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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 1 response by painter24

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painter24
213 posts
 

In my teens and through my 20s, my circle of friends and wider social circle were all crazy about music; it was everything to us. We horded/collected music, always looking for new music to wow us. We all also played in bands and/or were singer songwriters with studio experience, but apart from myself, not one of them ever journeyed down the audiophile rabbit hole, or seemed remotely interested in the pursuit.

I only ever met one guy who was on the audiophile journey, who was a friend of a friend of a friend, who was a complete Naim/Linn head.

Since those heady days of the early1990's through early 2000's, I haven't met any other people interested in the hobby, whether colleagues, later friends, anyone - apart from the guys in my local dealership 😂, but that's a given.

Im in the UK, but I feel we're a rare breed. I did meet one guy who bought a piece of gear from me and collected from my home, but I never met or heard from him again (which is good, as I hope he's enjoying the DAC I sold him 😊)

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