[nathanm]

Sure the stats might show audiophiles to be that near-invisible slice of the pie chart, but as far as our needs not being addressed I think that's absurd.  We all have an incredible amount of audio gear at our fingertips, thanks in part to the mass market stuff and of course the internet.  You can get whatever you want fairly easily.

But it's not about gear, it's about personality.  Audiophiles are who they are and in the few numbers they are in simply because of our geek nature and our ritualization of music playback.  Everyone else listens to music on the go and can deal with all the flaws, external noise and other distractions and still enjoy themselves whereas most of us prefer a concentrated, obsessive effort combined with a veneration of the equipment itself.  That kind of attitude is always going to be in the minority, but it probably will never die either.

[mcullinan]

I remember when I was a teen I could take a dump and be done with it in like 2 minutes. Now its a Hazmat suit incident with 3 local fire departments working round the clock to clean me up. What happened?

This could be a TMI but, I must speak the truth... the Colon truth.
Mike  aa

[TheChairGuy]

Thank you again, CrazyMike 

Yes, TMI...waaaaaay TMI 

[Wayner]

I remember when I was young, there were "kits" to put together like Dynakit and Heathkit. I had a lot of fun putting my Dynaco PAT-4 and Stereo 120 together. That got me really hooked. There are really very few kits today. I don't think the kids are interested in that. In fact the number of audio salons in my area (excluding worst buy and sircut silly) is now zero. There is almost no place to audition equipment anyway. It's moved "underground". Thanks to smaller companies like AVA and Salk to keep the momentum going. Almost everything has to be purchased thru the web. Not that that in itself is bad, but makes it a hit and a miss putting a system together. Thankfully, on-line retailers offer a 30 day trial period. As far as new music is concerned, I of course can't stand RAP or Country but some (very few) new bands have some talent that keeps my music collection from stopping at the 1980's.

Is hi-fi dying? If you think the Ipod is the answer, then maybe..yes. An Ipod is a convenient carrier for portable music, but I'm sure not going to buy into it at all. I want my music in a physical form like vinyl, CD's, cassettes and stuff like that.

I guess as long as someone wants to buy equipment other than the "department store" type and is willing to shell out the do-ray-me, Hifi will survive, but it might be curiously different than it is even in its current state today.

W

[WEEZ]

Mike,

I almost had an 'incident' reading your post!

WEEZ

[Steve Eddy]

I remember when I was a teen I could take a dump and be done with it in like 2 minutes. Now its a Hazmat suit incident with 3 local fire departments working round the clock to clean me up. What happened?

Jeeezuz Christ. Makin' my eyes water just reading this er... shit.

How old are you? I'm 47 and still pinchin' a 2 minute loaf.

se

[Bigfish]

I remember when I was a teen I could take a dump and be done with it in like 2 minutes. Now its a Hazmat suit incident with 3 local fire departments working round the clock to clean me up. What happened?

Jeeezuz Christ. Makin' my eyes water just reading this er... shit.

How old are you? I'm 47 and still pinchin' a 2 minute loaf.

se

You guys are nuts!!

Ken

[Kim S.]

I agree with others when they mention that economics may be more important than age in determining participation.  Our society is becomming more stratified, with the younger generations feeling more of an economic squeeze.  I think I notice the same phenomenon in some other hobbies I enjoy, hunting and fishing.  There seems to be fewer younger people involved.  At the same time the gear involved, clothes, tackle,ect is mainly directed at the high end of the market.