an audiophile is simply someone who cares about music sounding as good as possible. nothing more......no rules at all.
they don’t even need to own any gear, or maybe have just one test track, or only MP3 on their i-phone.
it’s the passion to care about the sound.
so no, they don’t need to care a whit about gear. or even only collecting gear and not really playing it......assuming they collect gear that is intended to sound good.
no rules. just passion related to the topic.
OTOH there are music lovers who are not audiophiles. there is considerable overlap but they are not equivalent.
they don’t even need to own any gear, or maybe have just one test track, or only MP3 on their i-phone.
it’s the passion to care about the sound.
so no, they don’t need to care a whit about gear. or even only collecting gear and not really playing it......assuming they collect gear that is intended to sound good.
no rules. just passion related to the topic.
OTOH there are music lovers who are not audiophiles. there is considerable overlap but they are not equivalent.