For the term AUDIOPHILE, I'd say the BIGGER spending you have, the BIGGER audiophile you are. Audiophiles are the crowd educated by market and salesmen more than by experience or educational books.
For audio hobbyists it is not necessary to that magnitude due to the larger education and experience scale. The LARGER this scale grows, the lower money you need to spend on audio per given quality.
For me, all I need is my speakers to sound as close as possible to my accordion, piano and guitars. Nothing less and nothing more.