Question Why Youngsters are not into Hi-FI

[abacus]

Interesting video here, interested in other opinions.

Bill

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Can't make myself watch YT stuff, but I suspect it's as much as anything down to the mobile becoming the main source of music. I can understand the view that what's the point in spending loads on big, immobile stuff when it can sit in your pocket. Coupled with the fact that kids stay at home until they are older, meaning that they probably don't have their own space, and that their folks will grumble about the racket they make. None of these are issues with a phone and some earbuds.

 

[RTHerringbone]

Yep, it's largely about what you are exposed to and (importantly) what your friends are doing. Along with the practicalities and cost.

My kids (11 and 14) only really knew of Spotify and YouTube as music sources until we brought Hi-Fi back to the house over Christmas. They were (begrudgingly) impressed by the increased fidelity through a "proper" system and will occasionally ask for their favourite songs and artists on the Hi-Fi, but it's just easier for them to scroll through apps and listen through headphones / pods wherever they want.

 

[Jasonovich]

I think, there's nothing to be had from this YT video. Kid's live on a different sphere than the rest of us.
The money they earn is spent on boozing and getting laid. The mobile phone in their pocket is their centre of the universe. They exert a lot of energy but do nothing.
It's important kids are allowed to have their time for living, everything else can wait.

 

[Snowfun]

Isn't it simply because what you (or "we") understand as "hifi" simply isn't relevant to those of a younger generation? It's all about ease of access and short-term enjoyment now - preferably with a video component added. The "quality" is all about the story and production value - very little relevance to how it is reproduced (which will, of course, invariable be via a phone). Similarly, very few youngsters are buying into traditional video cameras or DSLRs - phones are perfectly "good enough" (and for 99% of purposes, they are...). Indeed, I'd be more surprised if the question was "why is the younger generation still buying hifi"?

 

[DCarmi]

In my experience youngsters are not always that young. Many 30+ years olds just use phones or smart speakers.

 

[Dave_]

It's no bad thing IMO, since its an industry full largely of scammers and charlatans exploiting the gullible.

More power to them, for actually just "enjoying the music", something audiophiles purport it's all about, but fail miserably at.

 

[Fandango Andy]

“And the world looks just the same, And history ain't changed”​

When I was around ten years old my main way of listening to music was on a Walkman with headphones. This hasn’t changed for kids these days except the Walkman has been replaced by a mobile phone and wireless headphones and with the benefit of access to all the music not just the cassettes owned or copied from friends (Home taping didn’t kill music). To listen to music through speakers meant a HiFi system or “Gettoblaster”, but these days it could be a speaker dock, Bluetooth speaker, TV soundbar, or just the speaker on a phone or laptop.

Let’s be honest adults (particularly men) like toys. For some this may manifest as playing with actual toys like the train set you couldn’t afford as a child, or the latest Lego set. For others, those toys are disguised as more adult hobbies, a fisherman having to have the latest equipment, tinkering with cars, and motorbikes, or having every kitchen gadget ever invented. However, if you were born this century, you probably moved over from traditional kids toys, to something with a touchscreen at a young age, and now in your twenties, you haven’t looked up from said screen yet. This both fulfils the desire for toys, but also takes kids away from old fashioned “toys” like HiFi.

There is also a measure of exposure. If each generation is less likely to have a HiFi, where are kids going to see them? While you have always had to visit a specialist shop for equipment from a certain level, entry level equipment used to be sold in Commet, Currys, or Dixons (only one of which still exists). My first Soney system when I was about fifteen came from one or the these places.

Finally, traditionally HiFi was always an “investment”, even a budget system costs a significant amount of money and would be kept for a long time. Everything is disposable these days. Five minutes after you walk out the shop (or more likely five minutes after a man in a white van delivers it) your new smartphone will be obsolete, and your provider will be on the phone offering an upgrade. Low quality clothing has been rebranded “fast fashion”. Is there room for a long-term investment in these people’s lives?

There is still a gateway, where some kids get into HiFi, vinyl. Most kids who have a suitcase record player will never move on from there. For others, it could be a gateway to a system.

 

[manicm]

I think this is a myth. My 8 year old has expressed interest in my CD collection and proper hifi, which he has never been exposed to really. I've just had a soundbar since I got married. Now divorced and in search of a new home, I will be then in hunt for a new system. He actually wants me to get a turntable, but that's for another day. He was impressed by the sound of a turntable system, the details I don't know. But he loved it when I reconnected the soundbar at my ex-wife's place. He appreciates good sound at home.

He usually listens to Spotify on the iPad.

Kids are much more perceptive than what you give them credit for.

