The audiophile hobby is on the verge of its first major demographic change since its inception back in the early 1960s. That might not be a popular or uplifting topic with some of the OG audiophiles, but it is a fact nonetheless. The whole editorial goal of FutureAudiophile.com is to deliver a more sensible and more relatable outlook on an often-quirky hobby to a new, younger and much more diverse audience. Any audiophile will tell you that, sadly, there are close to zero women involved in our hobby. It isn’t because women don’t have passion for music, because they absolutely do. Some medical experts even argue that women retain their ability to hear better than men over time. With that said, if the audiophile hobby had more than a 99 to 1 male female split, I might fall over dead after looking at about a year’s worth of demographics from our sweepstakes results, as we as following the topic with tools like Google Analytics dating back decades now.
Younger audiophiles are the precious air that this hobby needs to breathe, survive and thrive.Let me tell you that, even with a major concerted effort to locate them and to speak to them in voices that are relatable to them, it isn’t easy to find young people to get involved in our hobby. Do younger people not dig music? Nope, as many Millennials and all of Generation Z are referred to as “Digital Natives,” which denotes that they’ve never really known a world without technology driving nearly every aspect of daily life. In this case, the technology that we speak of is the idea that all recorded music is available at all times at close to no cost. Generation X and Baby Boomer audiophiles collect (or at least used to collect) physical media with great enthusiasm and at significant cost. A trip to Tower Records, the Virgin Megastore or even Sam Goody’s at the mall, for these slightly more experienced audiophiles, is a fond memory that will likely never be a reality again. There’s lots of mainstream press about how younger audiophiles have enjoyed collecting vinyl (read more on that topic from Yahoo.com), and that this gives us a lot of hope for the hobby going forward, but try to pry a music-streaming smartphone out of their hands, and you might have a death fight on your hands.
We never want to shame any audiophiles at any level, but enthusiasts, especially our younger ones, need to be welcomed and embraced into the hobby without a lot of the often embarrassing snobbery of the hobby’s past.
Let’s End the “Preamp of the Month Club” Once and For All
There are a lot of traditions in the audiophile hobby that need to die off sooner than later for the greater good. The idea that, if you don’t have the latest and greatest new component, you can’t be the cool kid or get in the audiophile club is one which needs to simply end. This concept is epic bullshit, and needs to become part of our hobby’s history. Simply put: most audiophile systems perform fantastically. Another truth is that every audiophile system likely can be upgraded or improved in some way. Do we have the budget for that next upgrade? That depends on one’s own cash flow. Will you get enough value out of that next component upgrade? Again, that is a personal matter, which gets harder and harder as the price goes up. What is universal is that nobody should make you feel bad about the audiophile system that you have at any given moment. There are cool things about an under-$1,000 Chi-Fi-based setup, just as there is plenty to talk about when looking at a $100,000-plus system.
As ambassadors of music playback technology and representatives of the audiophile hobby, we would be well-served to engage with younger music lovers and show what the hobby has to offer them. This includes explaining to them that there is no real endgame for your system, other than what one personally implements. The real fun is the journey from a starter stereo system to one that is much more evolved. The audiophile establishment has been creating an endless upgrade loop, which caters to their advertisers more than it benefits the hobby or the hobbyists. If a lot more people were into high-performance audio, then the hobby would grow and thrive in the future. Getting the same people to churn or flip their audiophile gear makes AudiogoN.com a more and more popular site. Helping younger audiophiles feel good about their systems and to enjoy each step on the path to a truly fancy and evolved music playback system is even more essential to keep our most important consumers engaged both now and years and years into the future.
Try To Keep Finances in Mind When Talking to a Younger Audiophile
Most of us didn’t have a trust fund system to start with when we assembled our first stereo system, just as few of us had our parents buy us a new BMW M3 for our sixteenth birthday. Respectfully, I am not sure any of us would have appreciated what an M3 can do, if that is what you think a first car should perform like. The same goes for audio.
There are some longtime audiophiles who poo-poo Chi-Fi and other lower-priced stereo gear, because there are needed compromises to be made to get these products sold at such affordable price points. Chi-Fi gear is made by companies (in China, obviously) that often OEM, or make gear for other audiophile companies. Chi-Fi gear rarely comes with much consumer (or even dealer) support. Chi-Fi gear also rarely holds any retail resale value. And who cares? Less expensive audiophile gear is a way to allow newer (younger) music lovers to get started in our hobby with tubes, separate electronics, cutting-edge but still low-cost digital, and so much more. These products are exciting and inclusive, which is a very good thing.
