It seems that many kids these days seem to consume their music via a smart phone and some ear buds, and therefore was there much of a future for both music and HiFi. Music has been huge for me since I first picked up a guitar at about 8 years old having listened to AC/DC’s ‘Dirty Deeds’ Album. I always had a cassette player or something to play music on. When I left college and got my first proper paycheck (1990), I got two things ASAP. A car (a red Opel Manta) and what was all the rage back then, the glorious stack system! I got a Pioneer one, but could have easily been Technics, Kenwood etc. It was, if I remember, about £800 quid, so no small investment for an 18 year old back then (I even upgraded the speaker cable with something slightly more substantial than the supplied cable, which was not much thicker than a human hair, from Tandy!). I got my first parking ticket loading the said Pioneer into the back of the Manta. This kept me happy until I replaced it, due to a broken 6-CD changer, with ~6k’s worth of separates about 10 years later.
So I recently asked my then 19 year old Nephew if he’d ever bought any physical media and if so, how he listens to it. He said he had a few CDs (mainly AC/DC, but I can’t claim credit as his Dad is a fan too) but nothing really to play them on other than an Xbox/TV speaker combo. So for his 20th, I bought him a Denon D-M41DAB micro system (and gave him a couple of 3m lengths of terminated QED XT25 speaker cable that I had spare) for his bedroom (still living with parents). He was absolutely stoked and is letting me know at regular intervals how many and what CDs he has bought.
So do you think this simply isn’t as important to kids these days, and iPhones and earbuds are the future?
We’ve had multiple threads on exactly this and perhaps this ought to simply be added to those?
The issues are always the same. Sensible discussion overtaken by someone wanting to pursue format wars.
Bottom line. The quality of a smartphone playing music into ear buds or whatever far surpasses the portable products of the 70s, 80s, 90s etc. so the idea that kids aren’t into good quality sound is simply untrue.
Could it bettered? Yes, but when it’s already more than good enough then portability trumps all.
There will always be a place for separates etc. but it will be a smaller and smaller one and the industry needs to wake up and meet people where they are and, along with audiophiles, stop whining that people aren’t where they want them to be.
We also need to recognise that the days when multiple boxes etc. automatically trumped integrated or all in one stuff have long since gone and that most people overwhelmingly value simplicity.
I know one teen who is into her system. All the other teens/young adults I know are happy with earbuds/headphones and Bluetooth speakers. Thinking back to my youth, most of my friends were happy with their Dansette and transistor radio, or a few years later, their music centres, whilst I and one other friend had a separates system, we were definitely in the minority. Maybe the ratio has changed a fair bit, but a hi-fi system has always been a minority interest, and it is just more so now.
I hope this is on topic. I purchased a floating record turntable many years ago when they were on Kickstarter to play my coloured vinyl on.
As we moved homes to our eventual downsize I could only have one turntable a Linn LP12. We gave the floating turntable to our son, who now purchases the odd vinyl from his favourite artists. Hopefully, I have stated something, and he will inherit my stereo system and not end up on eBay or elsewhere when I depart for my final resting place.
