At what price is one considered an Audiophile.


Audiophilia, what is is it?

Is it the love of music or the equipment that presents the music.

Or is it both? 

What is the cost of admission?

How much does one have to spend on equipment to be considered an Audiophile, if it is truly the later than the music.

What has membership to this perceived exclusive club cost you?

 

 

jacobsdad2000

As others have said it’s about the love of music and the passion to reproduce it as best you can. Yes you can get great sound from budget gear.  But let’s face it 99.9 percent of us are males with testosterone and egos and it feels good to buy that expensive gear and show it off too. 

Post removed 

If you are interested in listening to and assembling the components of a personal audio system, you’re basically an audiophile, regardless of any dollar amount threshold. It’s about the interest and enjoyment of this subject as a hobby. As you are posting on this forum it seems you may be one yourself.

You might want to have a look at Stereophile's 2023 Recommended Components list. For loudspeakers, the ones rated "A (Restricted Extreme LF"  start at around $1600 per pair for the Genelec G Three or KEF LS50 Meta. For integrated amps, the ones rated "B" start at about $1500 for the Cambridge Audio CXA81.  Add a Bluesound Node streamer for $600, interconnects etc., and you're at about $4K. That's for all new components.

10K$ People are funny about money, I came pretty close for $7.5 on the cheap but it was more trouble than it was worth. I just don't understand your capitalist driven system.