Should people with no turntable or reel to reel be considered audiophiles?

You will find @mahgister , that I will never fault anyone for their personal preference w.r.t. audio. If you prefer the sound of vinyl, I will not fault that choice, and in my writing you will note that I do not. However, if you start spewing about the "superiority" of vinyl, especially it being "technically" superior, then yes, I will call out that falsehood ... but I may even note that the analog signal processing of "vinyl" may either simulate an environment that is pleasing and/or allow the ears/brain to extract something in the recording dependent on the playback environment. 

You know what is funny to me @mahgister, is that some audiophiles rate sources on this scale from worst to best:  Digital (any digital), Vinyl, high quality Analog Tape. One of these does not belong, and it is not digital, it is vinyl. High quality analog tape sound very similar to high quality digital, and if not for the slight hiss of analog tape, it would be hard to tell the difference most of the time. Vinyl on the other hand, due to that "analog processing", is a much different beast.

recluse,

Be careful friend, these vinyl / CD wars have disturbed many an audiophile's peace of mind for decades. 

Probably even older than the ongoing pernicious sapping cable debates, but certainly younger than the almost timeless solid state v tube arguments which seem to have reached a somewhat uneasy detente between the opposing camps.

Admittedly this analogue/digital debate, for that's what it is, cannot be compared to, or put in the same league as the infamous “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” conundrum which befuddled many a christian for centuries, but it still comes with a certain risk.

I've witnessed this war from it's beginning, slightly preceding the actual arrival of the upstart Compact Disc. Hostilities escalated immediately. 

Subsequent decades have seen both camps arguing tirelessly the perceived defects of the other with no quarter given, and not much taken.

A certain Michael Fremer could be said to be the figurehead for the vinyl camp whilst the digital camp seems to lack a direct counterpart, although it's not short of advocates of course. 

These objectivist/ subjectivist debates operate somewhere outside both the parameters of logic or of measurement. They can be safely classed as arguments personal experience and faith.

If you will permit me a small confession, I will admit to have been both sides of the argument at one time or another. I found peace of mind and reconciliation eventually by accepting that whilst analogue is often superior in practice, it's digital that's superior in principle. 

That seems to keep both sides happy and persuaded enough not to attempt to flame me at the stake as a heretic.
But not always.

In any case my trouble is nothing. You should have seen the grief Peter Aczel used to get a few decades back. No one is immune in these divisive times.
Even an esteemed figure such as Harbeth's Alan Shaw is regularly mocked and threatened with the online inquisition. Things can get very nasty indeed.

Stay safe my friend. 

You will find @mahgister , that I will never fault anyone for their personal preference w.r.t. audio.

I dont doubt that for sure...

 And I am perfectly ok with your last post....


I dont judge vinyl nor digital users because of the relative incomparability of each rung on the Price/S.Q. ratio in play.... And also because of the refine technology we can use in the vinyl and in the digital case...

I myself use files most of the times and cd....For storage facility and for the high quality made possible by technology....

My regards to you....

Of course digital is better than analog 🔜 in principle 🔙 That’s kind of the whole point. Hel-loo! It’s space age technology, you know, quantum mechanics and nanotechnology and all that jazz 🎶  🤗

An ordinary man has no means of deliverance.

I think it boils down to my stuff, is better than that stuff....
Whatever that stuff might be...It may be your stuff, my old stuff, or somebody else’s stuff.

It could be NEW stuff, or even different stuff, ay?

Music, no ears required. 

It should be AUDIO-AGAPE it’s not conditional. Just the love and pursuit of music, not more, not less.

The word phile is from the word Philo, meaning to excite, passion, infatuation, a type of love.

When adding anything to "what it means to be an audiofiler", it no longer
carries the same meaning...

Sound lover.. got it.. Not Turntable, and certainly not Reel to Reel...
I think less than 1% on these forums even know what one looks like. Much less how expensive it is to run that stuff, talk about old hat...
I still have a few reels around.. Most any CD will out do mine.
It’s old stuff...

You don’t join the club, you ARE the club....Your own little "CLUB"

Heck you can even have your own uniforms. Me I just wear a HAT..
That’s it just a hat....

I was wondering why the chickens quit laying eggs.. Vet told me I had to wear clothes, I was scarin’ the HELL out of the chickens..

The Rooster, was a little envious too. Sorry Bud...(that’s the rooster’s name)

Regards