I wrote this in a previous post, but those of us that were old enough to lust after the monster receivers of the mid- to late-70's are as young 50, with our best earning years and retirement ahead of us. The audio aesthetic hit its zenith in the 70's, and that plays to the MCM hunger as well as the vintage audio craze (the epitomy of which is monster receivers from the late-70's). I believe the monster receiver runup has many years left, but I'm wrong a lot.
I read that post, I am 53, I had no idea monster receivers existed until I saw them in a neighbors old audio magazines some years later in his attic. I’m way into audio gear, but my neighbors had either 1. Slimline gear which didn’t have the the commanding look, or 2. my one neighbor with a runs the gamut separates system with pairs of speakers on a patch bay all over the house. I liked the separates idea. Anyway, maybe the first born of my gen would remember the monsters, but even my brother (five years older) and his buddies had no knowledge. They were into the newer digital stereo items and the awesome boomboxes.
Anyway, you hit the nail. It’s the particular members of your gen. who really sees this stuff in the stores, on the pedestals, in the windows, on the shelves. The spectacle burned an image and those of you want to live that memory. You’re the ones driving the market and that’s pretty much the whole of it. So I agree, but I push the years more toward early 60’s.
And yes there’s *probably* years left in them being desirable. It is past those years where I’m looking though. Time does run out. Sooner or later.
There’s been several “eras” of audio aesthetics, mine was the black faced digital wiz-bangs. It’s starting to climb in value, but my gen has a dual tech nostalgia split. The “ultra mod” stereo look and the gaming console/video revolution. That might be the stuff we pine for as part of the halcyon days of youth and early adulthood.
But also, we don’t (in general) seem to be putting the same emphasis on the stuff of our youth nearly as much. Also, there’s a lot of chips in them, some annoyingly hard to find. Think batwing transistor for the xx80 Pioneers. Annoying.