High End Audio-Gaining Higher Ground?

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.

My 22 year old daughter produces live shows, which is great for somebody with an Art History degree...

"High End" is a pretentious word coined by Harry Pearson. Maybe because the word "Hi-Fidelity" lost its original intent of meaning during the 60's when everything was referred to as "Hi-Fi" or "Hi-Fidelity? Don't know for sure, maybe Harry could clue us in to why he came up with the term in the first place. To me it has absolutely no meaning to differentiate a 1K system from a 1000K system for that matter. I really don't like the term myself. If it means money spent how much and furthermore so what? We purchase what we can afford and there is plenty of excellent "Hi End" gear that is affordable.

There will always be the 1-5%er's that want to hear their music well reproduced. I do agree with many of the posts above except for the one's that state the industry is close to death. Certainly agree not for an unconcious lack of trying. It has done an abysmal job of marketing itself. The continuing trend towards unjustifiably higher prices seems a concious decision by some in the industry to chase after the slow rather than fast buck, a "Stairway to the Stars" approach. Fortunately there are some manufacturers' that continue to design and market superb products at prices that average music lovers can actually afford. At least those 1-5%er's that are interested enough to seek them out. And yes, kids today have too many distractions, concerns and technologies to choose from but even among them there are those that are potential customers although that quaint notion that we the dinos have for the realization of well reproduced music in our homes will quite likely morph into something quite different in the future IME. 2 channel stereo played back through mega buck ostentatious sound systems is NOT the future of this industry but will remain a fringe of the fringe. Well reproduced music will survive for both music enthusiasts AND audiophiles and those that call themself both.

And back to the future we go, vinyl anyone and why not? If there is a renaissance in that format there must be a reason, like it STILL is more involving musically than digital maybe? Nah the answer couldn't be THAT simple to those that don't hear or believe it.