High End Audio-Gaining Higher Ground?

High End audio is NOT the music business which is actually doing fine...big "gate keeper" labels are having to adjust or die, but independent musicians are figuring it out...online concerts, live shows to sell your swag and CDs...all good. Ever know somebody with a record contract? Ask 'em if they made any money. As for the argument that new music isn't as good as Fleetwood Mac (!), I can say from my experience over recent decades as a live sound mixer and concert producer that anyone who thinks today's musicians aren't every bit as brilliant as the over hyped stuff from the past simply isn't getting out much. Still plenty of lame stuff to go around of course, but I've been astonished at the extremely high level of musicianship and beautiful writing created by scores of young artists that most so called "music fans" can't be bothered to search out (local "coffee house" concerts or house concerts is where you should start, just don't ask the sales dude at the audio "salon"). The jazz scene is also kicking ass, and you should be sad if your ass isn't one of them getting kicked.

At the Bestbuy near me the Magnolia room is located in the rear corner of the store and if you didn't know it was there you could easily miss it, and don't see many people in there anyhow, particularly younger people.
There was a line around the building though to try out the new Mario Bros Smashfest game that hadn't been released yet. There may be some renewed interest in turntables because they're "kind of cool" but like how others have stated many will invest in decent headphones to use with their smartphones not with an audio rig.
I realize you don't have to spend a fortune to get decent sound but most aren't willing to invest the time or resources pursuing it and are more than content with their Iphones.
There are just far too many competing choices for peoples time these days and the price of entry remains a barrier for many

Brands like Krell, Sunfire, Mark Levinson, Pass and even some large tube brands like VTL, VAC may be soon sold via BestBuy stores(Martin Logan, NAD, Paradigm are already there).
Above assumed manufacturers will come up with either price reduction or specific models they'd like to sell via BestBuy to the larger general public.
As a retailer I personally admire BestBuy customer service and business strategy and see the future in this giant to be able to promote our dying hobby.

Best Buy faces a lot of competition these days. A common business strategy to combat that is focus on service and quality. With the right approach a chain like Best Buy offering very good audio products that one can actually hear and audition before buying might not be a bad piece of strategy, to fill a void that might appeal to some.

They already charge top dollar for most accessories, so why not the big ticket items that fuel those as well. That might give them something to work with to compete against Amazon for example.

B&M stores these days have to offer unique value not available via ebusiness, or else....

Todays generation has been abducted by sensory overload and most do not have the attention span to sit down and focus on the nuance of great music. Music is something that is background noise while doing homework, texting, facebooking etc. My 20 year old daughter has no interest in sitting down and just listening to an album. My kids can't even sit through a family meal without being connected to some kind of electronic device.