A lot people of any generation, the cost is prohibitive.
Beg to differ. One of the fastest growing and most innovative areas of hi-fi is in headphone systems. The youngsters all ready use Ipods and Zunes, they all ready have computers. They may not have the scratch for a full blown rig, but you can get audiophile quality for not too much more than a Mac Mini, a decent DAC/headphone amp, and some relatively cheap interconnects. Absolutely kills any Ipod or Zune on the planet for under US$2500 or less. Do it with a last generation PC for even less. Mac Mini (new) US$600.00 Benchmark DAC1 US$1000.00 Sennheiser HD600s US$300.00 Optical interconnect US$20.00 Itunes Free Monitor, keyboard US$200.00 Of course you're on you're own as far as the tunes are concerned. But that is highly respectable hardware that will support later expansion, that is the way I went, except that my music server is a PC. You can get less expensive than that but only if you are willimg to trade off the control flexibility and balanced outputs of the DAC mentioned.
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