What Does It Take to be an Audiophile?

Craig - You hit on one of the things that prompted my questions in the first place - is being into "hi-end audio" synonomous with being an audiophile? I think they're related but not equivalent.

For me personally, being an audiophile means having a strong appreciation of the (re)creation of high-quality music. This would include both live events as well as music from an audio system. It doesn't mean that you won't listen to or enjoy any system less than the best, but it does imply that you're aware of the differences of the sound of music and value a higher-quality, higher-fidelity sound. I think this appreciation lends itself to regularly seeking out a high-quality music event, whether it's a live performance or recreation through an audio system, to the extent that listening to the music is the activity, not a supporting activity

Music is an art form, and as such, what is "good" and what is "bad" is highly subjective. Whether the recreation of, say, a violin playing is "good" or "bad" is somewhat more objective. The lengths an individual is willing to go to hear "good" music (re)created in a "good" manner is a significant measure of their audiophile-ness. -Kirk

Caring, interest and affection for music in my life at the highest level I can achieve in understanding, listening and reproduction. Music, both recordings and performances are very important to me and my home audio is exceptionally important as it brings beauty inot our lives.

HiWaves: I ran across them in thrift shop (in the Valley North of Hollywood) that I happened into just a few minutes before closing. They usually charge $1 per album, and though it is a charity, I offered $50 for the entire collection, which was then agreed upon (most of their classical selection has been there for years untouched and these were new arrivals). The clerk had just closed out the credit card terminal and did not want to run my debit card, so asked how much cash I had on me (which was $21). She said "just give me the $20 and enjoy the music". The down side was/is that lifting the boxes into the car triggered a major migraine and we also do not have a turntable/phono preamp to play them with and it will be quite a while before I will be able to put this together. The upside is that they have all been stored with the paper liners inserted correctly and 98% of the jackets all have plastic sleeves. The ones that I have inspected so far all have the dust swirl patterns that I associate with fresh vinyl. I am not familiar with MHS (other than owning a few of their CD's) and just figured, at the time, that I would sell enough of them to recoup the $50 (now $20) and then see if I liked the rest when we add vinyl to the system. The majority of them are from a wide range of catalog numbers, mostly ranging from the 500's through the 4300's. Other than the price/cost, are these considered to be decent performances and recordings on a whole? From a scrap of paper that I found with the batch I suspect that the albums were once the property of a hotel and probably sat in a club room along with books that were never read.

Celtic 66, your response mirrors what I planned on answering to this thread: being an audiophile involves frequent (even incessant) irresponsible purchases of equipment and tweaks that are not necessary but are nevertheless essential. The whole practice/pursuit/pleasure/pain of this hobby reminds me of what I've read and seen on movies and TV shows about addicts of other various kinds, such as of alcohol, drugs, gambling, or eating. There is an obsessive quality to this hobby that could conceivably lead to ruin.

Sc53, I agree with you, but no matter HOW much you buy in audio, there's always a re-sale value. I'm not sure that it's possible to urinate in a cup and try to sell THAT back to your local crack dealer. And I KNOW that Denny's won't trade you cash for...you know. So no matter HOW deep you are into this hobby, you can always recoup SOMETHING (you can't say that for the guys stuck sitting with priceline.com stock, now can you?)