This is a nice discussion, and there are many thoughts that come to mind, but I think the best came from my dear wife, who, by the way, has an excellent ear, and puts up with us, having no less than five different systems in our house, in regard to our extended discussion about what is an audiophile and difficulty defining it, she responded without a moments hesitation, “that’s because it’s not a real thing.“ So there you go.
How rare is an audiophile
I’ve been extremely busy lately and not had a chance to sit back and listen to music on my system for a few weeks. I’ve streamed my favorite music in the car and on a small JBL Flip-4 portable speaker; which by the way “punches way above its size class.” I continued to enjoy music whenever, wherever, and however i can during this “dry spell.”
So now its 5 am Sunday morning. I know i’ll be spending most of the day listening on the JBL when my wife and I drive out to a lake house we bought recently and are furnishing and getting ready for 4 generations to enjoy lake life this summer and for years to come.
I’ve let my system warm up and hit play on my CD player. I now find myself in total bliss listening to Chris Standing’s newest CD “The Lovers Re-mix Collection.” The effect of the quality of the sound of the music my wife and i are enjoying right now with a cup of coffee is hard to explain, but it brought literal tears of joy.
I started thinking, how many people are like us? What % of the population are audiophiles (whatever your definition of an audiophile is)?
I know the answer is heavily dependent on which country you live in. I live in the US along with ~332,000,000 fellow citizens (please, lets not get political on the meaning of population or citizen).
Are we the 0.1%ers? Are there ~332,000 audiophiles in the US?
i’d be interested in what others think about how rare our species is.
Showing 3 responses by bruce19
I can contribute one more datapoint on the question of how rare is an audiophile . I live in New Jersey, a state of 9 million or so people. I belong to New Jersey audiopile society which has a membership of 74 people. Even if we assume that only the top 10% of the most avid audiophiles go so far as to join the society, that is still a vanishingly small percentage of the population. |
I think she means that there are a lot of us who take ourselves and our obsession with equipment way too seriously. Especially when you consider that it is a largely self-absorbed activity which appeals greatly to introverts with surplus time and money. i’m not trying to throw stones here because I put myself squarely in the above category, but I do think it’s healthy to recognize who you are. I’m sure there are many of us who have done very good and worthwhile things and been benefactors to many other people. Just saying it’s good to laugh at yourself once in a while. I also think it’s a good antidote to the toxin of uber-expensive equipment, voodoo snake oil products and the situation wherin grown men can discuss the merits of multi hundred thousand dollar systems with a straight face. to @ezstreams comment about enjoying the JBL Flip 4 I say, bravo! We have a Tribit storm box wireless Bluetooth speaker on the shelf in our bedroom, which fills the room with beautiful sound when we wake up in the morning, and I enjoy for what it brings in that setting as much as my more expensive and handbuilt systems. |