At what price is one considered an Audiophile.

@carlsbad2 +1!

Khadas KTB DAC ($100) - entry point for an audiophile DAC! I have one

I remember when I was a kid in 1975, there were tons of 'hi-fi' shops around. You could get a modest receiver, turntable, and a set of speakers for $500. Later you might add a cassette deck. And everyone was an audiophile (at least us guys lol) cuz we took sound seriously, we went to each others' houses, spun records, and talked about sound. And, if there was a young clerk in our fave 'hi-fi' store, we used to hang out there and listen to stuff we couldn't afford. 

I just checked an inflation calculator and $500 then is a bit under 3k now. And arguably you can set up a listenable system for that. Especially in these days of globalism, computer design, and the ability to buy used stuff from all over. 

A couple of years ago we bought a condo in FL and of course I need a sound system, right? But trying to keep it minimalist with no 'stuff' as in no CDs etc. So we bought a Bluestream PowerNode 2i (I run the TV thru it too), a pair of 
Klipsch RP-600Ms, and some stands. I plug in my SSD with flacs of 1800 CDs and listen to Tidal and Adagio. How's the sound? Well, still a bit boomy, the apt has tile floors. But I'm working on it (there's one definition of an audiophile, no matter what you have, you're always 'working on it').

I discovered that the speaker stands can hold sand, and we're near a beach, so when I explained to my wife the theoretical advantages of filing the stands with sand, she became an enthusiastic participant (she loves doing stuff that's free). Took us a couple of weeks to get enough sand to fill the speaker stands, but we got it done. 

When you tell someone you filled your speaker stands with sand, that makes you an audiophile when you know they think you're crazy. 

BTW that system was less than 2k, and probably sounds better than that receiver/table/speaker combo from 1975, for a third less money.

question itself is incorrect

lots of audiophiles spend next to no money--they build hifi from their parts collection, buy a circuit board, build freo schematic, etc. 

Just the fact that you are on this forum means you are either an established audiophile or interested in becoming one. The amount you spend is usually the transition point where you go from audiophile to audiophool. BTW, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either version. The majority of us, including myself, would be phools if our budget allowed it! If you love recorded music and the gear used to reproduce it, welcome to the club.

As others have said it’s about the love of music and the passion to reproduce it as best you can. Yes you can get great sound from budget gear.  But let’s face it 99.9 percent of us are males with testosterone and egos and it feels good to buy that expensive gear and show it off too. 

If you are interested in listening to and assembling the components of a personal audio system, you’re basically an audiophile, regardless of any dollar amount threshold. It’s about the interest and enjoyment of this subject as a hobby. As you are posting on this forum it seems you may be one yourself.

You might want to have a look at Stereophile's 2023 Recommended Components list. For loudspeakers, the ones rated "A (Restricted Extreme LF"  start at around $1600 per pair for the Genelec G Three or KEF LS50 Meta. For integrated amps, the ones rated "B" start at about $1500 for the Cambridge Audio CXA81.  Add a Bluesound Node streamer for $600, interconnects etc., and you're at about $4K. That's for all new components.

10K$ People are funny about money, I came pretty close for $7.5 on the cheap but it was more trouble than it was worth. I just don't understand your capitalist driven system.

+1, @edgyhassle - To put it another way: "I refuse to belong to any club that would have me as a member." - Groucho Marx

Cost is only relevant to those who want to discuss prices and costs, trying to impress others. Has nothing to do with being an audiophile. Nothing at all. Past a certain point it's not about music any more, it becomes a quest to impress others and most of us don't care.

I think this question needs to broken into 2 segments:

"Audiophile": the biological entity (the person)

"Audiophile system": the hardware

The "audiophile" person would possess the following attributes:

- a "more sensitive antenna" than the "average" person related to the perception of sound quality attributes as a result of extended living, learning, and experiencing music (live and reproduced) in various venues

- an expanded vocabulary related to the above. The ability to articulate those experiences (good and not-so-good) in terms shared by others with similar "pedigree." Openly invite others and particate in meaningful conversations.

- an excellent working knowledge of system architecture, room acoustics, and application of current products and services to obtain outstanding sonic results.

