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.

ezstreams

Showing 5 responses by edcyn

Not that I've looked that thoroughly, but I'd guess you can count the number of high end audio enthusiasts on my island on the fingers of one hand.

To be honest, I really can't get too worked up about how many people share our passion for good recorded sound. As long as there are enough of us to keep the industry both in business, and in their pursuit of better sound. It's always been a niche thing, anyway.

There's got to be a certain number of audiophiles still around. High End audio is still being manufactured and sold.  Music streaming has come into being, and it often delivers one heck of a high quality feed. Finally,  what do you call all us squabbling music-crazed folks on this site?

I remember 'way back when when the Jaguar XKE sports car was introduced. "A man's mink coat" an auto magazine proclaimed. In other words, we all have things that capture our emotions and that make us want to open our wallets. Name your poison.

No matter how rare the species might be there are enough of them to keep the industry in business.