The long-standing idea that a real audiophile system has to be expensive is a fallacy, and it keeps more and more people from getting involved in our hobby. Embracing what more entry-level audiophile components can do in the real world is like a master sommelier going shopping for a $20 bottle of wine. If they are good (and anyone making it to master sommelier level knows a lot about wine in order to pass that nearly impossible test), they will be able to find you value in a bottle of wine that well exceeds one’s expectation for taste at that very reasonable price point. The same thing can be done by experienced audiophiles, and don’t be shocked if there are some Chi-Fi components included in the system design. Nobody should ever make an issue about Chi-Fi because it isn’t fancy or “high-end” enough.
Jealousy and Keeping Up with the Jones Should Be Avoided at All Costs
Every audiophile’s budget is different. Everybody’s listening room is different. Everyone’s spouse or life partner tends to view the audiophile hobby differently. Thus, everybody’s journey is a pretty unique trip. If you have friends who are into the audiophile hobby, that is fantastic. Be sure to take the time to enjoy their audiophile system when the opportunity presents itself. Never get jealous, even if your friend’s system is way more expensive or is better-sounding and-and-and … Celebrate what is good about everybody’s system (including yours), as most modern audiophile systems today are really strong performers. Most audiophiles can find something to like sonically about most well-designed systems today, and that is just where we should be focusing.
There will always be room to improve, tweak and/or upgrade in any audiophile system, and that is always fair game for a conversation among those involved in the hobby. What we need to avoid is over-emphasizing the weaknesses of a system, and to stay positive about the path forward for any audiophile at any level of the hobby.
Some Final Thoughts on Insecurity in the Audiophile Hobby …
The whole idea that insecurity can (or should) inspire upgrades is below us as a group. There are far more luxury good consumers or enthusiasts of other things high-performance that could be introduced to our fine hobby if we keep the overall tone about what we do positive and the vibe inclusive.
When I was 23, I was lucky enough to sell a very big audiophile system that allowed me to buy a nearly-new 1993 Guard’s Red (with Cashmere interior) Porsche 911 – aka: the last generation of the air-cooled engines. Like a good audiophile, I took owning a nearly-new, bright red sports car to the same extremes that I did with my audiophile system at the time, and this meant that I was going to show my car in a series of Concours D’Elegance car show events hosted by the Porsche Club of America (PCA). If you think audiophiles are tweaky and extreme – wait until you meet these folks. The level of attention to detail shown at these events is beyond any level of extreme that we know playing with stereos. I found myself cleaning my windows with newspaper. I used Silly Putty to clean cup holders. The part of my seatbelt in the backseat of a Porsche 911 that you would only access if you were 300 pounds (thus fully extended) had been detailed. Grease under the front seats had been stripped and replaced with clean grease as clean grease is perfectly okay in the car show world, but dirty grease gets you dinged in your overall points score.
Audiophiles and car enthusiasts have a lot in common when it comes to taking a hobby to an extreme level. Where the audiophile hobby might steal a page from the PCA book is general inclusiveness. Back in the late 1990s, there weren’t that many people in their early 20s who owned a Porsche, let alone were willing to detail it at this extreme level. When I started poking around the club, the people who were already members were as welcoming as you could ever imagine. They showed a big interest in my car, which was fun. They didn’t stick their nose up at how “dirty” a pretty “new” car was. They knew that I would learn all about that the first time that I showed my car, and that these lessons would make me into a better competitor. And they were completely correct. Ultimately, I won the entire class in which I showed my car (that I used as a daily driver in Los Angeles), no small feat in that enthusiast world.
When we see someone who is younger and even remotely interested in music and technology, we’d be well-served to see if they would like to learn more. Perhaps play them your system with your favorite demo songs, as well as music that they request. Explain how an audiophile system works and is configured. What do the different components do? Why are they important? What should you (or could you) be listening for? What do good stereo systems cost? How do you get started with this hobby (yes, headphones are perfectly fine place to start)?
If we can make the audiophile hobby less quirky and just a little bit more welcoming, our chances of recruiting a whole new generation of music lovers into gear-heads will likely be higher. Young men and women today don’t know a world without unlimited access to music, but have they ever heard what a very high-performance music playback system sounds like? So many sadly can say that they haven’t. Our challenge is to introduce high-performance music playback to one young person at a time. Don’t worry, it only takes a few seconds of listening, and they are hooked. All they ever need is an introduction to how listening to music brings art into their lives. They don’t need much convincing to feel how listening to music is beneficial to overall well-being – especially relief from anxiety and depression, which is such a pressing matter for Generation Z.
The lifestyle benefits of having music in your life in a meaningful way is a message that will appeal to far more people worthy of building a hobby/business around over the next 25 to 50 years. This type of value proposition can be the start to one’s long and joyous journey in audio. We should all be looking for people who we can share our passion with, who will carry the audiophile hobby forward for decades to come.
How do you feel about “the Preamp of the Month Club” concept? Do you think the audiophile hobby needs to be more inclusive? Should veteran audiophiles reach out to young people to let them experience music as only a good stereo system can reproduce? Share with us your thoughts on the matter. We love to hear from you.