- an awareness of the areas where one’s system excels, as well as it’s limitations. The acceptance, or rejection, of those flaws is system dependent related to the sonic goals of the system (Reference, background, mobile, office, outdoor,space/budget dependent, etc)

- frequently engages in any and all things related to "the hobby": forums, events (live and reproduced), reference materials, product reviews, blogs, etc.

- most likely invests a higher percentage of disposable income in "the hobby" than the "average" person. But, is not a steadfast rule.

- may, or may not own an "audiophile system." Or no system at all.

The "audiophile system":

- a system that would pass a credible "pier review" test with others deeply embedded in "the hobby" based on it’s ability to fulfill a particular purpose. Sorry, but a musically satisfying system for the owner that sounds like %^@# is not an "audiophlle system." "Price" would be measured on the scale of investment vs achievement of sonic goals. Some need to get off a few "exits" before others in this area.

Side notes:

A guy who takes a chainsaw and cuts an opening in his front doorway of his shack so he can get a pair of Altec Voice of the Theaers inside, might be an "audiophile." (Actually had a customer who did this)

A guy/gal who installs a car audio system in a vehicle that is worth more than the vehicle. (Actually had a "club" that met this criteria back in the day)

Most of you guys are right-money spent has nothing to do with it.  It's all in your head.  An audiophile is not the guy with the best music system, it's the guy who can sit down and enjoy what he has, probably tweaks speaker placement often to make sure he's not missing anything.  (I am that way with my chair).  And every time a new component enters the system, he marvels at the improved sound.......

@bigtwin maybe some day, maybe not. 

@roxy54 sorry to bore you, I am new here. Thanks for being so gracious. 

For the term AUDIOPHILE, I'd say the BIGGER spending you have, the BIGGER audiophile you are. Audiophiles are the crowd educated by market and salesmen more than by experience or educational books.

For audio hobbyists it is not necessary to that magnitude due to the larger education and experience scale. The LARGER this scale grows, the lower money you need to spend on audio per given quality. 

For me, all I need is my speakers to sound as close as possible to my accordion, piano and guitars. Nothing less and nothing more.

+1 @nonoise re: your soul.

“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” Groucho Marx

An “audiophile” only need be self proclaimed. 

$0. You are an audiophile if you love music, sounds, and notice and appreciate all the nuances you can experience in listening.  Steve Gutenberg knew he was an "audiophile" when he'd spend time just listening to the various qualities of hiss between FM stations. 

Money and equipment are the means to let us experience that which we love, but it doesn't make you an audiophile.  

Audiophile. It's largely an ambiguous term.

Do you like music?

Does what you listen to it through sound good enough to you?

If not, are you improving your equipment enough so that you do like it?

Good enough. Except for helpful advice, nobody else's opinion carries much weight.

If you are participating in this forum whether you're reading or contributing you are in.

czarivey, that's the real point. To compare speakers to acoustic instrument. I would only add voice to your list. Voice is the most basic and most important instrument. And we all have it.

@

laoman

I helped a friend curate one of the best sounding systems I’ve heard in real life (ie in a home not in a show room or audio show) for $3k.

Okay, I'll bite. What is it?

Audiophile is an illness.  Something you don't want to contract.  Like dealing with a disease, gets very expensive.  AND health insurance does not cover an Audiophiliac,  Sorry Steve.

Audiophile is an illness. 

You are not  completely wrong...

But as with many illness, the cure is knowledge...

Improving our hearing consciousness by acoustics basic concepts and experiments...

For example most peoople are oblivious and unconscious of the destructive crosstalk efects in speakers listening... How to test it mechanically in near listening is a very important simple experiment... the price of your speakers will not do anything better here than less pricey one...

Acoustics rule...

All subscribers to TAS and Stereophile are audiophiles!

If you think money spent is a factor, you'll likely never be happy with what you have because there's almost always something more expensive and therefor "better" (but that's not the case despite more expensive stuff seemingly always sounding better in reviews. I wonder why?).

Cherry, said it very well. It is all about passion and personal investment, not money spent.

I'd like to compare my audiophile activities with my amateur astronomy activities. I think in both you can spend a small fortune yet miss out out on the pleasures that the person making due with what they can afford experiences every time they engage. In both pursuits a very humble system can provide much enjoyment when used by a passionate person. Equipment is not the measure, but rather passion. 

