"audiophiles listen to their equipment"

@kerrybh 

I agree. But I think the measurement-loving types who hurl this insult at audiophiles are not just criticizing someone else’s taste, but making a wrong implication about some nearly objective facts about music listening and music-making.

@paqua123 The issue I have with your analogy is that the luxury sedan doesn't have anything to do with the memories. But for me, the sound qualities of the system have a musical meaning. A good example is quality of the micro and macro dynamics. 

I'm mainly focused on classical so my reference (and my memories from youth) is live acoustic music.

@roadcykler I'm not sure if this is what you are getting at, but I find that "critical" listening can go wrong sometimes, in the sense that the impressions it gives me are sometimes unconnected with listening for pleasure. An example is a system that impresses me while I'm listening for performance, but then leaves me cold when I try to actually enjoy it. I want to stay away from that.

@ghdprentice Great description of the problems that occur when we listen too analytically and make decisions while in analytical mode. I did something similar... choose an impressive headphone amp years ago and eventually it was my only working amp... and discovered recently that certain "warts" in the sound were not coming from my DAC but rather from my amp. It had an overly forward upper midrange, and this was killing enjoyment. As you can imagine I listened to my system much less during this time. I thought I just had found other hobbies and was keeping busy with them, but no, turned out my system was just not as enjoyable.

@onhwy61 So many misconceptions.

If you ever study orchestration you realize that music is a phenomenon of sound. I mean, you can realize that easily if you just pay attention, but I pick this as in incontrovertible example.

The majority of people on this planet do not need audiophile quality sound to enjoy reproduced music.  Even when exposed to audiophile quality sound reproduction the majority of people are not converted.  Musicians famously do not require audiophile sound.  Only audiophiles need audiophile quality sound, hence they are listening to their systems. 

First of all, many audiophiles do not "need audiophile quality sound" to enjoy music. When listening for new music in particular, I love what I discover on YouTube or the car radio and really enjoy it. Yes, CAR RADIO with the presence of road noise and wind noise. 

I'm focused on classical music, and you seem to unaware that live acoustic concerts, which many people insist on for the most enjoyment of music, are better than audiophile quality. So, no, "audiophile quality" is not an elusive thing that no one has heard or that "everyone but audiophiles" rejects. Note that by "audiophile quality classical music" I mean approaching the qualities of live sound. 

@onhwy61 

live music is different than reproduced music

Not necessarily. I love live classical music, and I love reproduction that gets close to the characteristics of live. I know a recording engineer and musician who wrote a book on recording as a way of practicing, aimed at other musicians. He said, "Just listen to the recording the same way you listen to live music. Some engineers will tell you it's not supposed to sound like live music. Don't believe them."

@audition__audio 

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, but I saw it on Audio Science Review, in a post in which dozens of "engineer-types" chimed in to mock audiophiles, so I think it was worth thinking about it long enough to give an answer. Plus, it actually connects with my philosophy of listening and music-making (i.e. the sound is inseparable from the music) which is worth some time thinking about.

@sudnh I agree. New music is always the most entertaining, and I don't need as high a quality. For example, streaming Tidal on my music server is not as high quality as playing from its SSD, but it's a way to hear much new music, so I really enjoy it.

I'm both an audiophile and an amateur musician. I've studied harmony and counterpoint and I do a little piano improvisation in classical styles. I only have a digital piano at home, so when I'm improvising, I'm focusing on the notes and chords and a rough sense of the rhythm.

If I listen to a recording of Glenn Gould performing the C# minor fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, even on an iPod with earbuds I can tell the notes he's playing and his rubato, so I can enjoy it to some extent.

What does my main headphone system give me? All the qualities beyond notes and rhythms! For example, beauty of timbre. And especially microdynamics. In classical performance by the best players, there's a sophisticated use of small dynamic changes. So much more of the performance comes through in a system with dynamic resolution. It's worth sitting for a while and doing nothing but listening.

Why do musicians care less about home audio quality? I think it's because they are so connected in body and mind to musical patterns that they can sense them and feel moved by them even in poor reproduction. 

They invest their money in their instrument.

I've noticed when driving home from an L.A. Philharmonic concert, listening to classical KUSC on the poor quality car system, I am transported back to the beautiful sound I just heard in the concert. If I hear horns on the radio, I think of how beautiful and powerful the live horn sound is. I used to be a brass player, so this is easier for me than if I had had no exposure to live sound. Now just imagine being exposure to live orchestral sound every day. I'm sure that simple systems will sound very evocative to you.