How Many Audiophiles Have Do You Know?

About 30 years, before I would consider myself an audiophile,
I met a gentlemen at an estate sale who was. He introduced me to a few other guys that were meeting about once a week to compare and listen to each others high end equipment. As time goes by we still have others join us. Some come just to see what all the fuss is about. Some are impressed and get hooked as I did and others don't get it.

I would say that I have met hundreds, especially when I lived in NY and earlier when the were probably 1 in a 100 men who were engaged. As dealers decline and free long distance and the internet increases, I have talked with many more than I have met face to face.

I've met a few audiophiles myself, usually through work though, so it is not merely by complete chance. (I tend to work with fairly affluent people, which I've found helps one find other audiophiles.) And of course I've met several audiophiles buying and selling equipment, a couple of which have become good friends.

As far as family members; my parents were definitely NOT audiophiles, and to be honest, were not particularly into listening to music all that much either. We grew up, (in the sixties & seventies), with portable turntables. You old farts will remember those, as they had the built-in amps, and the speakers that were hinged onto the side of the cabinet. (So you would fold down the table, and swing out the speakers, whenever you wanted to play a record.) And of course they had the stacker for playing half a dozen at a time! (At least they were stereo though, thank goodness.) Despite this, both my brother and I got into music in high school, and became audiophiles in our twenties, (and we've both stuck with listening to new music for many years now).

I have also turned a couple of people, (a close friend and my brother-in-law), into budding audiophiles. (Both have decent systems now.) I think the trick is to keep friends and relatives coming over to listen and hang out, and eventually they have a shot at becoming at least a music fan, which is the first step to becoming an audiophile. (So I am doing my part to not let our hobby die out!) ;-)

Any true Audiophile will deny membership. Think about it. Read the posts here, on the Asylum, Karma and other places. Do you really want to lumped with this group? True Audiophiles know who they are...shhhh.

One. His system consists of a solid state integrated, digital source, and electrostatic speakers - at the opposite end of the spectrum from my tubes, separates, lp's and cones.