What is an audiophile? Are you an audiophile?

Who cares is absolutely correct. If you dont spend enough, according to some, you are not an audiophile. If you spend too much you are not an audiophile. I like music and I like the way a better system brings me closer to my music. Call me what you want but if my standards and system goals differ from yours that shouldnt change this definition.

"...the owners of an awful lot of high end gear end up dissecting the sonics of the music, rather than enjoying it as an immersive experience"

Yes. . . and furthermore, they will swear up and down that it's the music they care about, first and foremost!  

I am not a gear fetichist and not an obsessed upgrading fool chasing and "tasting" sounds ...

Then i am not a failed audiophile....

But i know that ACOUSTIC and PSYCHO-ACOUSTIC science can help a speakers/room to deliver a marvellous sound/music experience...

I listen an opera right now after some jazz...

What ami I ?

A succeeding audiophile who has studied acoustic instead of reading audio reviewers of gear and will never need to upgrade his low cost but very well chosen system...

Because acoustic has nothing to do with "taste" about gear, i listen music not sound of amplifiers or dac or even speakers....

😁😊

And read me correctlly, i perfectly know that any piece of gear sound different, but this difference is DWARFED by the huge improvement with acoustic control OPTIMIZATION over your Speakers/room...

Being a wise Audiophile dont means that the ratio S.Q./price is meaningless it is the opposite....It is the main meaningful parameter all over the journey...

«A piece of tubular wood with holes is an acoustic instrument and knowing how it work in different caverns is enough to figure out all acoustic»-Anonymus acoustician

«Acoustic is a prehistoric phenomena » -Anonymus acoustician

A lover of music is a person that can sit and listen to music on any system regardless of the quality or cost.

An Audiophile cannot.  If the reproduction of music isn't up to their quality standards, it will drive them out of the room.  Like hearing finger nails across a chalk board.  or as is my case, styrofoam.

To me, it isn't necessarily the costs of the equipment that matters, but how well that equipment reproduces the music.  Often, costs does play a factor, as most times (not always) you get what you pay for.  But not always.

An Audiophile knows what musical instruments actually sound like and can discern whether or not a system is accurately reproducing the musical instruments.  Or dimensionality, sound stage, etc.  This is all dependent on whether the artist actually used real instruments in their recordings, miked correctly for sound stage, etc.  if it isn't there in the recording, then it isn't there and just enjoy the music for what it is.

But an Audiophile isn't necessarily an audio snob, just like a wine enthusiast isn't necessarily a wine snob.  There are audiophiles that are snobs and wine enthusiast that are wine snobs.  But, they are just snobs regardless.

Same for car, watch, book, fashion, art, etc. enthusiast.  Doesn't make them snobs.  just enthusiast or experts.  

Snobs rub your face in their absolute (in their opinion) understanding that they and only they know everything to know about a subject.  I joke that a snob is someone that tells you what you like.

Anyway, enjoy

@minorl 

I've never enjoyed music more than when I was 8 years old, listening to WABC on a  transistor radio in bed on cold winter nights. To me, it's the physical/emotional/spiritual connection with music that I most treasure-- in the end it's far more important than having a high-end system.