I agree with those of you who are leaning toward the idea that being an audiophile is a means to the end of finding the most pleasing sound you can afford, because you ARE a music lover.
However, unlike folks like jond, I rarely listen to music in my car or on the go because the quality does not compare to my home set-up. I guess that means I am a different kind of music lover? Or maybe, people like jond are true music lovers whereas people like me rely on their audiophelia to find a standard of music reproduction necessary in order to enjoy the most pleasing sound experience? So does a true music lover love music regardless of how faithfully it is reproduced? Or does being a music lover implicitly mean you enjoy the pure expression of music - by pure I mean no artifacts, no crowd noise, etc.? Which leads me to another conundrum: can you really be considered a music lover if you prefer the "live music" experience (and a similar reproduction) over the isolated sound of the instruments and the performers' voice(s)?
This is more confusing than I thought it would be!
However, unlike folks like jond, I rarely listen to music in my car or on the go because the quality does not compare to my home set-up. I guess that means I am a different kind of music lover? Or maybe, people like jond are true music lovers whereas people like me rely on their audiophelia to find a standard of music reproduction necessary in order to enjoy the most pleasing sound experience? So does a true music lover love music regardless of how faithfully it is reproduced? Or does being a music lover implicitly mean you enjoy the pure expression of music - by pure I mean no artifacts, no crowd noise, etc.? Which leads me to another conundrum: can you really be considered a music lover if you prefer the "live music" experience (and a similar reproduction) over the isolated sound of the instruments and the performers' voice(s)?
This is more confusing than I thought it would be!