By During our recent event at Harvard University, where we donated a $150,000 audiophile system to the Shelemay Audio Lab a few weeks back, a number of really fascinating conversations were had. One was with the 33-year-old PhD. director of the program, John Pax. Dr. Pax has made this audio lab his passion. The upstairs listening room is well-outfitted with choice vinyl and professional audio equipment, as well as all sorts of ways for students to access and experiment with audio. This is a music lover’s playground – now with a full audiophile system for both personal and group listening.
When discussing the new system, Dr. Pax told Paul Wilson, Marc Finer (the executive at Sony who launched the Compact Disc back on October 1, 1982) and myself something that left us slack-jawed. He said that he’s never been inside a stereo store. Sheila Broflovski (Kyle’s mom from South Park) said it best when she said “WHA-WHA-WHAT?” Dr. Pax has purchased Magnepan speakers. Dr. Pax has purchased McIntosh electronics. Yet Dr. Pax has never stepped inside of a Best Buy and strolled to the Magnolia store inside. We couldn’t believe it, but it was true.
What was even more fascinating was that the idea of the stereo store was not something that appealed to Dr. Pax. Like many online buyers today, he looks to publications like FutureAudiophile.com and others for leads on the best gear, but then wants to test it in his lab. We get that, but to have never been to a stereo store seemed like sacrilege. However, upon further contemplation, it’s clear this is how younger audiophiles shop. Amazon.com is how so many things get bought in the modern era. Food comes from Door Dash or Uber Eats. Clothing gets bought in bulk and tried on, with the surplus returned. Why wouldn’t the same process be the standard with audio? The more we asked, the more we learned that this IS the standard for younger audiophiles. They buy close to everything online and even pick it up at a physical store. How times have changed.
Consumer Audiophile Shows Are Now Even More Important
Audiophile equipment is a very personal investment. Dr. Pax loved the Magnepans that he brought in enough to keep them in the lab, but never went to go hear them at a store. While stereo stores mean less to younger audiophiles than to older ones, experiencing audiophile gear is still really important. Just as a music festival such as Coachella is appealing to music-loving youth, audiophile shows like AXPONA have a similar appeal for younger audiophiles. Where else can you go to hear million-dollar systems, as well as far more realistic, affordable and real-world components?
The problem is that nowhere near enough young audiophiles know such events exist.
Little to no outreach is done by these regional audiophiles shows, and the relatively low attendance and elderly male demographics prove this. Is it easy to reach young, tech-savvy audiophiles? Nope. We will be the first ones to tell you that, as this is at the core of the FutureAudiophile.com Mission Statement. We have moved our social media focus in 2026 from Facebook, which was the platform of choice for hobbyists, but it skews old, old, old. Eric Forst has taken our Instagram account from a mere 300 to over 3,000 in less than 90 days. By no means is that cause for celebration, as our friends (they actually are) at Stereophile.com have 5,500 and some of the better influencers in the audiophile space are in the 15,000 range. We aim to be at those levels by the end of 2026.
In talking with very young audiophiles, like Lucca Chesky of the 3D-printed audiophile speaker company Chesky Audio, they don’t consume any traditional or linear media. Get this: as a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Lucca get his news and entertainment from TikTok. Yes, the Chinese spyware site! We’ve given in on our objections to TikTok and will start creating reels there in the coming months. I am setting up a modest studio to do so in our pending move. Will the audiophile shows market like this? We can’t control those promoters, but we sure know (and love) the audiophile show folks, and we encourage them to woo the younger audiophiles where they consume media – not where their grandparents do.
Online Retail Is More Important Than Ever
Never ever will I forget a meeting that I had in 1999 in the North Hall of the Consumer Electronics Show with Sony. I was all-in on the Internet, having risked it all by leaving my much more road-more-traveled path of high-end AV sales for online publishing. Sony told me in no uncertain terms, “We will never sell Sony on the Internet.” We laughed at them then, and that statement sounds fully absurd in 2026.
No new audiophile company can make a living selling exclusively through traditional retailers. Even old-school ones like PS Audio have switched their business model to direct-to-consumer. The more up-and-coming brands sell direct. Schiit, Orchard Audio, Peachtree Audio, Argent Pur, AMPED America, Tekton Designs, and so many more. Companies with real marketing might, such as SVS, sell in all channels, including direct, catalog, retail, custom installation, international markets and beyond. They also are the clubhouse leaders when it comes to social media followers, who power their sales across all channels.
The idea that an audiophile entity, be it a manufacturer, a retailer or even a publication like us, can market to younger customers via the same linear media is a joke. Times have changed and the marketing must follow.
Word of Mouth Leads to More Accessibility
AI is in its infancy right now. When I am not playing the role of publisher of an online magazine, I do a bit of consulting on the topics of SEO (search engine optimization), as well as AI. In the simplest terms, more links have always meant better SEO results, dating back to Google’s inception in 1997. User engagement is the next best concept, and one that is hard to fake. How do you get user engagement? That’s a big topic but, in the audiophile world, one place that can be powerful is also really dirty and yucky – the audiophile forums.
R/Audiophile.com on Reddit is a miserable place online that took an old-school user forum and made it even more caustic, exclusionary and off-putting. With all of that said – AI seems to love modern forum sites like Reddit and Quora. When a thread starts there organically, it can get really good momentum and traffic. That builds momentum for a product and/or a brand in ways that seem authentic, not purchased. Younger users love this and, when they see authenticity, they often will reward said authenticity with a sale. A lack of authenticity is a perception that likely can’t be fixed in the world of online sales.
Building buzz for an audiophile product has changed from the days when Harry Pearson put a product on the cover of The Absolute Sound and it would sell like hotcakes. Today, getting the buzz out on a product takes a lot more effort. Are influencers true category experts? Often not, but if their large followings think they are, then they can move the needle. More and more savvy audiophile companies look to online publications and influencer campaigns designed to grow their appeal as they try to reach younger users.
Some Closing Thoughts on Audiophile Accessibility …
There is a long-standing rumor that Best Buy is going to pull the plug on their 200-plus in-store Magnolia AV experience centers. I think this a seemingly unlikely outcome but, then again, how are Tweeter, Ultimate Electronics and Circuit City doing today? And if you want a Best Buy rationale – remember when they got into the musical instrument business and then bailed? So, it could happen even if the audiophile industry in the United States badly needs these more traditional retail outlets to show what the hobby can do.
The reality is that we live in a brave new world. The way our next generation of audiophiles buy gear is just different than the OG audiophiles who came before them. Change is good. Change is healthy. The issue is that the audiophile industry isn’t always that good at change. In fact, we sadly fight it, even when that fight is antithetical to our best interests. That’s a behavior that we might want to stop sooner than later.
Two of my former editors, Dennis Burger and now-influencer Andrew Robinson, tell stories about they both fell in love with audio from seeing and ultimately hearing MartinLogan’s iconic CLS speakers in the 1990s at their respective hometown Circuit City stores. Their first audiophile crack rock was a specifically addictive one and they ran with it, as many of us did in our own special ways. It is the start of a long, beautiful audiophile journey. It looks more and more likely that, going forward, where this journey starts isn’t going to be in a high-end audio salon. It might be from a reel on Instagram or a 90-second clip on TikTok. That is definitely change, but change isn’t always a bad thing.
Where do you buy your audiophile gear when you are in the market for another component? What media do you most like/trust when you are researching audiophile topics? Let us know in the comments below. We love to hear from you.