Sure, I have a telescope with a 20" mirror that I must climb a ladder to look through the eyepiece, but I have friends who have equipment costing less than 1% of my investment who are just as passionate and in some cases get more out of their system than I do of mine. Sure, they can't see that quasar 10 billion light years away. But do they want to?

In the audiophile space I self impose a tight, some would say impossible budget, but I get much joy from the sound I hear. All but my turntable and stylus were purchased used and all of my 300 vinyl records were purchased used. Yet I have a the passion to tend to this equipment and media so that I get great sound.

In my experience you that get 90% of the performance by spending 1% of the big spenders. As time progresses you may want more than your system provides so you need to spend more. But at every stage, measure your passion. If you love it go for it, when it becomes a burden rethink everything. 

I use my system a few hours each day while I work from home and take the time for some critical listening when time permits. Do I wish it sounded better? Sure, but I know my room is currently holding back better sound. There is no easy fix there. 

Similarly, in astronomy I can't enjoy my equipment much at or near home. I need to drive 8 hours to a truly dark location and my investment in high end equipment starts to reveal itself. Someday I will buy a new house and select one with a listening room that allows for better soundstage and imaging. Perhaps then I will upgrade my equipment. Until then I am happy.

My modest system audio :

• Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II (for fall, winter, and spring)
• Harman/Kardon hk395i (for summer when my room gets too hot with tubes)
• Cerwin Vega E312 
• Denon Professional DN-300Z
• Audio Technica AT-LP120USB
• Audio Technica AT-VM95SH
• Senheiser HD 238 (purchased for $0.25 at an estate sale)
• SMSL SU-1
• Laptop running real time Linux tuned for high priority audio processing (streamer) - Yes, I'm an IT geek who can build such a system.
• APC Line-R 1200
• Liebert UPS
• DIY speaker cables
• Audtek RCA cables

@mrskeptic I simply asked the question and the answers have been very telling. I am very happy.

@jasonbourne71 I guess I am out based on your post. Though AS did a nice review of the Freya + as did Stereophile. 

I don't think the amount of money one spends has much, if anything, to do with one being an "audiophile".

It is more about the passion that one has to experience music in its purest form. To bathe in its beauty and emotion whether you are listening to a $1K system or a $1M system.

Take a look at the contributors on this site and you'll find a very wide range of income levels, but they are all certified audiophiles.

$1598.73

That is the price point. If your entire system costs below that...then you disqualify.

"Oh, and forget about music, it's all noise. Listen to the sounds. That's audiophile."

"That's why you get so many nonsense responses. They are poor people with mid-fi stereos and questionable hearing."

Some people have a 180 degree different take on what an audiophile is than I do.

This type of pompous, elitist thinking is a prime example of what can make this hobby laughable to outsiders.

Not how much, but how you spend. But it can get expensive.

I've spent a lot, and I have a friend who spent ten times a much, and you know what? His system sounds WAY better than mine, I mean, no comparison.

Let's not be foolish. 

Do what makes you happy.

You really don’t have to spend a lot.  Back in the seventies, I bought, swapped and sold equipment. I bought barely broken pieces and fixed them. Most of the time it was either a wire that came loose or  and resold . I made a friend at a local hifi store and for only a few percent, he sold my stuff. It wasn’t till the mid eighties that I ever had anything new and it was acquired by trading in other stuff.

jacobsdad2000 joined on 10/16/2023. You are not one of those guys that just keeps posting under different names ...are you?

Hey, $99 for Apple wireless headphones and some streamed music. 
min my office I have an older Sonos amp ($150 used), a pair of BestBuy Insignia speakers ($70 used), pair of Micca 6’ speaker cables $25 new) you would believe the sound. My main system gets up there. But individually all three make me an audiophile. The Sonos has an analog input for a turntable/ phono stage. I just stream in my office. I thought about hooking up my backup Linn Axis turntable and a Schitt Mani phono. I kept it simple.
One of my favorite starter integrated amps is the NAD 316bee $499. All you need is to add a WIIM streamer $99, pair of used speakers ($100), and a turntable if you want. Craigslist always has some used good deals. Micca speaker cable. $50 for 12’. The phono stage is built in to the NAD. I hope this helps. 

