Do you think this hobby is dying ??

@Wildcat, Isn’t that gap being filled by great sounding digital?
With digital, I see it more like the source is changing, not the entire system. LPs were replaced by CDs. CDs are now being augmented or replaced by downloads and streaming sources, for which we now use "network" players. In fact, that is my next move here in my main system--I'll still keep my current player around, but the next digital change I make will be for a network streamer/DAC that will handle everything.

Aside from that, the basics will always remain--we will always need amplifier, control center (preamp) and speakers to hear it all properly. It's true that there are a lot of ways to get music into places easier than we ever have before (think powered speakers and such, along with headphone systems). But those are also not primary systems for many of us here. I'm only thinking of this from the standpoint of someone in our "hobby" who is looking at a primary system for the bulk of their serious listening.

For the average homeowner/music listener, they went from hi-fi consoles in the 50s, 60s and 70s, to separate components in the 70s and 80s (receivers, speakers, and source), and in the mid 90s we started seeing them go into those plasticky all-in-one systems that were really nothing more than glorified, flashy boomboxes. Some of the recent streaming powered speakers out there are getting good enough to provide full range sound (like the RIVA Festival), and easy enough to operate through even the most basic of smartphones.
 
Good point. I took it to mean the hobby of collecting, restoring and enjoying the vintage audio equipment, not audio in general.
You must have bypassed the OP and just thinking in what is your hobby. Basically the OP was talking about not having HiFi stores anymore, that's where one shops for current equipment. The hobby is sound reproduction in the home to listen to our favorite music.

Yes today people like old to new equipment to do this job, some like to fix stuff some don't. I think a lot would bypass the fixing part if there was more to pick from currently at lower price points. The problem is price points that tend to suck up old equipment taking it away form nostalgia lovers.
 
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Basically the OP was talking about not having HiFi stores anymore

I would think some of it is the online avalibility of any thing you want in your budget. Just like any other brick and mortor store that is struggling now. Just sux it’s almost impossible to audition new stuff anymore.
 
Audio gear is one thing I've never had problems selling. One of the reasons I love this hobby. Buy some gear... Enjoy it. Sell it on Craigslist and upgrade. I've gone through a lot of stuff. There's a market out
there especially for vintage. Who needs a store when you can go buy something. Listen to it for a few months and then sell it for the same or more. The only thing I've had a hard time shifting is expensive stuff. Once your piece is over about $500 there are fewer buyers with the disposable cash. I don't think interest in audio is waning. Just people's budgets. We lament the end of audio stores. But your audio store is right there on eBay and Craigslist. Why buy middling new gear when for the same price you can buy much better used vintage gear? Every year more equipment gets made than the old stuff that goes in a landfill.
 
It's not dying at my house. I give it ear to ear resuscitation.

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I think a clear definition of "this hobby" is called for.

If it's defined as "having a high quality home audio system for music", then it clearly is in decline. There are simply too many other ways for consumers to spend their home entertainment and consumer electronics dollars now compared to what was available in the 60s-70s when home audio was probably at its peak: video games in all their varieties, home video (which didn't yet exist in any practical form for home consumers in the 60s), subscription TV services, home computers and all the internet offers, all the different smart phones and portable devices, etc., etc..

There's still plenty of interest in music, but I see very little interest in having a high quality home music system. Of the young people that I know in their 20 and teens -- my kids, my wife's kids and their friends -- none of them have any interest in having a quality home stereo. They like music, but they listen to their music on computers through the computer's speakers and with portable players and inexpensive ear buds and headphones. They're entirely satisfied with this. I've offered to set them up with something if they wanted it, but they're not really interested. One who's a pretty good musician bought a little portable JBL speaker tube that could connect to his smartphone and he's perfectly happy with it and thinks it sounds great. They also see no reason whatsoever to buy copies of music, but that's a whole 'nother subject, although it is related -- if you're investing in a music collection, you're highly likely to invest in something to hear it on.

A big stereo that you can't move around easily seems like an absurdity to them. There's nothing wrong with this: I don't think they're making some kind of mistake. They're just not interested, and there's no obvious reason why they should care if they don't. Personally, I can't imagine listening to music over computer speakers, but on the other hand, when I was 10 years old I had a transistor radio that made those computer speakers sound like shit. Even my parents, who never, ever put on records to listen to, had bought a stereo console that I listened to when I was a kid. While the generation of people who grew up with quality home stereos may care about it, for the most part, the younger population at large has moved on to other kinds of home entertainment.

Nonetheless, it clearly doesn't really matter, since I care, and I have enough stuff that is good enough for me, and more than enough music to keep me happy, and whether other people care is completely besides the point!
 
But the majority of sales are for music, not the hifi gear used to play it back.

Without doing the research I would be very surprised if online sales of “high end” gear isn’t at least twice the quantity as the store fronts. Just makes sense everything else is going that way. Auditioning gear now is watching reviews from whomever you choose to trust and asking opinions on sites like this.
 
