Current Trends In Home Audio

One other thing to keep in mind is that people stage their homes for sale to remove clutter and give the impression that the house is open and airy despite the square footage. I just got through buying and selling a home in the Bay Area, where a 1960's ranch style house (1400 to 1900 sq ft)will cost you $600K + meaning that most families do not have the luxury of a dedicated A/V room. Therefore, a lot of people (myself included) use their living or family room for multiple functions including audio and these rooms can look a little cluttered with all of the equipment. So, when we sold, the first thing I did was box up the system and the 1,500 CDs and 400 LPs and rearrange the furniture to make the room look bigger. Most people probably thought we didn't have a stereo at all although I guess an observant person would have seen the numerous equipment boxes stacked within the garage......

I agree, I think it's exposure, like my girlfriend suggests. Most people simply do not know the equipment exists and what level of fidelity is possible. once you get that established, people will spend the $$$ according to the priorities in their lives. But if one does not know, how can one spend.

Also dealers, try not to **tackle me** and other teens and twenty somethings when we walk into your store and want to crank a $100k stereo. it helps to build a customer base if you seed lust for the equipment and high fidelity experience in future customers. Just a thought.

Also, if I was showing my home during an open house, I would likely box up and hide my stereo. I don't see the point in living it out.

Over the years I've let many people listen to my system. All have had nothing but praise for the sound. When I tell them the cost, they loose interest quickly. I've even given some hi-end equipment (new) as gifts over the years (NAD amp/pre-amp, rega intergrated and CD, pair of Apogee slant 6 speakers). All the recipients thanked me for the gifts but soon returned them to me. They all said the same thing "It's really nice, but I have no use for it" so I gave up trying to convert people because they just had other priorities.

In addition to music instruments, does anyone see other people (especially affluent people) with large music collections? Most homes I see have 20-30 CDs and no instruments. I have more CDs than that in my dinning room alone. And those are just string quartets. Swimming pools seem to be far more common. I also don't see a lot of books either. Different strokes for differnet folks.

I have only seen one large music/movie collection in all the higher end homes that I've been in. Most of the homes only have a few cd's and movies. Sometimes, you come back two years later to change a piece of gear or update the remote and the same dvd is in the machine from the last time you were there.