Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Wehamilton, your reference to people not wanting reality and Detlof's reference to Europe reminded me of a worrying issue IMHO: young people NOT even KNOWING what reality looks, sounds, or tastes like. In my six year-old daughter's class (in Europe) the kids were asked to draw the "little animal" they had for lunch (lunch was fish- sticks). Many drew fish-sticks with paws, some drew vegs, some a chicken... ofcourse some also drew a fish. Rest assured, this is just a piece of trivia, not the announcement of impending doom. But, as natural "reality" becomes more & more "bland", requiring more & more artificial enhancement, strange things can happen! Nevertheless, as Detlof intimates, there must be two sides to everything!

Kthomas, following on yr thread, audio is not (yet) a lifestyle option. HT sometimes is, and people get together to enjoy an evening before the screen. How many times do people invite others to an evening of music -- as an accepted, discussed and "conventionalised" past-time. By way of comparison, people purchase Ferraris; some owners cannot, or are not allowed to drive these autos to optimum speeds. But they still buy them. IMHO, that's a market. Audio is, at best, a cottage niche.
Unfortunately, this also means that gear is expensive (i.e., manufacturers' purchasing power???); can U imagine prices for large-scale production hi end gear manufactured by the likes of Siemens... No offence to Cos but, how can our "biggies" (say, Krell even Linn, a $~20 mil. company) compete with that: we have to pay for the R&D.
Regards