There is two kind of audiophiles...
The one who focus on gear measures ( objectivist) and those (subjectivist) who "taste" different brand names and dream about the highest price tag... The two group focus on gear components as tastes or as tools...In the first group, the objectivist hate to be called "audiophiles" and be confused with the subjectivists... 😁
The other kind or second group as myself who focus on the best ratio highest sound quality / lowest price and the various ways of embeddings controls mechanically, electrically and acoustically and look for the optimization of any component even using , what the objectivist will call in a despising way as "tweaks" or illusions or deceptive placebos, and the subjectivists will call in a despising way too cheap stop-gaps...
Acoustics experiments matter more for me than the price level qualified as high end, mid-fi, or low fi INDEPENDANTLY of any acoustic embedding optimization ...
The serious audiophile is able to solve the sound problem at low cost and begin to listen music without being bothered by sound anymore as i am ...
The superficial audiophile never solve the sound problem as an acoustic problem to be faced , not only a problem about components synergy , but call his constant unsatisfaction a desire for "perfection" and enter in a race to the pit of expansive purchases, he called them "upgrades", without learning nor music genres and styles nor acoustics... Using his limited well recorded few albums collection as test ...
i Invested way more in music than in my very good system who cost me 700 bucks , modified headphones+ modified speakers... And trust me it is more than good... i dont need more...