How Many Audiophiles Have Do You Know?

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.

Three (possibly four).

One from high school.
Two were lawyers who worked on my deals when I was a banker in NY.

The possible fourth was a boss of mine after a I moved to LA. I was told he was a tube guy, but the subject never came up in conversation between us, so I'm not sure if it's true or not.

In almost 50 years of this hobby - I may have met about 100 people that I would consider a audiophile.
Starting with my father when I was about 10 years of age.
He loved his classical music & played 2 albums almost every night after work & all day long on Sunday.
In my early teens I went out & bought my own first system (KLH model 20).
Since I do not consider myself a audiophile - Just a hobbiest & a true lover of music reproduction & collecting Lp's - I think that most people like myself only consider others as audiophiles.
To me a audiophile is someone with a passion for music & spends too much of their time & money tweaking his/her system to get optimum sound or audio Nirvana.
I have only met but a very few people that I also consider to be audiophiles in that have a modest system, but are also just as passionate & truely enjoy what they have to the limit.
All in all in almost 50 years to meet only about 100 audiophiles equals about 2 per year.
And to consider that the majority of them came in the past 7 years of buying & selling here on the gon leads me to believe that either very few audiophiles consider themselves as such or they just refuse to admit what they are.
On the other hand - I have spoken to quite a few schmucks & wannabees that profess to be a true audiophile. I think that many of us have had the pleasure of that one & just laugh it off.
To me a true audiophile is someone that:
Has the ear - Not just for his system, but for others & will offer knowledgeable advice.
Has a decent to fantastic system & knows how & what to listen to - THE MUSIC!
Has a minimum of 1K albums LP's/CD's.
Wont tell you what his system cost & wont admit to any of the above.