An Audiophile is Anyone Who Loves Audio Regardless of Monetary Status. Agree?

While I would agree that decent audio today requires a middle class income, I remember buying decent gear when a Sgt in the Army.  I prioritized my spending towards audio.

One does not need to be wealthy in order to accumulate gear and appreciate decent sound.

Much is how you prioritize your spending as well as income level.

Yes, it is easy to spend substantial funds in order to develop a system that  pleases you.  I would hold out Elizabeth as an audiophile who has a terrific system and is by no means rich by American standards.

I will share some perspective of “rich”.  I have a friend, retired professor at a small school.  He immigrated from Vietnam.  Je told me that viewed himself as rich because he could go into most any restaurant and buy a meal.  I immediately understood as I remember when I could not.

Lets not confuse the insane prices of some gear with being an audiophile.  I was a sports car nut when I drove a $400 Austin Healey Sprite.  I didn’t change many years later when I bought a 6 speed Mercedes sports car.  The same us true of my audio gear.

I think people are forgetting the OP's premise which was that you can be an audiophile regardless of your monetary status. It is clear even from those who are trying to defend this silly idea that it is false in the extreme.

Having posters of super cars on your wall, knowing all the Pagani specs and watching every episode of Top Gear does not make one a sports car aficionado.

The same with audio. What you want and what you feel are not relative if you have no means to experience what you are passionate about.

It is a hard truth.

One that @brettmcee is having a hard time working through.

And don't worry brett, you haven't hurt anyone's feelings.....but maybe yours are at risk. The simple fact that you have the means to post on this website makes your more wealthy than most of the world's population.

And while it might be mean spirited to point out that you too are one of the wicked wealthy at least you know that you should by no means have children since they'd be, well, you said it.........

Ouch!

@n80

;)  ;)    +1

Most music lovers are not audiophiles, but the vast majority of audiophiles love music. Lot's of people attending live performances don't really care too much how it sounds...(if they would, they wouldn't be going...). Lot's of people going to bars/disco's don't really care about the sound....(if they would, they wouldn't be going...) yet if no music was played, nobody would go...
However, an audiophile has acquired a certain knowledge, can indicate when sound doesn't sound good, knows how to tune equipment, knows how to tune the room, all in all it is quite complicated to achieve the maximum possible with certain equipment in a certain environment. Being able to make acoustic corrections to the listening environment, being able to define speaker placement and so on. In fact, given the above, there will be many more music lovers than audiophiles around. It's just that there is no actual acknowledgement on when an individual qualifies as an audiophile. Other grades like engineer or doctor are all easier, as such grades are given after successful completion of the related studies. Lot's of self proclaimed "audiophiles" would benefit if they could have an experienced audiophile auditing their equipment and the listening environment. Adjustments could be made, costing next to nothing, but improving the overall sound significantly. What I'm saying is that the classification "audiophile" has nothing to do with the expense of his/her equipment at home, but has everything to do with the acquired knowledge and experience of that individual.