Are we, as a breed of 'Audiophiles' dying out?

[Barry]

I found this article on the Headphonesty site thoughtful: https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/02...rands-winning/, and made me wonder if 'audiophiles' (as a collective noun for those music lovers who spend time researching and a not-insignificant amount of money in pursuing their love of well-reproduced music) are dying out.

The main thrust of their thesis is that equipment which five to ten years ago would have cost many thousands of pounds to buy, now thanks to the likes of manufacturers such as Schiit, SMSL, and others now achieve the same, or close to the same quality for a much lower price. To express it as a sound bite: "Close enough is good enough". Why pay thousands, or tens of thousands when you can achieve 90% or more of the performance for a tenth of the price? And to think that they are exaggerating, speaker systems costing up to £500,000 or more, and audio electronics costing £20,000 and more are now being advertised and reviewed.

A secondary consideration is the majority of current music lovers now eschew hard copies of the music source, preferring to stream instead; without realising the source quality is dependent on the whim of the server and can change with time.

Also, the modern trend is for small independent audio manufacturers to be bought out by larger conglomerates (for example: Quad, Leak, Mission are now under the umbrella of a Taiwanese company, the International Audio Group; Naim and Focal have merged and are owned by the Vervent Audio group; McIntosh is now owned by Bose (Oh - the irony!) and Madrigal in the US, owner several of former high quality marques is now part of the Harman Group, and is a subsidiary of Samsung electronics, to the great detriment of the reputation of the former individual brands. Having manufacturers now owned by an overall group will obviously affect dealers and the impartiality of their advice (witness the Linn/Naim 'axis' fiasco of the '70s in the UK).

For my part, I'm too old now to be constantly upgrading, and if I wasn't, I doubt if I would be willing to spend the prices asked. I don't even read the hi-fi magazines - all the reviews are IMO gushing and hardly impartial. The demonstration of current audio gear at the audio shows again is rarely impartial, and audition at dealers is sometimes difficult because these days dealers are often reluctant to spend time and effort demonstrating equipment, only to have an interested customer go out and buy on-line for a cheaper price. I'm lucky in that I have bought gear from good, conscientious dealers, and the manufacturers themselves have always offered excellent after-sales service. My gear long ceased to be 'state of the art', but it still sounds good to me, as it does to others (sometimes musicians themselves) who have visited my place.

What are your thoughts - are you one of a dying breed?

[Macca]

I think the premise of the article is wrong

In practical terms, “high-end” here often means the measurable noise and distortion are low enough to fall beneath what most listeners can reliably hear in normal use. Once gear clears that threshold, the remaining differences tend to shift away from raw fidelity and toward things like features, software, industrial design, service, and brand.

It's not that there are suddenly products on the market that compete with the high end on noise and distortion, they have always existed at least based on the articles qualification of what high end is.

Also what none of these 'industry is dying' articles don't take into account is people don't remain static in age, wealth or circumstances. Someone age 30 now buys cheap equipment but when he's 55 he might have the money to indulge in high end, get the things he always wanted.

The reason high end customers are old is because they are mostly the only ones who can afford it. New wealthy old people arrive all the time to replace those dying at the other end.

[Pigmy Pony]

I think the premise of the article is wrong

In practical terms, “high-end” here often means the measurable noise and distortion are low enough to fall beneath what most listeners can reliably hear in normal use. Once gear clears that threshold, the remaining differences tend to shift away from raw fidelity and toward things like features, software, industrial design, service, and brand.

It's not that there are suddenly products on the market that compete with the high end on noise and distortion, they have always existed at least based on the articles qualification of what high end is.

Also what none of these 'industry is dying' articles don't take into account is people don't remain static in age, wealth or circumstances. Someone age 30 now buys cheap equipment but when he's 55 he might have the money to indulge in high end, get the things he always wanted.

The reason high end customers are old is because they are mostly the only ones who can afford it. New wealthy old people arrive all the time to replace those dying at the other end.

I agree with this - I know I'm generalising here, but by and large older folk (say 50 and above), having paid off their mortgage, kids grown up, now find themselves able to afford 'hobby' cars, motorcycles, mobile homes, travel to more exotic locations, and yes, high-end audio and home entertainment.

If there was no longer demand for 'high end' kit, the manufacturers wouldn't be throwing money at making the stuff, and there's no shortage of new products at every price point hitting the shelves. And as quickly as the old audiophiles die off, there are replacements at the start of that demographic stepping up. Well that is what I think (hope) is happening.

[Macca]

I agree with this - I know I'm generalising here, but by and large older folk (say 50 and above), having paid off their mortgage, kids grown up, now find themselves able to afford 'hobby' cars, motorcycles, mobile homes, travel to more exotic locations, and yes, high-end audio and home entertainment.

