How rare is an audiophile
I’ve been extremely busy lately and not had a chance to sit back and listen to music on my system for a few weeks. I’ve streamed my favorite music in the car and on a small JBL Flip-4 portable speaker; which by the way “punches way above its size class.” I continued to enjoy music whenever, wherever, and however i can during this “dry spell.”
So now its 5 am Sunday morning. I know i’ll be spending most of the day listening on the JBL when my wife and I drive out to a lake house we bought recently and are furnishing and getting ready for 4 generations to enjoy lake life this summer and for years to come.
I’ve let my system warm up and hit play on my CD player. I now find myself in total bliss listening to Chris Standing’s newest CD “The Lovers Re-mix Collection.” The effect of the quality of the sound of the music my wife and i are enjoying right now with a cup of coffee is hard to explain, but it brought literal tears of joy.
I started thinking, how many people are like us? What % of the population are audiophiles (whatever your definition of an audiophile is)?
I know the answer is heavily dependent on which country you live in. I live in the US along with ~332,000,000 fellow citizens (please, lets not get political on the meaning of population or citizen).
Are we the 0.1%ers? Are there ~332,000 audiophiles in the US?
i’d be interested in what others think about how rare our species is.
Assuming someone who pays $100-$150 for an Ultra Disc One Step from Mofi or UHQR from Acoustic Sounds is an audiophile (I know there are some collectors and speculators in those groups), the number is significant enough for them to make the investments. 30,000 copies of Aja are planned at $150 per pop. I think 40K of Thriller were produced on US One Steps. Audiophile is a self-described/inflicted term. Some don't listen to vinyl. In the US I'd guess, less than a million, more than 500K. |
@ezstreams In no way attempting to diminish your sincere intent as displayed in your opening post. Possibly, your definition of "audiophile" is not in the strictest form as we have grown accustomed to expect. You appear to be a "music lover" and "lover of family" more than anything else. Nothing wrong there whatsoever. For now , count yourself lucky in many respects. Not fixating yet over past or future upgrades, cable materials and science mania, acoustic measurement graph reports, , power cord pandemonium , warm side of neutral/plainly neutral/cool side of neutral debates, suggestions of sibilance, system synergy or not etc etc. Once you go down this wonderful and weird rabbit hole, there is no going back. |
@sagur80 unfortunately, I do suffer from the audiophile afflictions you mentioned. Being an engineer, i cant help but analyze my system for its weakest link or to think about what my next move should be to improve the sound of the music i love so much. I love family and music (in that order), but i also love the systems analysis, reading The Absolute Sound, Stereophile, Audiogon discussion form topics, and looking (more like hunting) for the next upgrade. One of my most favorite things to do is to wake up ~4am on the weekend, go upstairs and sit back and listen to music before the rest of my world wakes up. |
Younger audio enthusiasts are into headphone rigs. Who can blame them. Not everybody's going to have tens of thousands for stereo stuff. When I went looking into headphones I realized the interest was by younger guys on youtube rather than old guy magazines. I don't think interest has declined but insane pricing was never sustainable. |
