At what price is one considered an Audiophile.

For example,

Elac Debut Reference Floorstanders from Andrew Jones - $1400

Rythmik L12 Subwoofer - $629

Yamaha A-S701 integrated amp - $800

Schiit Modi Multibit DAC - $300

Sum Total = 3129 USD ----> The fidelity and musicality of this setup is bonafide audiophilia. For a "music first" audiophile (not a gearhead, not a brand name snob, not a dude in pursuit of audio jewelry or elusiveness, etc), this could be end game.

20 years ago, he would have had to spend magnitudes more for this quality of sound. The above mentioned ballpark would be the price of admission.

@deep_333    If your current system is your final audio destination kudos. What is offensive is claiming anyone that has or desires an audio system of better build and sound quality cares less about music and more about gear? That might get the award for "most convoluted" statement on Audiogon!

@dayglow ,  No clue what you are talking about (the "convolution" could be in your head)..My Stereo rig runs between 100 to 150k depending on what I throw in it.  My multichannel rig might be around 20 to 30k, ~50 to 60k if treatments are included.

The gateway drug/affordable/bona-fide audiophilia rig I posted above I what my daughter currently runs in her apartment.

If high end audio died with my generation (avg age: 50 to 70), it may have a lot to do with the type of "personalities" that hang out in hifi forums.

@jacobsdad2000 Sorry and I don’t mean anthing bad about anbody and at this site I have never noticed (and not saying there isn’t) any obvious females talking about audio gear. But I do suspect behind every audiophile that is married or lives with a women will get the LOOK 🙄when spending money on thier Audio System.

There are plenty of women who spend a considerable amount of cash (atleast up in the 5k ballpark) and have rigs that sound very good. At that point, they are satisfied and tend to focus more on the music, discovering new artists, growing their music collection, etc, which is the whole point of great sounding gear in the first place. In other words, they seem to be more of the "music first" audiophile...

It’s the "dude" who thinks that a 15k cable will fix all his setup errors and his lousy room, i.e. continues to spend up the dum-deedee tree. Blame the cable for everything in the end!! 😁 It’s the "dude" who generally sits around with a 300k rig that still sounds like sht in spite of all the glitter in his room....living in a state of constant disgruntlement.

"All that glitters ain’t gold!"

- Prince

few if any will agree on what a deeper soundstage, lower noise floor, longer note decay or any other Audiophile nuances should cost. This is why any price/performance ratio standard IMO is nearly irrelevan

Such an unintelligent falsity/ the common lie propagated by guys (dealers incognito) who try to sell sht that’s completely not worth the selling price.

Deeper soundstage? Lower noise floor? Audiophile nuance? It all comes down to the competence level of the engineer...all with negligible/zero perceptible gains beyond a certain limit even for a golden ear bat.

When one buys things from very intelligent guys like Andrew Jones, Peter Comeau, guys at Yamaha, etc, great things can be very affordable. When one buys things from dumb dudes like Daryl Wilson, mediocrity can be very expensive.

Intelligent dudes will get things made by intelligent dudes. Dumb dudes will get things made by dumb dudes. Birds of the same feather tend to flock together.