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

if you’re one of those who enjoys the sound of digital more power to you. If you’re just a listener and not an enjoyer I will let you off the hook. Analog is the heroin. Digital is the heroin substitute, when you can’t get the real thing. You know, when your dealer is in quarantine or whatever. 🤗 Enjoy the music substitute! 😬

Maybe we should go with the traditional definition of "audiophile" as one who pursues accuracy in audio reproduction (not their own personal taste, but accuracy), in which case, no one two talks about vinyl "perfection" would be included.

I dont want to discuss anymore the original question of the OP because this question dont make much sense for me...


This thing said, what is your definition of accuracy? Accuracy relative to a measuring apparatus or to the subjective hearing history experience of listeners?
Dont answer I guess what you will say.....You already wrote it for sure....But who want to exclude a vinyl afficionado of an audiophile club? Nobody for sure.....

:)

When I make my choice about gear I look for the numbers and accuracy, and impedance compatibility etc...But at the end like any music listener I vouch for my ears judgement with or without numbers accuracy and I vouch for my medium of choice, be it vinyl or digital ....

«I never choosen my wives for their relative accuracy compared with the golden ratio» -Groucho Marx

« Perfect accuracy is not music» -Harpo Marx

"Digital is the heroin substitute, when you can’t get the real thing. Your dealer is in quarantine or whatever.  🤗"

For whatever reason, I noticed that news about some drug busts often mention "digital scale". That much about above analogy. Wait, did I just say "analog"?

"...a search of his home uncovered yet more of the drug, and digital scales..."

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/18522682.whitehaven-heroin-dealer-said-600-stash-get-lockdown/

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.