My experience is that most of the young crowd who does this are the spoiled little rich kids. The ones whose parents make $250k plus a year and give them the $800 to get the new I-whatever. I don't know of anyone in their 20s who has that kind of play money that makes it on their own. Forget phonographs, most of the kids in that crowd refuse to change their own oil in their cars, cut their own grass, or do anything else in which they might get "dirty". If they get grease from a spring barrel on their $500 jacket, they'll have a meltdown!alang wrote:I know lots of people in that age group who can afford to camp outside an Apple store in their designer cloths only to be among the first to buy a new iPhone for 800 bucks - just to replace one that's a year old and works just fine. I understand that there are many who have a hard time affording a phonograph, but for many it's also about choices. And there are also cheaper ways to get into the hobby. There are still many uprights and consoles to be had for under 100$ if one is willing to invest some work into them. Of course these will not be VV-XVIIIs or Pooley's, but they work just the same and allow to play the records, enjoy the music, and learn for future better machines.zenith82 wrote:I don't know anyone 29 or younger who can comfortably afford gas for their vehicles, let alone a hobby where the entry level machines are a couple hundred bucks and go up from there!Starkton wrote:I know from an older poll that only 15% of the members of this forum are under 30. These few are the future of our hobby, because another poll shows that 85% of us bought their first phonograph or gramophone at the age of 29 or younger. I find this alarming and predict an unstoppable decline of our hobby.
Andreas
Then again, maybe the kids in their 20s that I know are more responsible than most their age.