HiFi lacking social recognition?

I think its cyclical, with a long, multi-year period.

I remember as a kid in the 1960s I saw some component systems on display at a department store when my parents went to buy a console stereo. (We eventually bought a Magnovox console.) When we asked the salesmen about the components, they pooh-poohed them by saying they were for audio enthusiasts and greatly higher priced. While we didn't buy, I was intrigued -- here was something new, beyond the realm of my prior experience.

When I got to high school, I had to walk past a stereo store every day on my way to school. Inevitably, I went in and was drawn to the quality of the components. I don't think I even heard them well, but the esoteric appearance and dedicated technology of the products on display captured my enthusiasm. This was the real deal! I saved my lunch money for a year and a half and bought the cheapest Fisher three piece system (two speakers and a receiver with a turntable mounted on top of it).

For me, the key was the first exposure at the department store, when I learned that there was something better, much much better, way above the whole mass of choosing between different consoles -- Motorola, Magnavox, RCA, etc. To be able to rise above the crowd, above the mundane, was something that kept me going.

Today, home theater is the draw. Customers go in to buy the TV, and many are made aware that there is a whole heirarchy of audio components. They understand that they are not buying the high end, but they now know it exists, and that there is something there, and there are people (us) who are enthusiastic about it and can tell the difference.

Like my family, they don't want to spend the money up front, but maybe the concept has some appeal, a little hook. I think they'll be back, at least some of them. I have faith the cycle will swing back to us, sometime.

Today, home theater is the draw. Customers go in to buy the TV, and many are made aware that there is a whole hierarchy of audio components. They understand that they are not buying the high end, but they now know it exists, and that there is something there, and there are people (us) who are enthusiastic about it and can tell the difference.

If only this was true for the majority but I seriously doubt it. I think HT and to a lesser extent Ipod are creating a distance between average consumers and audiophiles. My turn to look back and be a bit nostalgic:
30 yrs ago I accompanied my Dad to buy his first real stereo system. There were no Best Buy or similar to go to, the local TV-stereo store was the only place to go. He bought a 4-piece Harman Kardon, a Technics TT equipped with the famous "Concord" cartridge and a pair of big Cabasse. I did not realise but he paid today's equivalent of $20,000 for his gear. Not because he knew exactly what he was buying but because he liked what he listened to and could afford it.
Last Xmas, I came back home and the system was gone - in a box in the attic. He told me he had contacted a salesguy he knew in the new larger local equivalent of Best Buy to find out if/how/where he could get his preamp and amp checked as he had lost one channel. The guy told him that "separates are a thing of the past" and that for the price of fixing his old pre he could sell him a HT receiver that would do it all. He is now running his pair of legendary Cabasse with a $200 5.1 Sony receiver. As he is getting older he thinks his hearing is not as sharp as before and that it does not matter to him anymore - all of his friends have HT receiver anyway so it cannot be bad.
My point is: had he still be able to contact the now closed small shop he bought his gear from 30 yrs ago, he would still have his HK system and his friends would at least know that there are hifi separates out there. But when all you see on flyers inserted into your daily newspaper is HT systems and all you see in the streets is flashy neno-sign for big electronic dept stores, you end up thinking that separates are gone. Unless you are a geek like most of us around here, and sick.

So many more things calling for our disposable income, or even the lines of credit people can line up. Some people want to buy an excellent version of everything, most pick and choose. I never have any trouble finding something that a friend who thinks I'm nuts with my audio expenditures is spending on that I'd never consider.

Audio has just not kept up with the times, or marketed itself very well. People will pay for quality - there are examples around us every day. I have many friends who love listening to music at my house and mistakenly assume that they have to spend a lot to get great sound. I'm constantly trying to emphasize that you can get much, much better sound than the Sony receiver class equipment for not that much more money. Occassionally somebody listens :-)

I don't see any lack of interest in music, though. That is alive and well.

As I write this, I am listening to the Goldberg Variations performed by Murray Perahia from beginning to end and am again mesmerized. One issue is that there will always be music lovers, but most people will not take the time to listen to anything from start to finish these days. Therefore, appreciating music and doing so on a good system will never make any popular list. Another issue is that technology and ipods, as Beheme says above, have placed a distance between average consumers and audiophiles. If you can get excited about putting 3,000 songs of compressed quality on a device that lets you stay on the go and not ever have to sit down and really listen, then you will never know that your missing anything. I'm afraid that it will be more and more quantity over quality, and those that really take time to listen will be more and more the exception... nevertheless, the Goldbergs(and all music) will always have the potential to mesmerize anyone who will really listen.
John