On a scale of 1-5


In trying to understand how price driven, and why, we are as a community, rate yourself on the two scales below:

Price Sensitive
1 - Price is only a small issue, and I value absolute improvement highly over the cost differential to get there.
2 - Split the difference between #1 and #3
3 - I balance cost vs benefit, and maintain a focus on finding the "knee of the curve" in improvement vs. cost
4 - Split the difference between #3 and #5
5 - Price is a huge issue. I will only pay for something I consider to be a substantial improvement, and even then only if I consider this to be the cheapest I can get it.

Cost correlation to quality
1 - I find that cost and quality have a random relationship , and have no sense that by spending more I am much more likely to have a better audio experience.
2 - Split the difference between #1 and #3
3 - I believe spending more definitely increases your chances of audio satisfaction, but have plenty of examples where it doesn't such that I am still cautious in making that assumption.
4 - Split the difference between #3 and #5
5 - I believe there is a high correlation between cost and quality - I get what I pay for - and I shape my research, shopping and buying accordingly.
kthomas
4

3

your survey doesn't include budgetary consideration, which is as big a factor as any in my case, and I believe most audiophiles
Bdgregory - you're right. I wanted to try to frame the questions such that they applied to any budget. So, on the price sensitivity topic, another way to phrase it would have had one end of the scale be "In pursuing a purchase, I set a budget and stick to it regardless," with the other end being, "If I even set a budget, it is at most a guideline, and I rarely think about it in evaluating potential purchases." I think you could apply this whether your budget was $500, $5000 or $25000.

I should have put my own entries in the original post

2

4
Kt, I agree with you that budget consideration is somewhat implied in your questions, and as such I think you've framed it well.

My point is perhaps overly anal, but I was suggesting it only because (I think) different Audiophiles will devote varying levels of their household budget to Audio, and of course we all have different income levels to deal with too. These significantly affect our buying habits IMO.

That is perhaps for another survey though.