How rare is an audiophile

@mapman....Well, can't contribute...now even more than then....:(

Had that output of my personal 'signal injection system' disconnected some 35ish+ years back....spouse agreed and supported that move....

Rare event last night, local buddy who likes what I do and have done brought by a buddy of his from FL.....he'd talked to Pete about what I've got, what I do, and popped by for awhile..

Pete was a nice enough sort, listened to a pair of my omnis', and I'd appraise as being 'polite enough'....

Saw my handful of various raw woofs, and got excited about his collecting  Peavy woofers, and a pair of 18" he'd scored recently, commenting that his spouse had suggested...."Not enough amplification...."

He did notice I've got 5 pieces of Behringer gear...so I'd wager into 'pro PA audio' and/or 'decent automotive sound'; the latter based as we all laughed at the 'boomers' installs that sound like the bolts and hardware are loosening on their 'rides'...

The one woof that caught Pete's eye is a MTX 12" sub salvaged from an attempt to replace a 'normal' 12", the rest being basically trashed....can't say i didn't suspect why that happened....

35 lbs. of steel with a magnet the diameter of a softball, 2+" thick.

I keep everything away from it.

Can't find it in their 'vintage' lists. has no model notation on it....other than 

RFL! in big red letters, and the notation

"Designed to rip your face off!" (all caps,of course).

Am I a 'phile'? An audio degenerate of sorts?  A nasty narrow minded jade?

All the above? None of it?

I amuse myself well enough...hopefully that counts.... ;)

One of my favorite parts of having a decent system is having people curious listen to their favorite songs and realizing a different appreciation for music. And I've since gotten my parents and several friends on the train.

Everyone appreciates quality music, and sharing that is part of the hobby in my view.

several audiophile youtube channels have 300K subscribers. I assume they are audiophiles or interested to become one, why else would you listen to those presentations.

Based on the average user profile here (close to retirement/old, male) which is about 13 million people in the US and also affluent, which is about 10%, - that would make 1.3 million people to have the potential (time and money) to be an audiophile. But of course very few are interested, maybe 1 in 10. So around 130K people.... The other angle is the size of the audio business, which implies  a similar scale. 

I'm not into rare audiophiles as I prefer them well done.

You and your wife sound like music lovers first and audiophiles a close second. When the two meld together, great things happen. Thanks for sharing your experience. Tonight, listening to GoGo Penguins / A Humdrum Star has hit me straight in the feels. That kind of talent astonishes me.