@sagur80 unfortunately, I do suffer from the audiophile afflictions you mentioned. Being an engineer, i cant help but analyze my system for its weakest link or to think about what my next move should be to improve the sound of the music i love so much. I love family and music (in that order), but i also love the systems analysis, reading The Absolute Sound, Stereophile, Audiogon discussion form topics, and looking (more like hunting) for the next upgrade. One of my most favorite things to do is to wake up ~4am on the weekend, go upstairs and sit back and listen to music before the rest of my world wakes up.
It’s all those things that make me wonder (and the reason for my original post) how rare we are as i have zero acquaintances who share this wonderful hobby/obsession.
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.
Younger audio enthusiasts are into headphone rigs. Who can blame them. Not everybody's going to have tens of thousands for stereo stuff. When I went looking into headphones I realized the interest was by younger guys on youtube rather than old guy magazines. I don't think interest has declined but insane pricing was never sustainable. |
HiIFI+ last year said this: "The percentage of the population under the age of 42, but old enough to be interested in audio is 43%." Those older are considered more inclined towards audio. The increasing population growth results in, "in financial terms the total market is about 3X what it was." > https://hifiplus.com/articles/changing-demographics-critical-to-audio-marketing/ EXTREMELY conservative estimates peg the number at 150,00 (based on "hard" data that doesn't take into account all the headphone systems & more. |
@mahler123 Well, I have 7 living audiophile friends. I asked 3 of them today if they ever discussed music or audiophilia with their physicians (and myself included that's 4). None of us discussed music or audiophilia with our physicians except one who wen to an audiologist (for ear wax). Oh, I remember I did 51 years ago when I was 16 when I had tinnitus (due to severe earwax buildup) that it disturbed my music performance and listening_. |
@mahler123 Generally, you are correct. The president and founder (deceased) Dr. Braun (head of thoracic surgery Kaiser, cantor and a fine orchestral violist) of the Jewish Music Commission (new classical and Jewish ethnic oriented music grants and archives) had a 60's Marantz receiver and bookshelf speakers. Half a dozen cantors I know are thrilled to share music in my home for hours, none of them have audiophile equipment in the least (one was a former vocalist for 100s of Disney cartoons). Other members of my choirs (probably numbering over 100 over 50 years) are/were not audiophiles either My sister who is a local opera quality vocalist and members of the Viklarbo Chamber orchestra have nominal audio (cheap) audio gear. I guess it's only me. I just happen to know several dozen Los Angeles area audiophiles of which a couple are physicians and are also my best friends. |
Someone mentioned that audiophiles should spend more time procreating. True, however, two of my three current best friends are single men in their 60s (hetero) who are audiophiles and listen to music daily and often. as much as time permits (not retired). I don't have set work hours so I listen nightly from 12 to 2 am, get up at 9 am to begin the day. Weekends I sneak in several more hours. Sometimes I edit and master my recordings (about 200+) of local chamber and choral groups. |
Because of A. I. very soon virtual room acoustic through headphone or real room acoustic with speakers will make obsolete products review in a way the headphone you use in a Smyth realizer matter less than the Smyth realizer itself... Dr. Choueri BACCH filters dac is already perfect virtual room acoustic ... This will be made affordable soon to the masses... A.I. assisted dac will terminated audiophilia, which was centered around electronics engineering and consumerism more than around acoustic and homemade experiments anyway...Most people not retired had no time for that... I begun my audiophile journey REALLY after my retirement... Before that i dreamed about buying ready made costly solutions as most people did.. And A. I. acoustic assisted designing, virtual for headphone or in real time with speakers will make speakers brand almost obsolete as we know them now with audiophile obsession for this brand or this other one, this obsession will became less meaningful ...Because A. I. assisted program will become the source of S. Q. more than specific component as it was before A. I. Love of Music is here to stay...Love of specific material components will disapear or became a rare collectors mania... I was an audiophile and in the obligation to be one, because i wanted a TOP sound and music experience under 1000 bucks and i could not afford costly audio high end components ... I succeeded with my peanuts cost controlled acoustic room but i worked very hard non stop for a year EACH DAY to tune 100 resonators and take time for material acoustic treatment ... Who could pay a designed room from a pro acoustician around 100,000 bucks ? After the lost of my house 10 months ago, i was depressed, but i succeeded a second time with headphone this time and a six months listening non stop experiments around the chosen headphone... Now my audiophile research is terminated, i listen music without being bothered by acoustic evident limitation as in my room and even slightly better with my headphone ...( Because so good they were the Mission Cyrus never go under 50 hertz keeping power, extension and more depth in bass register, a thing my headphone did it easily now, i felt organ bass note with my body and feet ) Young music lovers would not be in the obligation to do homemade acoustic as i was , they will ask an assistant A. I. to do it in no time... Most of the times virtual room and for others speakers real room...But it will be way less costly with headphones and as good as with speakers... Then Forums will be more about music and not as today about electronics, cables, brand name and sometimes and more rarely about acoustic, because acoustic is hard to figure out by ears etc ... All material component will be heavily assisted, controlled and monitored by A. I. in real time... It will be the dawn of audiophiles and their extinction and the rise of music lovers numbers...Because it will be more easy to create soundfield with , imaging, soundstage and perfect holography at will and as we wanted them to be... True audiophiles for me were people who are not mere passive consumers of audio components only... It is people who thought about their room and components and modify them in a way or in another...With no limit of money, people are music lover not audiophile anymore ... A few % of audiophiles are brand name obsessed people whose hobby was to change parts regularly... I am not an audiophile in this category... i dont want to collect headphones for example, i only bought 10 because i was always disappointed before i stumble on the right one , i never listened to the 9 others after that ,only to the last one i learned how to optimize and the only one who can be optimized and upgraded to the top ... |
Audiophile, Music Lover, To-may-to, To-ma-to. If we add up all the manufacturers of high end equipment, all the retailers, all the magazines, all the global audio shows, all the speciality accessory business, and think about the number of people it takes to keep that juggernaut moving forward? I would suggest it's a very big number? |
