"audiophiles listen to their equipment"

I don’t think that you will find many who disagree with you on this site 

@magon I am the one not among "many" who, according to mahler126, would disagree with you. I think your comparison with instrument designer/maker is spot on.

I’d suggest there’s a spectrum. Those of us who play are more inclined to think of music in terms of its formal elements: melody, harmony, rhythm, etc. Of course we love beautiful sounds but that is not the essence. For us, say, the psychoacoustical experience of a tri-tone interval has little to do with sonics. On the other hand, those who do not play but grew up with a parent or friend who was an audiophile and whose initial exposure and process of falling in love with music (or however you prefer to describe it) was inextricably linked to refined sonics will understandably tend to define music more in terms of sonics. There are those who possess an engineering mindset for whom music happens to be the particular arena in which they choose to utilize their inventiveness. They may tend to regard music more in terms of a challenge to their technical expertise/creativity. Three possible points along a spectrum.

I've always been confused by this whole "listening to your equipment" argument.  I'm not listening to my speaker, I'm listening to the music coming out of the speaker.  And why wouldn't I want that to sound as good as it possibly can?  Would I rather listen to someone just learning to play the violin, or Perlman?  The idea they are both music so I shouldn't be concerned over the quality, is silly.  IMHO