Am I an Audiophile, a music lover-or both?


I chose this forum, because it seems, it gets a lot of attention. When I was young, I was more interested in music lyrics more than I am now. Don’t misunderstand-I still listen to lyrics. Certain chord progressions can almost be a religious experience. After all-that’s what music is all about. As I have grown older and have more resources to devote to a sound system,  I find myself gravitating toward more dynamic music. Music makes my system perform. It still has to be in my preferred genres, but I find myself more drawn to that slap of the drum snare. The crisp and clear sounding vocal, the quick and deep bass. I have read some threads, that may suggest I’m not a music lover. Does anyone else experience this and if so, what are we to be referred to as? It’s not that I really care what tag is pinned on me,. I’m loving it no matter what. I think I’ve become more technical minded about the whole experience. Just sayin’.
handymann
There are other hats. Here are two more.

-The diy / builder hat.

One that doesn't get mentioned much....

- The artist hat.

I believe there is Art in building and bringing systems into existence, especially if one has been at this for a long time.

And there is the Art of listening.
I once started a thread on another forum titled.."Are you a music lover or an equipment lover?"  My goodness the responses got heated, most falling into the category of "without the music your equipment is worthless" to "without the equipment you'd have nothing to play it on". That said I've seen and read about many people who are simply  listening to their equipment and not the music.  I have fallen victim to this "Audiophillia Nervousa" disease myself on occasion and have thankfully gotten of that bandwagon.  I love primarily classic rock but was introduced to Jazz by music dealers demoing their wares to me and I'm grateful for that as I cherish late night listening sessions with that genre of music.  As much as I love music I readily admit that I love equipment even more, some of the mega buck stuff is downright droolworthy, most of which I'll never own. There is no reason you can't be both but one thing that is telling is very few of my friends have even decent sounding systems but when they are over my house spinning tunes what I hear most is "that's a great song!' but they rarely comment on the quality of the sound (maybe my system really sucks!), I guess most people fall into the category of music lover first
@geoffkait me too indeed unaware, but I'm well aware that Rationality is the art that not too many possess especially audiophiles.