What's going on with the audio market?

There's another category --- me. I'm almost 69 years old (August). I bought my first system in 1973 and I will only buy anything again if it means recapture of funds or significant compactualization of the physical setup. Why? Because I don't have much interest in listening to music in a trance like I did for so many years. The new stuff mostly doesn't interest me and the older stuff is little more than an infrequent exercise in nostalgia. Plus, it has been overplayed in elevators, supermarkets, classic rock stations, movie background, etc. Enough already.
I listen to KVNF out of Paonia, Colorado. They have good taste, no screaming car dealer/cell phone/tanning salon/whatever ads screaming at me, and the element of surprise. When I play music, I know what is coming. When I let them do it, each selection surprises me. I'm an old hippie who likes the radio medium when well done. Everyone reading this has a computer which means all of you can stream thousands of radio stations from all over the world. Give it a try. It can be fun and it is free. Sonics will please everyone who isn't bound by the dissatisfaction that negates so much beauty. 
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I forgot to mention that living in Colorado gives you legal access to the least expensive, most effective audio tweak I've ever become familiar with. My county is 70% public lands and still remains sparsely populated with just 150,000 people in an area of 3350 square miles.
My property taxes for this year are $487. No audio stores other than Best Buy but I have no reason to care about that. Clean air and incomparable scenery. Ideal location for solar panels. Maybe relocation would make this topic moot for some of you. Worked for me.

Grannyring - Thanks for the up vote.

rippet - Your observation certainly applies to me. Key lies in being satisfied. Weed expedites that transition but it can be accomplished without as well. Going all the way back to the penny stock days, we see that the driving force behind or hobby has been dissatisfaction with what we own. That dissatisfaction is now focusing ever more on the whole predatory exploitive industry that evolved to exploit our dissatisfaction in the first place. 
Come on out to Colorado and grow your own tweak. It's a better DIY than tube rolling or making your home brew cables. Speaking of brew, Colorado was the birthplace of the home brewing phenomenon that grew into the craft beer industry. I would suggest that it is the best state in the country. And if those who don't agree stay away, we can keep it that way. Nice to have RMAF in your backyard too. 

rippet - I'm in Fruita at the westernmost end of the state. It's post card country for sure. Being a long recovered alcoholic, I cannot offer opinions on the beer made here from personal experience so I can;t enter into conversations about specific products. 
We used to live just west of Boulder in 4 Mile Canyon. It was a ghost town, a former mining community that was known locally as Wallstreet. After we left it was devastated by the flood and a forest fire. Oddly, out cabin survived both, I hear.
Where are you?

Another point to consider on the widespread loss of business in audio could have to do with the carrot moving out beyond the vision of the horse. When the cost of the ultimate products was maybe 4 or 5 times what you were buying it was possible to dream - to aspire - to someday move up incrementally to that plateau. Of course, the target kept ahead of us even as we ascended but it remained in sight and we kept playing. Now with the ultimate stuff costing more than our house and cars combined, it isn't even within dream range to think about owning such stuff. 

Then consider a failed economy, potential medical induced bankruptcies, unanticipated forced retirements, student loans, offspring returning to the nest, disabling hearing loss, shifting interests, and despair. All of these effects serve to deplete our numbers. Oh yeah, one more. Death. All are good reasons to change your priorities and I would wager that few, if any, of us can say we know no one to whom one or more of these factors has come into play.

The outlook going forward is dismal. There are a lot of designers such as Rowland, Vandersteen, Pass, Modjeski, Berning, etc. who are aging out. They may continue until death or they may pack it in sooner. Bigger companies might continue on but will they have sufficient support from our ranks to keep them viable? I guess that's for us to say but this thread indicates that few of us will be participating much longer. Just enjoy it while it lasts and be glad for what you have and what you had. Tick tock.

Please excuse obviously misplaced post above. I plead senility.

1-Y here. I suppose that constitutes having met my military obligation. I showed up at the physical and did everything that was asked of me. 
Fact is I was hit in the left eye by an errant rock while in high school and have had a blind eye ever since 1963. No regrets about being rejected though.