Oppo Ceasing production

From August 2017  up to today, I bought 8 new pieces of equipment.  This is a dying hobby and when all of us old geezers (I'm 64) go, the High End will die with us.  Case in point:  I offered to give my son (36 years old) a high end integrated amp, high end speakers, turntable and cd player (total cost of equipment over 10K) with the only stipulation he uses it and doesn't sell it.  He didn't want it.  He said all he needs is his phone and headphones.  This is coming from a kid who grew up in a household with high end equipment and who used to sit and listen with me.  The High End is doomed.

As someone who is relatively young (36), and a long time member of this forum, I have to say that yes, High End is doomed. None of my friends in my age range are into this hobby, and the high prices of gear are a definite turn off to younger people/millenials. Even I don't spend much money on gear, I tend to stick to budget components and have rarely spent over $300 on a single component. I tend to buy mainly on audiogon and other forums. I haven't so much as walked into a B&M audio dealer in 14 years. 

High end has always been a niche within a niche and it is shrinking, I do not believe that it is a dying hobby, there will always be high end, but as the market share shrinks manufacturers of high end keep on jacking up the already astronomical prices to make up for the lost sales, we will see more of them going bankrupt in the near future.

Credit goes to home theater and also the young generation who listen to free music on their portable devices, the sound coming through these digital devices is like listening to music through high frequency drivers only, but kids grow up with this and will never know what quality is all about.

Who knows maybe some of this will survive in the Far East, they seem to be more receptive to high end than the West, but we shall see.

stereo5, your story is very telling of the state of the affairs in the 2-channel home audio interest. I’m about your age and with the exception of a handful of remaining friends from college, I don’t know of anyone else, at any age, who actually owns a decent stereo system at their homes, even the ones whose kids actually play various instruments. The weird thing is most of them know and track new music and bands but use nothing else except earbuds. When my buddy’s son graduated from high school I bought him a nice Creek integrated and a pair of Wharfdale speakers for his college. Later I heard he returned them and got a nice pair of earphones instead. Damn good pair I must admit.

Same situation here, I'm 58, have had 2-ch systems since putting together my first at age 15. None of my friends buy music. None of my kids have any interest in my current system. Even my wife (who's close enough to perfect for me), can't share my interest in JUST LISTENING TO MUSIC. 
My thoughts are: We can't be wrong, what's wrong with everybody else???