OP is way more polite than I am but I will play along.

It sure gets expensive like hell after a certain level. Every tube, every cone, every cable, not to mention active components. You can be anything in your imagination, try to build it in reality, that will require more effort and much more resources. 

My price for proclaiming an audiophile is $10 on sale today only. I accept PayPal. Yes, you can be considered an audiophile for only $10 bucks! Cheap! You can’t even buy an audiophile fuse for only $10, eh? Maybe used…..

The Cambridge dictionary defines an Audiophile:

a person who is very interested in and enthusiastic about equipment for playing recorded sound, and its quality
 

I kinda like that definition.

Perhaps most music lovers are audiophiles at heart; I believe some audiophiles are in it just for subtle bragging rights much as some people have to see a movie first, have the flashiest car (or girlfriend, etc.), but IMO they’re missing the point.

As Herman Hesse pointed out in Steppenwolf, if you learn the skills, even a crappy portable radio can sound like a symphony in your head.

When they start giving you their 2 cents.

I am flabbergasted by the association of being audiophile, as a possible positive quality, is reduced to the highest gear price tag by most it seems...

Acoustics rule the gear not the reverse...

Being audiophile is not purchasing gear, it is LEARNING how to embed it acoustically because music experience matter , it matter over the specific attributed "sound" of an unplugged amplifier by virtue of his branded name and design and price ...

@2psyop why would you make such an assertion? Is that common in these parts? Is one born into this place? Is this the promised land?  Honestly I really could care less if @bigtwin spent $500k on his system, I wanted to see what you all would answer. These answers tell a lot about this place and who is who and what is what being the new kid here. Guess I will mosey on to the next question, or forum. Hostile here. 

Jacob, it's not really hostile here, it's more boring than hostile, in fact. 

@mapman I bought it for $4.00 and she said hers was better😉

There is no cost of entry. If you had some hand me down speakers, set them up in a listening triangle, hung some coats on the side walls for absorption, and sat quietly intensely focusing on the music, you would be an audiophile. To me, being an audiophile is all about intent, set up, and a desire to improve sound quality. You don’t need expensive gear although it does help (as long as the expense leads to higher fidelity sound and not just status.)

I spent $300 on a B&O A1 for travel, sounds amazing for its size.

I have an old Apple HiFi 3 way speaker, it rocks, I will never sell it. Also

$300

my first recollection of music was at 5 years old listening to Nat King Cole on my Dad’s reel to reel that looked like a grey hardshell suitcase. I think it had built in speakers.

My uncle had a B&O all-in-one system in what looked like a teak cabinet and a bunch of vinyl. Sunday dinners at their place (this was in England) was accompanied by all sorts of music but I guess predominantly Jazz

On Xmas eve 1979 I helped my Dad pick out a JVC packaged separates system (int/tuner/cassette/tt/speakers) for $1270 to go in our newly finished “pub” we built in the basement (I was 15) we are now in Canada

That makes me an audiophile.

My current system is just an extension of that relative to income and expenses, and an understanding wife.

I don’t like the term audiophile. Crucially, speech to text never gets it right. Plus, it just sounds pretentious. I simply say that I care about the way sound is reproduced. I don’t even know how we can talk about price. If we bought gear years ago, inflation comes into play. I spent $2,000 on a system in 1981 when I had very little in the way of assets. That’s equivalent to over $6700 today. I haven’t spent anywhere near that amount since. Partly because I still use some of that old equipment. I buy things on sale and often get incredible deals. Plus lots of people buy their gear used. I recently bought a pair of Bowers and Wilkins 705s, the original version. Sold for $1,500 at the time of release which is equivalent in today’s money to $2075. But I bought them for $800. Because the issue of money is so complicated, I just say: fehgetaboutit.

I contrast myself with a friend who is perfectly happy listening to music on her phone or tv. Pays zero attention to how sound is reproduced. Cannot understand why I would consider spending $2,000 on a new integrated amplifier. Her daughter is even adamant about not listening to music on my system. I never use the term audiophile in my conversations with them about sound. Or ever except here.