What happened to all the highend stereo shops

@dill 

I used to live in Vancouver (I'm 67) and I remember Joe Weber very well! I bought several components from him including a pair of Mirage M3si speakers and a Tice power conditioner. He was sort of a curmudgeon but a great guy to deal with.

During that period in Portland (late 90's, early ought's) there were several good stores in Portland and I got to know a few of them well enough so that they would call me when something interesting came in or when they had a great deal on a piece they wanted to move. I bought my Krell KSA 300S amplifier that way. Krell was coming out with a new model and the dealer wanted to get rid of their demo. The store called me up and offered me the amp at a great price and I said, "Sold!" The good old days.....

Hi rlj,

Don't miss out on JS Audio in Bethesda and Command Performance in Falls Church. Outside of NYC I think the DC Metro area has one of the best brick and mortar hifi showings in the US. Add to that having Capital Audio Fest I'm a happy lil' camper.

"Nowadays the millennials are consuming their music with Apple AirPods. Portable and discrete. But I think money has a lot to do with it. Millennia’s don’t seem to have the disposable income that I we had years ago."

To help bridge the generation and sales gap some, my local audiophile level dealer set up a small used vinyl section and started selling small quality tube headphone amplifiers. Also started with a small selection of affordable turntables to get them in the door. It worked. Now they come in and see other stuff, and start asking questions. They sit and listen some, in wonder. They look at used trade-in gear on the side shelves too. Now some are ready to save for that next piece of gear like all of us did as scrappers growing up. I still think there is some hope, we’ll see.

@decooney  I am fortunate to have an awesome high end dealer within an hour of me. I'm in NE Ohio, and he's in Western PA, very close to Pitt. Mark at Northern Audio. He has done something similar. On the ground floor of his building there is a top notch record store. Easily the best and biggest selection of vinyl around these parts. Within the record store are several set ups of entry level TT's and systems. All a curious customer needs to do is ask a few questions and they can be directed to the wonderland on the top floor. The place is a real gem. Mark is a great guy and I trust him totally.  When I head that way it's like I am back in a warm sweatshirt, in my comfort zone, among my people. 

I feel the issue is that for the next two generations there is a great competition with other activities to engage in. Be it video games, sports worship, gambling etc.. (lets face it, it seems like according to ad's, all the next two generations want to do is drink, bet, play video games..) But I think Mark is on to something to attract folks who are looking for something more meaningful, more tactile and satisfying. 

When I worked at one of the two real HIFI shops in my town, The Speaker Shop, The winds of change were blowing us toward whole house systems, in wall speakers and surround sound A/V. We adapted and did very well. 

IMO the fads will come and go. We may not return to some of the "Golden Days" of HIF like the 50's and 60's, but I really do believe our lovely world is alive and well. IT may not be mainstream and super popular, but that's ok in my book. 

Having a good "stereo setup" is no longer a goal for the majority. Few people these days I talk with, and none of the younger generation, have the goal of creating a high-end stereo system. Most don't even care about decent surround sound for movies. Most actually cannot even understand why I have spent so much money on speakers and components over the years. I get the impression that all that matters to the younger folks is how much it cost, and how loud it goes. The topic of accurate sound only comes up from the delusional fans of vinyl that just like to repeat fallacies about how great vinyl is, yet they then show you a turntable that is part of an all-in-one system with speakers and amp all built into a cheap cabinet and sold at WalMart. :-) They just don't get it that even if their source material was good, they have no capability to hear the detail. As long as the music is audible they just don't care. Stereo and audio shops have an almost impossible mission. Most I know of including my McIntosh dealer are specializing mostly in system install work for high end homes and business, and do not have much of a showroom presence, or gear in stock. It's a pretty dead retail niche unless you plan to have more for sale than high end stereo gear. Honestly Best Buy is one of the only retail stores in the area that has a selection of various audio gear and much of it has to still be special ordered as all that is in stock are the displays. It's not just about the internet and online sales, it's a change in perspective, a paradigm shift of sorts. We no longer need to go and listen as the goal for over 60 years has been for the top manufacturers to produce a neutral sound. There is no real need any longer to "match" specific components to get an acceptable sound across the system, even though we hear audio geeks argue about it. It might or might not be true but the people who care about the slight difference in sound are not the majority, rather a very tiny minority. The general public of the last few generations has a completely different view of what matters. A few decades ago every teenage boy wanted to have a stack of stereo components. That is now insane to most who play their MP3 files on a portable Bluetooth linked speaker and have no idea why that is not HiFi :-) They don't care, and never will. They are the future.