You'd save for a while to buy a vinyl LP, choose it carefully (besides radio play, you could also ask to play it for a bit at the store), take it home and listen to it a score of times in a row, perhaps in company.
Then lend it to the friend(s) who also loaned you their LPs. Eventually the LP would come to its place of honour on a shelf with a couple dozen others, to be played when the mood struck.
[/Flintstone ;-]
Just as an example. I guess senn and Beyer are considered big names at this point but in the scheme of things, Senn has 2000 employees and Beyer has around 300.
They have a series of headphone enthusiast conferences called CanJam. I put mid-market as under 500 but others would put it under 1000, where the most interesting headphones are emerging.
As a younger generation starts buying homes, the passive speaker market benefits. But many remain happy with the convenience of portable/small speakers, so it's still a way smaller market than it once was.
Source: I work for a competitor of OPPO (still sad to see them go in a way).