Is high end audio to snooty for its own good?

@bondmanp I agree with your assertions.  Great listening sessions with people who have different tastes.  We also take turns during our listening sessions playing CDs we like.  Each guy gets 30 min or an hour.  I've found out recently about some Christian artists from bethel music that I never heard but sound great.  I got a group of 5 guys that listen from time to time we have a guy with 300k system. A guy with a 20k system and couple of guys with 40k systems and we all can enjoy each other's systems.  Listening is fun and relaxing.  I don't do it to impress anyone.  If I did I would try to impress my real friends. Lol.  Not people I don't know.   Even in our group we got a couple of guys the dissect the music with a scalpel but we calm them down and get them back on their meds.  It's a joy in the hobby when you got your guys listening.  Enjoy your music. I started the thread because I went to a Lone Star Audio fest 5 years ago and I saw a snooty crowd and then I saw some diy guys and budget system guys. However I also saw some great audiophiles high end and non high end talk about the music and come together to enjoy both sides. Enjoy your music!  

There's a saying  in marketing circles, "The price is the product " .

Is it demeaning to call our audiophile pursuit a "hobby" or us as "hobbyists"?
A recent letter to Stereophile takes umbrage to the use of that word.
If by definition, a hobby is "a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in for relaxation" (Webster's), then I find no issue with the use of that word to refer to the audiophile world. And the arrogance of attempting to intellectually elevate our HOBBY to some higher, superior activity, seems to me to define "snooty".

I believe it is in what you see the object of listening to music is.
If you listen to music as entertainment, and nothing wrong with that, its a hobby.
If you listen to it for the purpose Bach said its for, to enlighten and edify your soul, its something else . And the very essence of that is the opposite of "snooty" .
Of course we are all a work in progress .

Papermill +1