one in college. Both love music and spend much time listening and discussing music. They have been with me on many vinyl store trips and have come to really like artists that they have heard me play. They will request I play different tunes on my system for them but they listen from an adjacent room. They like the music but don't thirst for the high fidelity like we do.

I am kind of glad that they focus on the musical and lyrical content.

Atmasphere,
I'm intended to use and purchase only solid OAK furniture for my dwelling for various reasons.
A marketting price for high-end furniture is important. It also substantially more pricey vs. composit furniture, but money spent for value and built quality.
If audio or any high-end isn't about value and built quality, than it's going to dissapear with last adict living as mentioned by previous posters.

Very interesting topic indeed. I have three points, first in regards to comparison with car brands and the idea that Toyota is poor quality as compared to Mercedes. You confusing grade with quality, without a doubt a Toyota is of lower grade than Mercedes, but it would it would be difficult to prove that Toyota is of lesser quality. The Toyota was delivered exactly to spec, meeting all the criteria that the owner purchased no more no less. The fact that the Mercedes has wood trim instead of plastic does not impact the quality of the Toyota.
My brother once owned Range Rover, the best car ever he swore, all the luxury you could ever want. But when you open the passenger door the door gasket would fall off, if you opened the glove compartment you couldn’t get it closed again. That is poor quality, who cares whether there is wood trim on the face of glove compartment, if you can’t close it!
I think this misunderstanding of quality applies to audio too. An Ipod provides lower grade playback, but there is no doubt that the quality of the device surpasses most of what is produced and called high-end.
The next point is regarding the next generation, I consider myself younger than the average audiophile. So to some degree I am part of this next generation. I also have two young boys (1-1/2 and 5) and since the day they came home from the hospital they have listened to music. My five year old is an opera fan and bugs me to turn on the system to listen his favorites. Hopefully this trend will last. There is a lot of positives from this hobby and I try and encourage my kids to listen and appreciate the music and understand how it gets to their ears. I am not worried that there will not be an “audiophile” or music loving audience in the future.
My big concern is on the supply/technology side. What are the manufacturers and designers of today doing to ensure that the know-how and experience of the last 70 years is being passed on? Who is going to be designing and building the amps and turntables of the future? If we as the audience are asking will there be a future, do you think there are many kids coming out engineering school saying “I want to design tube amps, for the only three audiophile that are left!” It is one thing to be passionate about coming home at the end of the day and listening to your favorite music, but is a whole other thing to have the passion to devote your career to what appears to some to be a dying industry.
Ralph (Atmasphere), what are you doing, who is going to take over once you retire?