How rare is an audiophile

It’s been noted upthread that there are increasing numbers of manufacturers, that some shows are well attended, and that this must be proof of growth of interest in audiophilia.  I would add to this the attention that the companies with the really big bucks are paying to sound reproduction.  Apple has Spatial Audio, and Amazon has their various home products for pairing with Amazon Music, assorted sound bars, etc.  Now the natural tendency here will be to dismiss most of this (Some of us may be interested in Spatial Audio ) as not worthy of Audiophile/Serious discussion.  However it indicates that there is a market for better sound than bog standard ear buds.  If there are several million people out there investigating better sound, certainly some percentage can be ensnared by the whole enchilada.  
  Clearly the industry needs to move beyond our demographic, the aging white males with retirement portfolios who are willing the buy lots of products so that we can continue to enjoy music that was released half a century ago.  In doing so, our demographic is a negative.  They don’t want to project the image that if you go down this path, you will turn into this bald fat old guy sitting alone in his listening room.

  However the reality is that most of the new generation of listeners they are seeking are sitting alone in their bedrooms, probably multitasking while listening to music in the background.  Good luck flipping that group into people willing to spend 5 figures for a component .

This is a nice discussion, and there are many thoughts that come to mind, but I think the best came from my dear wife, who, by the way, has an excellent ear, and puts up with us, having no less than five different systems in our house, in regard to our extended discussion about what is an audiophile and difficulty defining it, she responded without a moments hesitation, “that’s because it’s not a real thing.“ So there you go.

Whatever that means...

I think she means that there are a lot of us who take ourselves and our obsession with equipment way too seriously. Especially when you consider that it is a largely self-absorbed activity which appeals greatly to introverts with surplus time and money. i’m not trying to throw stones here because I put myself squarely in the above category, but I do think it’s healthy to recognize who you are. I’m sure there are many of us who have done very good and worthwhile things and been benefactors to many other people. Just saying it’s good to laugh at yourself once in a while.

I also think it’s a good antidote to the toxin of uber-expensive equipment, voodoo snake oil products and the situation wherin  grown men can discuss the merits of multi hundred thousand dollar systems with a straight face.

to @ezstreams comment about enjoying the JBL Flip 4 I say, bravo! We have a Tribit storm box wireless Bluetooth speaker on the shelf in our bedroom, which fills the room with beautiful sound when we wake up in the morning, and I enjoy for what it brings in that setting as much as my more expensive and handbuilt systems. 
In my opinion, there are a few too many members on the site who see themselves as gatekeepers, regarding what is authentic “true” audiophile sound. All too often the same people turn nasty and drive away other users, or just set an unpleasant tone. Then they turn around and lament the hobby is dying, well, what do you expect when you act like that?

I can contribute one more datapoint on the question of how rare is an audiophile . I live in New Jersey, a state of 9 million or so people. I belong to New Jersey audiopile society which has a membership of 74 people. Even if we assume that only the top 10% of the most avid audiophiles go so far as to join the society, that is still a vanishingly small percentage of the population.