If you are on this site, and participate in discussions about gear in order to improve your listening experience, you are an audiophile.
People change the meaning of words to suit their own purposes, which is hilarious, because words have specific meanings.
“I care about the music first, so I’m not an audiophile” I love the air of superiority and the not so subtle subtext of “I’m better than you because I only care about the music” Makes me laugh.
Wonder why audiophile became such a dirty word? Is it ego? Do people think they are beyond being defined? Is it fear or insecurity? Why do people feel the need to change the meaning of a word to suit their own needs or shortcomings?
Nowhere, in the definition of the word audiophile, does it place a hierarchy on its use. Meaning, you can care more about the music than how it sounds. But if you care at all about the reproduction of your music, guess what. You’re an audiophile.
From Websters dictionary:
audiophile
au·dio·phile ˈȯ-dē-ō-ˌfī(-ə)l
: a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction
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If youʻre a true audiophile, then you just HAVE to make sure that everyone knows that yours is bigger than theirs.
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Someone who understands the science of sound, and knows that expensive cables don't improve sound at all.
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I don't have a million dollars to spend on equipment but I love reading about it.Iv'e alway bought and trade up in equipment, love audio equipment. love music all kinds ect.rap a crapa.Listen to all kinds in different formats. I'm 72 been listening to good equipment since my Sept father would play,Bwy shows,all kinds of music from Classical to Sinatra.An audiophile who cares.I'm a music and equipment lover.
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I'm not all that offended by the term 'audiophile', for lack of a better label. At the end of it all, we're all guys (and gals) who like good audio equipment to hear the best possible sound we can squeeze out of a musical recording. So if I'm an audiophile, so be it. I'm sure the coffee cup wanted a better name, but at at least everyone's on the same page when you hear the term 'coffee cup'.
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I have more than 1M of sound equipment but I don't want to be called an audiophile because I've come to find out being and "audiophile" means you have to believe in things that are not true. It's more than a hobby it's like a cult. I'm sad to say.
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True you have to have 1 million dollar system. That BS.
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Like many others, I’ve been listening to music since the early sixties. I had one of those suitcase record players that I traded for a mismatched pair of tube amps. Then I found Halfler kits and there was no going back! I have bought, swapped and sold equipment for almost sixty years and buying music along the way. Having all the equipment in the world is meaningless without the music!
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Can anyone else chime in with some of the more ridiculous qualifications people have come up with for calling oneself an "audiophile?"
a) A true audiophile shall only buy things from a guy who put something shoddy together in his garage (to provide true audiophile elusivity). When the shoddy does fall apart, garage guy will be long gone and the true audiophile will have a big paperweight.
b) A true audiophile shall know nothing about setup, acoustics, etc, focus only on optics and it will all sound like crap.
c) A true audiophile shall keep himself very tool/feature deprived in the name of purity and his cluster may sound ok with 3 audiophile recordings on repeat. Play anything else and the naked emperor will be in town full bloom.
d) When a true audiophile’s gear, his lack of common sense, etc keeps him in a state of constant disgruntlement, he shall blame everything on the cable (it’s all the cable’s fault) and keep buying wire for 10k, 20k, etc to fix all his problems.
etc, etc , etc
I could go further on the list and all the way to x, y, z, give you a sum total of 26 true audiophile qualifiers, but you get the idea.. 
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If you say you are one, then you are one.
To me it is about getting the best sounding issue/pressing available of my favorite records without paying for the collector aspect to it. For others that are not among my top 50/100, making sure the pressing sounds very good.
I despise collectors - they purposely drive prices up. When the record manufacturers like Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, Blue Note, Speakers Corner, etc. come out with reissues I am happy, When they overproduce them and I can get an overstock or great price especially from a speculator who never opened it hoping for big investment gain, I am really happy (brand new Kind of Blue UHQR 45 for $120 for example a while back on eBay).
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Collectors should stick to stamps, coins, art, and beanie babies. Car collectors are OK if they drive them at least a thousand or two miles per year or they are truly art (the multimillion dollar ones that belong in a museum) investments. Cars are meant to be driven and enjoyed.
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Being an 'audiophile' has a more negative conotation these days. And I can see why.
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In Latin the term Audio is a amalgamation of two words, which basically translates to be able to hear a range of Sounds.
In Greek 'Phile' is from the term for being attracted to.
