I'm interested in attracting a younger audience to high-end audio. But is this possible? Sometimes, I feel that bringing a younger crowd to our hobby should be no problem at all. Young people love music, love their iPods. So: Why not? (When I say "young people," I'm talking about college kids, kids who are out on there own, working, spending some of their own money, beginning to make their own decisions. I don't expect 15-year olds to be rocking the hi-fi.)
Other times, however, I wonder if high-end audio really is an older person's game. We play checkers before we play chess, we drink Mad Dog before we drink Louis Latour, we listen to lo-fi before we listen to hi-fi.
I remember reading somewhere, or maybe someone said it to me at a show, that we should actually ban younger people from the high-end altogether, wait until they're at least 30 before even allowing them to listen to our stereos. Is there some logic to this?
Is there a real way to attract a younger audience, or are young audiophiles simply the rare few who have grown up around the high-end? Is there anything we can actually do, or are we wasting our energy by even trying?
I'm interested in attracting a younger audience to high-end audio. But is this possible? Sometimes, I feel that bringing a younger crowd to our hobby should be no problem at all. Young people love music, love their iPods. So: Why not? (When I say "young people," I'm talking about college kids, kids who are out on there own, working, spending some of their own money, beginning to make their own decisions. I don't expect 15-year olds to be rocking the hi-fi.)
Other times, however, I wonder if high-end audio really is an older person's game. We play checkers before we play chess, we drink Mad Dog before we drink Louis Latour, we listen to lo-fi before we listen to hi-fi.
I remember reading somewhere, or maybe someone said it to me at a show, that we should actually ban younger people from the high-end altogether, wait until they're at least 30 before even allowing them to listen to our stereos. Is there some logic to this?
Is there a real way to attract a younger audience, or are young audiophiles simply the rare few who have grown up around the high-end? Is there anything we can actually do, or are we wasting our energy by even trying?