High End Audio-Gaining Higher Ground?

Maybe Czarivey has cornered the market on those 2%. :^)

I was in my local B&M audio shop today they are in process of adding a new vinyl area. The titles are varied but mostly well known ones from over the years. Except they are now $30 a pop. Cash cow anyone?

We are aging. In another 10 years our numbers will be drastically reduced by various causes. Death, dementia, hearing loss, income loss, home loss, and loss of interest are all taking their toll gradually. I was born in 1947 and I've noticed that maybe 15 - 20% of us are older than me. If statistics are to be believed I'm near the front of the baby boomer curve. But the audiophile curve trends toward a higher average age than boomers. I'm guessing our greatest population bulge was born in the 1950s sometime. So, just do the math and read the obits. This thing is closing down. The surfeit of used audio gear will cause ridiculously lopsided supply/demand ratios and paralyze the market for new gear.
Personally, I'm about a sneeze away from going all digital and ditching the expensive gear I use and hoard. Times have changed and I am stagnating in my reluctance to change with them. How about you?

Thirty dollars for vinyl records? Wow. How much do they charge for 8-tracks and cassettes?

Part of what marginalizes so-called high-end audio is the hopeless complication. Use a PC or a Mac to stream music? No so fast; one has to "clean up" the power supply and, laughably, place the computer itself on uber-special footers to guard against "vibrations." (This ignores the fact that the computer itself performs hundreds of computations all of the time, and streaming music is itself, one of many functions it can do in an audibly error-free manner.)

Then, there is the media/reviewers. Try to look up a simple question ("how does a certain component sound?"), and one sees gems like the following:

"A fat toroid feeds the power supply from its own chamber to isolate the main circuitry from stray radiation. Rectification is via ultra-fast MUR 860 diodes, filtering by low-ESR Elkos. The 32’000uF storage capacitance could have this or that preamp cough in amusement but [the product's manufacturer] deliberately refrain from overkill to shorten capacitive recharge times."

Can't imagine why that's off-putting.

Food for thought, there Macrojack. However, I would prefer to remain optimistic to a point. The high end is slowly going up the creek without a paddle, but hopefully, hopefully this will turn around somewhat. I will continue to support and buy from companies who are not snake oil, and built and/or designed by licensed professional engineers. Accuphase, McIntosh, JBL, Bryston, Luxman, and to a lesser extent Yamaha and Onkyo come to mind.