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While they may be listening over a crappy phone and $5 earbuds, the one advantage they have is that they are listening to music more often than we used to, since they carry it with them all the time. Some audio devices now are pocketable. Others are simple to set up and use--pair a powered speaker with a smartphone and it's ready to rock.

I've never really thought about it before, but it may be the very fact that it's so easily accessible everywhere people go which has somewhat cheapened it: it's not the event that it was when I was young and it was kind of a bigger deal when friends collected at somebody's home to listen to records.
 
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While we all have our listening preferences, it is all music and can be enjoyed in different ways. My favorite listening is to vinyl played through my JBL-L150s but the wife often complains of the loudness and bass while she is watching TV. So, I will switch over to plugging in my Grado's and still greatly enjoy the music. I have even take to plugging ear buds into my laptop so I can listen to music while my wife watches "The Bachelor" or similar programming. Sure, I am downgrading the sound in those steps, but it I still enjoy the music. There will always be music, but if the hobby becomes buying ear bids on line, it is not the audio experience I grew up loving.
 
Without doing the research I would be very surprised if online sales of “high end” gear isn’t at least twice the quantity as the store fronts. Just makes sense everything else is going that way.
You can even buy new mac gear online now, up until two years ago that never was permitted form McIntosh. They have licensed Cambridge Audio at this point for online sales.
 
Evolving.

Note to everyone that complains about the price of vintage gear and lack of access to new gear:

Sell all of your old stuff and buy new stuff. It is up to you to create the supply and demand to drive the hobby (loosely defined).

If you have more gear than you can listen to, you are contributing to making it harder for someone to discover affordable quality audio gear. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
 
Well... that from a man who put a shotgun to his head...

The souls of people that burn the brightest and most intense also seem to burn out the quickest. Losing a person of Hemingways character diminishes the literary world, yet what would we have if he lived a normal and uninspired existence to an older age before he passed on? It has been argued that the length of life is not as important as what you accomplish with your days. By this reckoning, Hemingway was a prince, for his works will endure on for many many years. Can you make that claim with your life's work? I know I have done nothing to create that kind of legacy.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I remember when Monday Night Football was an American cultural event shared by half the country at least. Most of us received three TV stations, ABC, CBS and NBC. Then PBS and FOX came along. Now viewing choices may as well be infinite, and we watch what we want when we want. I like the change overall, though I miss the subsequent water-cooler conversation which now includes fans almost exclusively. Even though I'm no longer a fan, myself.

And home entertainment electronics have multiplied - new forms that didn't exist when I was a kid playing Risk with my friends. Now I spend hours playing Civ IV on my laptop. A much, much more complex game, more satisfying to play.

Until VCRs came along, we saw movies when broadcast on TV. Now we stream and play it back multichannel if that is what we're into. I'm not, but many here love surround.

But when I was young I listened to Hey There Little Red Ridin' Hood on my shirt pocket transistor AM radio with its tinny-sounding speaker or a single-sided earphone. And loved it. That was our cans-and-iPhone, so from a SQ aspect those using today's version have it pretty sweet.

Maybe your thing is watching cat videos uploaded to YouTube, or wherever.

I enjoy writing as a form of entertainment, too. Lot easier on a laptop than pen-and-paper, including editing. That's home entertainment, too.

Gamers have it made, too. Along with news junkies and net surfers.

Socializing may be the primary form of home electronics use today.

You can think of many things I left out, no doubt. Combining all these capabilities in one device - or many of them, anyway - is desirable for the consumer. I get that. Many, if not most, will still need other devices for those amusements they value highly. Gamers need more than a laptop, but for Civ IV (and occasionally Roller Coaster Tycoon), I require no dedicated device, so I have no gaming console. Gamers really like the musical offerings of many games, and often spend a little more for the sound of their games though, so there is a lot of overlap.

We pays our money and we makes our choices. And choice abounds.

Audio isn't dying, of course. Quite the opposite, it is expanding. And we use it as we like.

I love music and my favorite way to enjoy it is in stereo. Stereo may be dying, maybe not, but music lovers will always be around, and a percentage of them will want high SQ, whether stereo or multi-track. They are us. New models are born every day. A small percentage of a huge number still presents a market.

The market changes with time. A hundred years from now people will still be listening to Beethoven and Miles Davis; imagine the choices they will have. They might even be able to do so in stereo, I don't know, but nothing about this makes me sad at all. Kind of comforting, really.
 
I assume (and yes I am an Ass) most the yes answers are coming from my demographic and older. “Get off my lawn” type. I catch myself doing this sometimes :beatnik:.

I grew up with and still do street rods, muscle cars and motorcycles. Do you know a 700hp street able 4cyl import is not a muscle car according to most my car buddies o_O. I just laugh and say “really”
:bigok:

Edit: and I mean the hobby dying part not stores fronts going away.
 
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