If there was no longer demand for 'high end' kit, the manufacturers wouldn't be throwing money at making the stuff, and there's no shortage of new products at every price point hitting the shelves. And as quickly as the old audiophiles die off, there are replacements at the start of that demographic stepping up. Well that is what I think (hope) is happening.

It's like saying caravanning is dying out because you go to a caravan site and it's mostly old people.

I went on caravan holiday in Wales in 1979 and it was mostly old people on the site, I bet if I went back now it still is - but it's not the same old people.

There's brands losing money of course but the problem there is they rested on their laurels too long. Mediocre products at high prices and your youngsters don't respect the brand like our generation so they're fine to buy the new brands instead.

[Barry]

A lot of the replies to the Headphonesty article suggest otherwise. It's not just that the legacy brands are struggling, it's the concept of 'high end audio' that is changing and who is satisfying that demand.

We all know of colleagues and friends of a certain age who now find themselves able to indulge in purchases they couldn't have afforded in their youth - buying a sports car which they keep for a year or two, then sell having satisfied their dream. I don't know of any who have replaced their Curry's rack system for a high end separates system.

In Chelmsford, we have two retailers of quality audio gear, they are also purveyors of quality TV systems. Bang & Olufsen is one of the retailers, so obviously they only offer their own products.

[Macca]

Anecdotes aren't evidence though. Someone is buying it and it's probably not people in their twenties with children and a mortgage.

If the companies selling it are loss making then either not enough people are buying or their margins are too low (the latter seems unlikely) or the market is overcrowded with vendors and the pie isn't big enough to go round.

No-one ever thinks about the BRIC countries which are now a market for luxury goods, which they weren't in the past.

[Pigmy Pony]

FWIW, my anecdotal 'evidence' is that when visiting the NW Audio Shows over the past ten years (apart from the '20/21 Covid cancellations), I can't say I've noticed any drop in visitor numbers there.

Ofc the demographic stays pretty much the same, but so what? Some could say that as kids grow into their 20s and their prefrontal cortex develops, they move away from TikTok and similar moronic persuits. This doesn't mean the end for TikTok, as there is a steady supply of new morons to replace them.

[Macca]

FWIW, my anecdotal 'evidence' is that when visiting the NW Audio Shows over the past ten years (apart from the '20/21 Covid cancellations), I can't say I've noticed any drop in visitor numbers there.

I been to all of them except one, if anything it's got busier over the ten years it's been running.

[Pete The Cat]

The article focuses on a squeezed middle segment.

It uses anecdotal examples of specific brands to make its point rather than citing overall market data such as units sold, although perhaps such data isn't readily available. That said, I'm inclined to agree with it using anecdotal examples of my own.

The sheer range of competing leisure interests nowadays must surely have eaten into the share of household wallet available for enthusiast audio compared with, say, 1980. Some folks are holidaying all over the world and often more than once a year. Most homes seem to have multiple phone and entertainment subscriptions.

Not only is there a range of competing interests but we see above inflation increases in many of these: a 'gig' ticket can cost you £hundreds; football fandom involves membership, replica kit etc and not just tickets; cars - in 1980 the Ford Cortina range started at £3,500, today's Ford Kuga starts at £30k. I don't see attendance levels at hi-fi shows as persuasive of sales volumes - like motor shows, folks love to drool over a Bugatti but they drive home in a Ford.

Home furnishing these days is relatively minimalist. Even blokes would rather toy with an app that can set the burglar alarm, switch on the immersion heater and control a Sonos 'thing' playing Spotify than fall out with their partner over the positioning of separate boxes and cables.

So I'd take some persuading that the audio enthusiast pool, which traditionally bought what the article sees as the middle segment, is being replenished at the same rate as it's reducing. But reducing need not mean ending, just a market readjustment. Fewer of us just means fewer of us, certainly not the end.

It's great that folks can get 'good enough' sound for less. I've never regarded audiophilia as being defined by how much you spend. Members of sites such as Head-Fi are seriously into sound quality - their reviews of headphones are as prosaic as anything by Jimmy Hughes. It's just that they prefer laptop, DAC and cans to crawling around the floor changing cables.

Something that affects both supply and demand in this debate is product longevity. A lot of the middle segment products are well-made and don't have multiple additional features that can go wrong; they can be serviced if not by the original manufacturer then by a specialist or enthusiast. Unlike a car, which you'll have to let go after the engine has reached X miles, you can live with your current amplifier (make that your current dumping amplifier ) for decades.

An interesting discussion and just my tuppenceworth.

[Ali Tait]

I think a lot of the people buying very high priced kit are not necessarily audiophiles and are just buying audio jewellery. They probably don't look at or post on forums either.