Why Don't More People Love Audio?

A.J.,
I hope I didn't offend you. My point was just that after reading about the first 20 or so responses (randomly throughout this thread) it seemed to me that people were less concerned about "why more people don't love audio" and more worried about "how soon will my beloved hi-fi hobby come to it's bitter end."

Bipolars tend to get lost and carried away in the music. Upgrade on a whim for a fleeting perception of hearing something better. Hi end audio would not be the same without them.

Hi fi is not branded in a way that gives identity, Hi fi tends to reflect ones personality than something to aspire to - that is unless you shop at from some pretentious git.

A car/ house/ clothes/ watch buy you an image - Hi Fi doesn't, unless it reflects a generation in a generic way - ie 80's walkman, 00's IPod. They were not about quality but the status is of cool convenience.

People appreciate Hi Fi who really like and listen to music, there is some 'bling' to it, but only amongst those into it.

Take pride in the fact that your ears and tastes dictate this aspect of your life, and don;t follow the crowd.

Lohan

With cell phones, music and intercom in all retail stores now, high noise level in many work enviroments, traffic, trains, jets,planes, and boom box car stereos, etc...maybe people just want to rest their ears when they get home.

Few people have ever developed a musical sense of sound, especially that of acoustic instruments and their subtleties. I suspect this is because the pop music with which we are inundated in public places and on most radio stations was essentially made for harsh Sony and Alpine car systems w/ thumpin' bass, or for computer speakers, or even for phones and MP3 players. It was conceived of from its very beginning as a sequence of thumps, saccharine riffs, insipid squeaking, anything but a rich and complex mix of tones. If that's what people want to listen to, I certainly don't begrudge them that... but to such people, the refinements of AR and Vandersteen are understandably irrelevant.