A Hybrid word used since 1950's until today to describe music that is Broadcast, it is also from a similar Period that High Fidelity was used, both are designed to be used to define a particular area of Marketing Demographic, and the influence is that some want to be labeled such a Type of individual in relation to how they make decisions about a purchase. I sense it gives a purpose to the reasons to spend monies on a means to be entertained using recorded music.
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I don't think I heard the word audiophile until I was 45 or 50, a couple of decades ago. Over time it came to mean to me someone who loved gear more than music, a gear head with money always looking for the next thing. I didn't grow up in a wealthy family but we did have a stereo, one of those crappy furniture consoles. My parents liked music from Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson to Sinatra, Como and Englebert. In my neighborhood I heard Hawaiian music, rock, blues and big band from my friends houses. Because I kept sneaking over to a neighbors to plunk on his ukulele and piano, my parents found some free music lessons for me. That neighbor played blues and slide guitar and introduced me to that music and lent me records as I got older. When I used the stereo so much I "blew it up", probably a few tube's went, my dad got a new Zenith fold up stereo. That sent me down the music junkie path, buying records with my paper route money, buying a cheap guitar then better ones. In HS I worked in a record store and my money went to savings (my dad was an accountant so 20% had to be saved and I had to track what I spent) records and guitars but when I graduated because I did well I was given my first personal stereo from Scott, BIC and Bose. A few years later I was offered a job as a part time sales rep for audio gear in the Navy PX. That opened up the world of audio gear to me. I did that for 3 years and upgraded my gear on rep discounts getting Marantz, SAE and JBL speakers. Then I kept those for 30 years. I never thought about upgrading as it worked. I just bought lots of mysic. I was given a CDP by a friend in NYC when that technology was introduced byt still played records. The only thing I ever really lusted after was a McIntosh amp like my HS girl friends dad's system. In my mind it sounded fantastic. About 20 years ago my amp started acting up and I figured it needed replacement. I bought a Teac amp from Costco and it sucked. On a business trip, I walked past an audio store and decided to go back after my meeting. I was blown away by what I saw and heard. Things had changed from the gear I sold in college, all these new brands but also old tech like tubes. The guy I spoke to wasn't busy so he heard my story and stared explaining what had happened in the intervening 30 years. He was great and never pushed me. In fact, he had an old McIntosh amp that he played for me, a 275 tube amp but would not sell it to me. He instead suggested I read some magazines and listen to more gear suggesting I would likely end up upgrading everything I had. He told me to bring in my own music to listen to. He started me on the path to not only upgrading my whole system but learning all about audio gear, hearing great gear and understanding I could have that without being rich. It was that first taste of the drug to turn me into an audiophile. I have spent $20-25k on new to me gear, some new some used. It has given me hours of enjoyment but I dont see it as an endless quest. I could buy gear costing 5x what I have spent but it is not necessary. I'm,mostly happy. I don't have a perfect room, not even a dedicated one so I can only go so far. Since there are no new stores near me I cant get too tempted. Instead, I get more excited for the music especially hearing new stuff.I still like hearing music in my car or in my yard. So I think I am a failed audiophile or a wanna-be. I still get excited hearing great new gear at some audio salon like Overture in DE or Audio Connexxion in NJ. But I know it will never sound as good in my house and I will be frustrated. I also know that I would rather spend money on good wine, eating out, travel, more music, live concerts and supporting causes important to me. I love music but I am a failure as an audiophile...though not entirely without trying.
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I don't know what defines an audiophile, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
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For me an audiophile just means a person that likes audio a bit more than the average person, regardless of gears.
If someone really enjoys the taste of wine I call them Winephile. If they drink it everyday I call them an alcoholic 😅🤣😅
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With all the posts received, we can safely say that
- insert your own phrase preceding “phile” …( eg audio, music, lifestyle, digital, tube, basshead , blah, blah …) , and,
- now we have a intuit variant of a cult following in a common hobby that may wreak havoc on your pocketbook in its worst addiction form…
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An oenophile to own the right to be one must develop his taste sense and learn about geology, geography, agriculture, chemistry, physiology etc ...
An audiophile must study the basic of the related audio fields which most important one is acoustics ...
It could certainly not necessarily be someone owning 40 headphones and 35 speakers... Being a collector or a consumer does not define audiophile status no more than owning a costly wine cave if we could purchase it ...
An audiophile is mostly someone who study , think and experiment about the best way to use any system at any price because acoustics and psycho-acoustics dont change their principles with the gear price scale ...
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