I spend most Sunday mornings listening to music on my primary stereo in my living room which relaxes me and gets me ready for the upcoming work week. None of my family, co-workers, friends, or anyone I know shares this enthusiasm. Most would be perfectly happy listening to an inexpensive ipod which is frustrating for me because I would like them to share my enthusiasm.
I think one of the problems is the high end industry and publications are catering more to only audiophiles as opposed to the general music lover. Some of the products reviewed and comments I read in the magazines by the reviewers support this conclusion. Most audiophile reviewers seem to put the equipment as the top priority and the music is there only to support the equipment. That is why a number of reviewers describe their favorite music as live acoustic "unamplified music". A musician or music lover would say something like they enjoy baroque music or perhaps describe a particular instrument such as the piano because they only care about the music. Amplified or not would never be used in the description. Another common audiophile preference seems to be their willingness to sacrifice bass for "midrange purity". When I bring people to listen to these expensive setups they can't understand why anyone would pay that much money for a bass shy system. They may notice one setup sounds more pure but if that system lacks the lower octaves it is not for them. About ten years ago a reviewer put together a $7000 system emphasizing midrange purity with a pair of $2000 bass shy speakers. This to me is an example of a system catered to audiophiles as opposed to the general music lover. I also noticed this trend at the Newport audio show last year. Stereophile reviewed a pair of speakers that were at the show. Even though they were $3400 a pair I thought they lacked bass which made them sound a little forward. John Atkinson's test results were consistent with what I heard even though the reviewer really liked the speakers.
Fortunately there are floorstanding speakers out there for under $1000 and also inexpensive solid state and tube electronics to drive them. This would be the first step past an entry level system. Unfortunately the magazines do not review them, they are not at the audio shows, and are carried by only a small number of stores. This makes it difficult to introduce my kids and the younger generation into the high end audio activity.
I would like to bring more people into this activity especially the under 30 crowd. I bought a ticket for my daughter to one of the shows hoping she enjoys it. Any other suggestions.