[DVV]

Well, bless my soul! There are people here older than me!

But, as someone pointed out quite rightly, it's not the years, it's the mileage that counts; what your birth certificate says is far less important than what your heart says.

I'm 52, but I started out kinda young, at just 11. In 1964, I swiped (the politically correct words was 'borrowed') my dad's open reel Uher tape deck. By 1970, age 17, I had my own system, from proceeds I gathered giving private lessons. By 1974, I was merrily soldering away, improving what those dummies, headed by Willi Studer, messed up in my ReVox integrated amp.   2N3055? Even if by RCA? You have to be kidding, hombre, no way!  

By 1980, I got cheeky enough to start designing ...

By 1986, my wife gave up on me ...

By 1995, everybody had their own system in their own room - wife in hers, son in his, I in mine ...

By 2005, I am a hoplessly lost case, I have music coming out of my ears, and it's come to the point where I have problems with silence ...

But man - it sure is FUN!

And I don't mean just the music, oh no - I also mean, just as much, the people this hobby has enabled or stimulated me to meet.

And it's getting better by the day! Despite compression, iPods, ATRAC Version 1,987,561,987,765, despite cheap and horrible Chinese speakers, despite (or in spite?) of HT, despite inflation, ...

Upon my soul, I cannot imagine a hobby more fun than this. It beats even tuning my cars.

Cheers,
DVV

[JLM]

I'm 48, been interested since age 13, first got serious at 20, then had a domestical "inspired" lapse for several years and got back into it at 41.

Priorities and technology are primary reasons I believe is keeping young folks away from audio:

1.  I don't remember being as "relational" as today's young folks are.  My generation was full of nerds.  (As an engineer I still am.)  The point being this hobby is very lonely.

2.  At the teenage/young adult stage (sounds like insects, eh?) life offers the maximum in potential and the minimum in resources (sucks don't it?).  With America's economic middle class being squeezed into extinction this generation is getting hit the hardest.

3.  In my day (sounding like my Dad now) audio stuff was about the most most tech stuff you could play with and we lived in a society that still nearly worshipped technology.  Now audio is a backwater scene and technology is seen only as a means to an end.  More wowsy, slicker techno toys (like PCs, video games, and HT) exist.

4.  As previously mentioned internet downloads, iPods, decent mini headphones, whole house sharing of music files make a compelling trade off between fidelity and convenience.

5.  Technology has addicted us to sensory overload.  Multitasking is the norm and the younger generation has a big need for speed.  IMO "real" (unamplified) musical forms relate best to audiophile systems.  The majority of today's teens and young adults are too busy and moving too fast to appreciate folk, classical, small jazz, etc. forms of the art.
 
6.  Technology has also moved us into an increasingly artificial world and like most trends the younger people are on the leading edge.  Oximorons like "virtual reality" are so accepted as to not require even mentioning it.  Examples of this move can be seen in fast food, the usual games played, and shrinking number of cars that can be bought without air conditioning.  Point being, this generation doesn't relate to the "real" forms of music mentioned above that audiophile systems really profile best.