 

[matthewpianist]

The problem, as I see it, is that a lot of hi-fi kit doesn't actually offer very much for the financial outlay or the space it takes up. 'Entry-level' seperates aren't all that cheap now, with a basic Marantz (for example) CD and amp combination costing upwards of £700 before you even add speakers, and you can very quickly wade into the thousands, not hundreds. The sound most of us experience is limited by our rooms, to the point where there is a ceiling on what we can achieve and we can easily end up spending increasing amounts of money for little substantive improvement,

Maybe young people have it right by keeping things simple. I do a 3 hour return rail journey once a week, and I use Qobuz on my phone, with a pair of Sony Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones. It sounds great, and I have a world of music at my fingertips. If I had to, I could live with it, adding one of the genuinely decent BT speakers for shared listening. Of course, I prefer being able to have my physical music collection and properly set up system, but it isn't essential.

My 14-year old stepson enjoys his music. He saved up and bought himself a record player with built-in amplifier, bluetooth module and seperate speakers. It's not amazing, but it's decent for the money and he enjoys his music, and it fits in his fairly small room. Of course, I'll be happy to guide him if he finds himself wanting something a little better, but do I want to encourage him into the rabbit holes of audiophilia? No, actually. It becomes a money, time and sanity draining obsession very easily, and there are simpler and equally effective ways of getting great sound without being drawn into exotic ideals and all the unnecessary paraphenalia. A Yamaha network receiver with a Audio-Technica turntable and a pair of decent bookshelf speakers (Q Acoustics, Dali, Fyne Audio or similar) would offer all the performance most of us need in reality, and it's easy enough to add a CD player if required. Cables? Keep it simple. If it were me, with hindsight, I'd enjoy that and stop there.

Whilst there is genuinely good stuff out there, there is also a huge amount of nonsense about night and day differences and upgrades, most of it fed by placebo and expectation bias. Do we want our young people to fall into all this, and spend money they likely haven't got, when most of them are going to struggle to afford to make their own way in the world, and when they can enjoy the music without all the trappings?

 

[plastic penguin]

My daughter likes hi-fi or proper stereo set-up. She often play her CDs on my system.

I can't be doing with watching YouFace videos. But I guess youngsters have grown up with iPod**, streaming and Bluetooth.

** iPods are now an old format.

 

[Gray]

I'm not sure why youngsters aren't into serious vinyl replay.
They only need this to keep it clean:

Clean up your vinyl with Keith Monks' ReduxTwo

Keith Monks Audio has announced the ReduxTwo, an Archive Standard Record Cleaning Machine and Universal Disc Cleaner. The company explains: “After 10 years of successfully re-establishing precision record cleaning into the mainstream with the discOveryOne and Prodigy (HFC 470) record cleaning...

www.hifichoice.com

 

[matthewpianist]

I'm not sure why youngsters aren't into serious vinyl replay.
They only need this to keep it clean:

Clean up your vinyl with Keith Monks' ReduxTwo

Keith Monks Audio has announced the ReduxTwo, an Archive Standard Record Cleaning Machine and Universal Disc Cleaner. The company explains: “After 10 years of successfully re-establishing precision record cleaning into the mainstream with the discOveryOne and Prodigy (HFC 470) record cleaning...

www.hifichoice.com

Jeez. If people have money to burn...

 

[Fandango Andy]

The problem, as I see it, is that a lot of hi-fi kit doesn't actually offer very much for the financial outlay or the space it takes up. 'Entry-level' seperates aren't all that cheap now, with a basic Marantz (for example) CD and amp combination costing upwards of £700 before you even add speakers, and you can very quickly wade into the thousands, not hundreds. The sound most of us experience is limited by our rooms, to the point where there is a ceiling on what we can achieve and we can easily end up spending increasing amounts of money for little substantive improvement,

Maybe young people have it right by keeping things simple. I do a 3 hour return rail journey once a week, and I use Qobuz on my phone, with a pair of Sony Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones. It sounds great, and I have a world of music at my fingertips. If I had to, I could live with it, adding one of the genuinely decent BT speakers for shared listening. Of course, I prefer being able to have my physical music collection and properly set up system, but it isn't essential.

My 14-year old stepson enjoys his music. He saved up and bought himself a record player with built-in amplifier, bluetooth module and seperate speakers. It's not amazing, but it's decent for the money and he enjoys his music, and it fits in his fairly small room. Of course, I'll be happy to guide him if he finds himself wanting something a little better, but do I want to encourage him into the rabbit holes of audiophilia? No, actually. It becomes a money, time and sanity draining obsession very easily, and there are simpler and equally effective ways of getting great sound without being drawn into exotic ideals and all the unnecessary paraphenalia. A Yamaha network receiver with a Audio-Technica turntable and a pair of decent bookshelf speakers (Q Acoustics, Dali, Fyne Audio or similar) would offer all the performance most of us need in reality, and it's easy enough to add a CD player if required. Cables? Keep it simple. If it were me, with hindsight, I'd enjoy that and stop there.

Whilst there is genuinely good stuff out there, there is also a huge amount of nonsense about night and day differences and upgrades, most of it fed by placebo and expectation bias. Do we want our young people to fall into all this, and spend money they likely haven't got, when most of them are going to struggle to afford to make their own way in the world, and when they can enjoy the music without all the trappings?

I agree with everything you say, particularly the placebo effect of upgrading.

