Am I an Audiophile, a music lover-or both?

It’s a tightrope sometimes, because you or I love music, we want it reproduced as convincingly as possible to create an illusion of reality- whatever that is- the studio, the live performance, the band in the room.
Getting caught up in the machinery that makes it work is a common trap- one I’ve fallen into more than a few times- does that make you less of a music lover? No. But, sometimes, I have to accept the fact that a music reproduction system is no substitute for a good live performance. (Some live performances are not good b/c of the performances or the sound).
The boards are usually filled with technical or gear-oriented queries, comments or arguments (in furtherance of knowledge of course, not for the sake of arguing). Construing what "we" are and how we relate to the larger community of audiophiles based on board chats is a little like trying to measure the health and well being of a population by visiting a hospital or mental ward. We’re all here for a reason. :) I think the focus of this board is less about music than the art of reproducing it better. That said, there are some informative threads about good recordings or performances. I can go from Starker on cello to proto metal -- the better my system has become, the more I can enjoy all of it. But, I have also learned to stand back sometimes and enjoy what I have. There is a certain thrill of the chase. That rabbit will keep going as long as you chase it. You find your own balance, as we all do. I have put systems on ice for a while simply b/c i didn’t have the time or energy to deal with hi-fi. That didn’t make me any less of a music lover either.

@hifiman5 - music, to me, is taken in on a visceral level. Much is affected by mood. (I'm not talking about substances). I may not be in the mood for a particular piece of music, and want to listen to something else. One of the joys of having a large collection or otherwise having access to a lot of different music and challenging yourself sometimes by listening to stuff outside of what you think you like. At least that's been my adventure. 

And, apropos the "hat" approach to the topic, there are the record collectors, often folks who don’t have particularly good playback equipment, and in many cases, are buying a record because it is rare and special (and often of considerable value, either monetarily or to those in the know) who really aren’t listening to the records either. Yet another deep hole.
I think we can all explore the different dimensions of the hobby, its extremes, tangents and what may turn out to be dead ends and achieve some balance that is right for us in terms of the proportion of time devoted to each aspect- the gear, the tweaking, the musical enjoyment, the pursuit of the music for its own sake or for notable performances or rare recordings.
I also think that this is not a static thing-- that your focus could be on one thing for a while, then on another. Like I said earlier, it’s a personal journey, everybody has their own priorities, interests and biases. The thing I delight in most is turning somebody on to music that they had always avoided, ignored or thought they ’hated.’ There is this moment of: ’Gee, I should have had a V-8’ (a advertising slogan for a juice drink here in the States). I also have had the same experience- discovering music that I was aware of generally, but dismissed or just didn’t dig into at the time, and then realize how much I enjoy it. Sometimes I wonder if it is a ’time and place’ thing- i.e., something I enjoy now is something I might not have liked 20 years ago, but for some reason, I’m more open to it now. The enjoyable part of the hobby is the mixture of technology and art to yield something that, for each of us, is transcendent. (One hopes- the music that most moves me at a given time, and that can change, really takes me out of my present mindset for some moment in time-- it lets me see life from another perspective, sometimes sad or bittersweet, but touched in a way that few other arts reach me. (PS: I don’t cry at movies). :)