Types of Audiophiles

hey @erik_squires you missed one:

The Judge

With a unique ability to discern the truth, has sole authority to assign labels to others, who are merely humans.

@cleeds 

I'll take it!!

But I don't claim any particular kind is better than another.  Just listing out the cliques.

Bean counter it is!  The problem is I'm not sure why I have so many amps, speakers, DACs and (only have four preamps but I'm not using any of them).  If I sold it all I could probably buy a decent cable new but would have nothing to hook it to.

Sounds like 'The Purist' would have had to have been present at the recording session, mixing, etc....

I don't see my type:

the chaos-seeker - keeps upgrading slowly but surely and making it sound worse. Pretending to get smarter in the process. If only....

Only two main kinds.  Those more into it for the gear and those more into it for the music.  

I vacillate from Purist to Dynamics Fanatics. With variations of each. With some Live And Let Live thrown in. A lot depends upon what and how much I am drinking at the time.

This is a ladder.

@petg60

or a tree 

LOL!

This is good, LOL

I’m a hybrid. ....as long as my poor man’s DIY "Purist" system is working well I’m "Live and Let Live"! If it’s not working, somebody’s gonna die! 😆

Funny shtuff...ha.The chaos seeker and judge...jest based in reality.absolutely.

Forgot the lonely Dunning Kruger expert who posts 13000 times in a sales group.

The Nostalgic

Keeps trying to buy speakers and gear he/she heard in their late teens and when they gets it they are really disappointed.

I just dig listening to tunes but I'm not a music freak, I just like listening to music. 

Count me in as a purist.  I want it to sound like...real music.

I would guess 90% have some bean counter in them.

Overall I think Infall into the “Live and Let Live” category but agree with summary @mapman provides as well.

+ "The Monogamist" 

Finds a speaker he really likes and sticks with it...?

Great stuff here! Fun. Thanks for the post @erik_squires .

@charles1dad is the poster child for an audiophile monogamist 🙂.  One reason I really respect him. No doubt he is a loyal husband.  

The purist, yes

The dynamics fanatics, yes

Live and let live, yes

As the for the rest, no.

@grannyring 

You nailed me with that one.😊

I have had my DAC for 12 years but will admit that I am having a new one being built currently. The Coincident components and speakers (+13 years) are staying put.

Charles 

None of the above.

I am me. 

Audiophiles are rated according to how fanatical they are and how well they understand PERFECT sound. There are first rate audiophiles and then there are garden variety audiophiles. For a long time I have proposed that in order to differentiate the highest level audiophiles from their inferior rivals a new category must be created. This shall be called the Super audiophile( Trademark pending) These audiophiles are very rare in the world, and they only tolerate PERFECT sound. They spend much of their lives in a state of misery because perfect sound cannot be found even if they get closer and closer.  

Live and let live with a little Sloth mixed in.

You forgot the lonely Dunning Kruger expert who posts 13000 times in a sales group.

I'm in a category not named, The Conservative. I'm somewhat like The Nostalgic except I'm not disappointed. I bought the best equipment I could afford at an earlier age. It was and is the best sound quality I ever had. I've never had better so how could I be disappointed? I could afford new stuff now but why mess with my happiness?

As a retired dog doc, I’m a purist audiophile mutt if that makes any sense. 

only two : in tune, and out

I upgrade my equipment every time I move to a new house. I don’t plan on moving again, so I guess you can put me in the Satisfied With What I Have group.

The Searcher…“There is always something better”

Yes, what I have sounds great… but come on… there is an always something better… the search continues.

The patient:  addicted, impulsive, let down after purchase.

@mapman +1

Live and Let Live is a perfect description for me. Spend your money how you see fit on what you like. 

*G*  At least no ones' throwing bricks...yet.... ;)

Brilliant, @erik    although I suspect there's a lot of hybrids, mutants, deviants, 'remixes', pervs.... 😏  I'm OK with being somewhere within all that...

"Just the facts, ma'am..."

"You can't handle the truth!"

"A walk through the ocean of most souls will scarcely get your feet wet..."

"We're All bozos' on this bus..."

"I think I'll run away to Mars..."

Pick your path, as long as it's valid to You. *S*

Cheers, *clink* 

Call me a Dynamics Fanatic I guess....   not really a purist, I like it to sound "live" for lack of a better word.    Purist in my love for simple gear without a lot of features,  stripped down .   No tone controls , all tube .   Horns of course 

Unlike a Bean Counter,   I put emphasis on VALUE not price.   

The Seeker

They call me The Seeker I've been searching low and high I won't get to get what I'm after Till the day I die.

You missed "Pretentious Know-it-all Who's Compelled to Categorize People."

Yeah, I dunno that I fit squarely into one category, especially over time. I came up in "audiophile" world, and by the time I was 20, in 1974-5, I had an all ARC tube system with Quads, an SP10 and eventually a mini-HQD set up with Decca Ribbons and a woofer. I’m now doing something completely different (horns, SET, woofers galore) but that that old Quad system, fully restored, still runs in my front lounge, like a circa 1975 state of the art thing.

I’ve been spending far more time on the records, not the gear. And the history, the industry standards, what happened when and how the technology and culture kind of worked together. I have no answer to that- it always seems like convenience and cost win in mass market stuff, but we are a different segment.

I guess I want to know when I turn stuff on that it isn’t going to blow up.

After that, it’s all gravy. I have a lot of fun records to listen to but part of it is the hunt. And that becomes very personal- a musical, emotional voyage (as well as for me, a sort of intellectual one that fascinates).

I'm probably the "Doesn't know any better" type. I found a quality set up that makes me happy and although tempted by all kinds of new and wonderfully promoted gear mine sounds good to me so why fix it till it's broke? (or I'm broke) 

Contentment is a virtue. I have to remind myself of that because I quickly shift into greed gear if I don't check myself. 

So good!

May I suggest, Circle the Wagons: can't tolerate feedback contrary to an audiophile's true-belief, so joins a members-only Mutual Appreciation Society. 

You missed "Pretentious Know-it-all Who’s Compelled to Categorize People."

You misspelled "hilarious" or "engaging."

The Hans Christian Andersen

One whose system is built at the recommendation, and in the hope of the approbation, of others.

Named in honour of the author of "The Emperor's New Clothes"

@grauerbar 

I think you just described a lot of reviewers... 😂

If you can listen only.

Eyes open or shut ... reading nothing (phone ,computer)

Not driving,not walking,not cleaning.not back ground music.

That you are not board or restless.

That is a music lover.

@erik_squires 

I hope you don't think that my definition could ever be thought to apply to anyone on this forum . . .

@grauerbar oh, perish the thought!

"Live and Let Live."  That's me, man.

Spend your money or don't. Just don't harsh my mellow, ok? Enjoy the vibes. (But be sure you have all your gear properly isolated from vibration first.)

😉

Besides, if we can't laugh at ourselves, what's the point? And that's why I always say...

Happy Listening.