Definitely lonely to be an audiophile

It is hard to share this hobby with people who think the work and expense you put into the pursuit of excellent sound is foolish, but I do enjoy sharing it with some fellow audiophiles that I know. Mostly though it is a solitary but highly enjoyable time lost in the appreciation of what I am listening to and my introspection.

I live alone, but feel less alone when listening to a well set up system. It took me a while, but I've educated my 75 year old ears to distinguish between good and bad recordings and other factors that bring out the best sound my system can produce. Quality cables, room acoustics and other tweaks are as important as the components  you choose. 

My enjoyment of great home audio and efforts make my system sound great have never been appreciated by others not particularly into this stuff. That's just how it is, and I don't mind it at this point. You can never get guests to "shut up and listen" as they're generally not there to do that...plus, there's one "sweet spot" made just for me...I put on low level instrumental jazz all night when people are over (or at least back in the day when people were over), and maybe later when people loosen up I'll play something groovy and louder if it fits. If somebody asks me about the system they're in trouble as after a few drinks I can get carried away blathering about the wonderfulness of my cables and phono cartridge ("here...feel this tube!"), and have to just stop...meh...if your insecurities demand appreciation of how smart and cool you are by often noting your expensive hobbies and claimed superior taste (like the self promoting bloviating creeps who often dominate this forum), well...you're simply an insecure bonehead. Like me.