And of course my answer is, someone who is stepping beyond plug & play. We have HEA trophy collecting audiophiles and music lovers but for me the audiophile has a drive to go beyond. When your system goes beyond brand names and you are understanding the signal path itself and the hobby turns up side down for you all over again because you have enter a different realm than the one you were in before.
It's the level of tuning the variables and making your system a tool for listening with you in control of the adjusting. The price tag no longer means anything, because your system has become a connected chain, including every inch of the room. The faceplates are gone along with most of the chassis and you are left with 3 equal parts Electrical, Mechanical and Acoustical. The system is not shoved into a living room compromising everything that came before it, but instead the listening room is a shrine where you tip toe in and take in the reverence of what is taking place.
Being an audiophile is a lifestyle as well as a hobby, and doesn't get measured by your neighbors system but only by what we create in that moment.
Being an audiophile for me is SoundStage worshipping. All the other talk about what playback is goes in one ear and out the other cause we know we're going SoundStaging tonight. The 360 SoundStage rules every thing and getting that out of every recording we have is the goal. The real audiophile knows no bad recording, but has figured out how to tune for every occasion.
Michael Green