Not totally convinced by the price argument. If you look at a entry level Marantz Amp CD and Speakers from the turn of the century they were only a fraction cheaper than they are now when you adjust for inflation. And that is only after the massive inflation of the last couple of years.

To add to that, if a kid wants a desktop set-up for a bedroom they could get a Fosi ZA3, Wiim Mini and a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.0, all for about £300 (about £160 in 1999/2000 money). While still a significant amount of money, it's a beginners system that can be upgraded for the price of an entry level Marantz amp.

 

[jjbomber]

Youngsters have never been inti hi-fi. It's always been a niche core of people. The Bristol Hi-Fi show is in a hotel. The caravan and camping show is in the NEC.

 

[Revolutions]

Where is the Hifi for Caravaners show held these days, the Asda car park in Bridlington?

 

[Dave_]

Where is the Hifi for Caravaners show held these days, the Asda car park in Bridlington?

 

[Roog]

Probably because they have visited a HiFi forum (any of them) and they do not want to contract the same neurotic illness that the vast majority of said forum participants suffer.

 

[nopiano]

Youngsters have never been inti hi-fi. It's always been a niche core of people. The Bristol Hi-Fi show is in a hotel. The caravan and camping show is in the NEC.

Isn’t that because caravans don’t fit indoors, and Hifi sounds terrible in an arena? 🤪

 

[jjbomber]

Isn’t that because caravans don’t fit indoors, and Hifi sounds terrible in an arena? 🤪

The NEC is indoors! Caravan shows should be held in a field!

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Youngsters have never been inti hi-fi. It's always been a niche core of people. The Bristol Hi-Fi show is in a hotel. The caravan and camping show is in the NEC.

Does seem bizarre when you put it like that. I guess a caravan dwarfs even the biggest pair of floorstanders, but it's still got to make economic sense, which can only be based on footfall and trade.

 

[DCarmi]

In our day (when the dinosaurs ruled the earth!) , we did not have 4K multimedia, PC, Xbox, Playstation or Switch. Nor did we have all encompassing music and video streaming services and the ability to play and chat with anyone in the world.

What we had was 3 or 4 channel TV, our meagre collection of LPs and tapes (recorded for us by our friends) and football in the park.

Even the TV shutdown during the day, unless there was cricket on. On a wet summers day you went round to your friends and listened to their stuff or they came to you. On those days there was nothing better, when the parents were out, putting on a K-Tel, cranking the stereo up to 11 and dig out the monopoly or whatever.

Basically the choices for todays youngsters are much greater, these days. If It were me being a youngster now, I'd be spending money on gaming systems and likely most of my friends at the time, would too.

 

[twinkletoes]

I was 19 when I had my first hifi I saved long and hard working a Saturday job, for 3.20 an how (2000).
I initially wanted a one of those all sing all dancing Sony midi systems, cousin had and I thought it was fab! but it was the sales man at the electronic store that moved me in the direction of separates, it was cheaper than the midi system. Pioneer stable platter cd player, pioneer a-109 amp and some mission 700s. later added a mini disc player. Before that we all had the skinny Walkmans and thats all we had.

Point being these days the midi systems are sonos systems or similar and maybe unless a sale man says "well there's this and this will sound better and last longer", kids are basically non the wiser of what products exist.

You used to be able to walk in most retailers and see some sort separates stack, they just dont sell them anymore. those fast moving box stores like curry's now only sell sonos type stuff.

I used to work in an electrical store, not really a hifi store but we used to sell some separates stuff and it used to be hard to shift. People used to love it but hard to shift. People wanted connivance even back then. Far and away the biggest sell was a Sony all in one box 5.1 system.

Just some ramble but its been this way for a while I feel, I think early 90's it started with the rise of midi systems

There will be somthing else that comes along and disrupts the market and sonos will fade like the rest

Its all hifi it just different.

 

[matthewpianist]

I used to work in an electrical store, not really a hifi store but we used to sell some separates stuff and it used to be hard to shift. People used to love it but hard to shift. People wanted connivance even back then. Far and away the biggest sell was a Sony all in one box 5.1 system.

I worked in a Sony Centre from 2007-2010, and found the same. We had everything from the TAF-E370 amp to the STRDA1200, and its matching SACD player. They sold in tiny numbers compared to the 5.1 packages, GigaJuke systems and Walkman docks.

 

[RoA]

I don't know any kids (or adults for that matter) that are even remotely interested in Hifi. It's super niche but that does not mean that it doesn't, in the future, perhaps colour up on sproglets if a parent is into it. You never know. I certainly know that I got it from my dad. Even my musical tastes have evolved the same way but I hope that I can stop short of James Last!

One of my friends, reasonably well off, has a lovely system at home with some now older Macintosh and Piego speakers. He says he hardly ever listens to it instead usually using the surround system with his big screen. He bought it because he liked the look of it and it was recommended at the time.

Hifi shows are now full of middle and higher aged men. Hardly any youngsters which is surely indicating a trend or lack of it.