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

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. 

Given the above, an experienced audiophile will be able to have a $ 2k set up outperform a $10 k set up, if he can treat the room acoustically, optimize speaker placement, optimize the listening position and so on, when compared to the $10k set up installed by the average music lover.. However, the same individual will usually also be able to have the $10k set up outperform the $ 2k set up after optimizing the variables involved. The same applies when moving up the price range, baring in mind that the law of diminishing returns always applies.