What is an audiophile? Are you an audiophile?

@william53b:

"No. I have thought a lot about this, and I love music more than the gear.
I want the best music presentation I can afford, both precision and dynamic range, it greatly enhances the listening experience. But when I compare my thoughts on the hardware with an audiophiles I see where I fall short of the pursuit of perfection they have towards their equipment".

My thoughts, exactly !  

If, we want to listen to music in our home, and we are unable to bring in people to perform, then we require a system of some kind to be able to do that. 

Some, don't give a flying what that is played on - iPhone speaker.

Some, care what that is played on and how it sounds. There is a secondary enjoyment, the beautiful tones, the timbre and contrast, the presence of the sound of the music.

Music only exists if there is sound. Why not have that sound be as pleasant to your ears as possible so as to maximize your enjoyment of the music.

Or perhaps the holier than thou  lecturers of "Audiophiles listen to their system" BS spewers would be perfectly happy standing outside of Home Depot listening to their favourite artist coming out of the announcement speaker while they wait in line to get in...

It is possible, for those who are capable of parallel paths of enjoyment to be able to listen to the music as well as the sound quality of it as it's being presented.

If you are on this site, you are an audiophile. And if you're not, and you are posting on equipment threads, then you are either lying to yourself, or, you are in fact not an audiophile and are just trying to stir the pot.

Some things are really simple.  Like what “audiophile” means.   Look up audio then look up phile.  Voila how did that happen so easily?   Of course everyone can have an opinion about what they think it means. Just like what they think they hear.  But if it’s not that they are just wrong.  So what?   At least they have golden ears. 

We all pick music through the sound and sometimes pick sounds from the music... And the silence in between is sometimes sound, sometimes music....

Who is an audiophile? who is not?

I’ve been accused of being an audiophile by friends. Granted, they fall into the “happy with my soundbar”camp... I generally get embarrassed and mumble something to the effect that, no,  audiophiles use $4k speaker cables and understand impedance curves. I just have an unhealthy and uneconomic obsession with stereo equipment.