Current Trends In Home Audio

A year ago, I started a new (and probably final) career as a realtor, and during the past 12 months I have been through a LOT of homes. My observations pretty much parallel yours -- the homes of "average" folks usually have "sound systems" ranging from boom boxes to cheap HT systems that cost less than $1000 (many less than $500). I have yet to see a true audiophile setup in moderately priced homes.

On the other hand, the high-end homes typically have a HT setup -- often in more than 1 room -- but very few of them are built around high-end audio systems. Sad to say, but fewer and fewer people seem to care about high-fidelity sound reproduction for MUSIC -- but they will spend a lot of money to listen to movie soundtracks. As a hobby, it looks more and more like high-end audio is a dying industry except for people with high-end incomes.

Is it possible that there is a correlation between the musical "education" of the younger generation and their tendency to buy mediocre quality sound systems?

Onhwy61: I agree a 100+ percent with your statement. I am a Building Inspector and live and work in the Las Vegas area. I inspect houses at all price levels from the ding bats (starter homes) to the million dollar plus custom homes. Everything I see is HT with so so gear. Once is a while I will see a HT system that uses "the good stuff" but 98% is department store mid fi gear. We are trully a small minority.

I am in the home theater business..What most people want is lotsa boom sizzle and glitz...and ease of use. One of the posters here did a 10.2 system and with Levinson, Revel, Harmonic Precision, Sistrum and Sonoran wire all of the same length. Room treatment was not needed because room geometry and angles were designed into the room itself. The poster was totally involved with research, design,construction techniques and some labor..Sounds great, looks great.Have been working with another client on one room since January hope to have completed in November..Really most people are only interested in the movie experience..sound as they know it is secondary at best..Even with exposure to true high-end audio most people, even those who can afford the best dismiss the value of truly great sound ..as most audiophiles here discuss..Tom

Agreed. I moved to Tucson a year ago and this place has virtually zero audiophile presence. NJ was much better with regard to the number of audiophiles but became too crowded, overtaxed, and has too much bad weather for me to tolerate any longer.