Entirely the wrong place to dump this but…
Over the last ten years the high end audio market has changed. There are many reasons for this but perhaps it’s useful to look at how things were for many preceding years. The audiophile community ‘cup’ used to be fairly consistently half full. As the elders aged / lost interest younger people came in to fill the void.
Over the last ten or so years this half full ‘cup’ has drained, the elders move on but they are not replaced, in conjunction with this, prices of high end have risen disproportionately as the ‘business’ thrashes about trying to make bank (See Munich now, even people I know with considerable wealth consider many offerings ‘insanely overpriced’.) Look at the average age of show attendees:
What is the solution to this? In short hifi needs to be made cool again. Not a depot for retirees but attractively and actively youthfully cool. Think back to the 60’s 70’s 80’s audio equipment was viewed as cool / vital / exciting by a considerable young audience. This created and sustained a market with a far larger ‘cup’. Perhaps some of us are here specifically due to audio’s desirability back then? I wonder how many 20 something members are on analogue audio forums today?
Many in the audio business still cling to the old methods of marketing but as said with an ever shrinking market paired with ever rising prices you don’t have to be smart to see something has to give.
I believe the traditional shows / shops and ‘Highend’ in general will narrow further if it sticks to the old methods of dwindling magazines / shrinking shows / micro niche forums and ever rising prices.
What are the alternatives? Giving people who have a love of music but no exposure to the pleasures of audio an ‘experience’. People like Devon Turnbull are doing just this - His market is large and non trad audiophile. He is doing something cool displaying audio in non Audiophile settings, championing it’s style and getting people into making speakers and amps in workshops and it has caught on.
Audiophile cafe’s / listening venues / pop up events / collaborations with artists (See Friendly Pressure) or dedicated listening rooms like D_S_P London with their Western electric full kit are slowly filling and entirely new cup (I only hope it matures)
Jef Jackson and Dave Slagle are doing a lot of installs to 'non trad audiophiles and the same can be said for many more. I can say from my micro experience in the last four years we’ve sold to very very few traditional audiophiles (Not that we’re high end but the trend is undeniable) - Most have been serious record collectors / bars / hotels / musicians / fashion people etc - All of this conducted on social media not through any ‘old world’ channel… I’m not alone here even if it is because 30 somethings consume information from different sources it does point to a pivot in the marketing ‘mix’ in terms of positioning, messaging and targeting. (Translated as traditional Audio is operating in an ever shrinking echo chamber)
Johnathan Weiss from OMA recently said Highend brick and mortar stores / shows etc are dead in one of his YouTube films (This coming from a guy who spent god knows what on his room at Munich)
Take this pic from GQ mag and contrast it with the trad show above to illustrate the difference I’m poorly outlining
You might find all this a sack of shit / abhorrent or straight up depressing but apart from the ‘outsider nerd’ the hope for highend longer term is in the lap of hipsters / fashionistas / dj’s and / trendies / Influencers / style conscious and the generally bourgeois who have disposable income who perceive audio as 'cool / interesting / important and fun from there perhaps it becomes aspirational again and the cup can start to fill once more…?