You know you are an Audiophile when:


You have a dedicated audio room.

Your listening chair is in the “Sweet Spot”.

You have sound treatment on your walls.

You spend hours properly placing and tweaking your speakers.

You understand that properly placed speakers will create a 3D sound stage (placing musicians and singers in localized positions… from  left to right… front to back) [Sound-stage]

Your stereo is worth more than your vehicle.

You know that higher end components do a better job of: being less fatiguing to listen to, creating the imaging (sound-stage), representing the instruments more accurately and with more detail, are more involving.

You are intimately aware of the performance and tonal quality of your system, and can describe the results of any changes in the system.

You are aware of how bad the sound is for the first 3 - 4 songs at any live music event.

98 % of the time… when someone cranks their stereo up and says “This sounds GREAT” you cringe. You could list all the ways and reasons why it sounds awful… but you don’t.

When listening to music… you spend a portion of time listening to and exploring the placement of the sounds in the sound stage, and the quality and detail of your system… with your eyes closed.

You become aware of how bad the sound is on some recordings.

You are painfully aware how awful sound systems are at bars and clubs.

You have increased the sound performance of your system through upgrades and tweaks... multiple times.

You are aware of sound reflections in your home, and live music events.

You continue to learn and try new things.

Out of curiosity… you try various things on your system… to see what, and if… there are any improvements… ie: cables, cords, isolation, dampening… etc.

 


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Of all the things listed above I have/do about 2 or 3 of them.

How many does it take to make you an audiophile?

Anyway, I've never considered myself an audiophile.

I also do not think a narrow definition of audiophile works as it is often relative. I do not want $65,000 speaker cables. I also do not want to listen to 1990's boom box.

Funny: When I mentioned to my 20 year old daughter that I was talking with people on an audiophile website she looked sort of disgusted and wanted to know if that was legal. Not pedophile website. Audiophile website. She said both of them sounded weird anyway and recommended that I not tell people. She is a natural blonde.
You kill the ceiling fan in your bedroom during listening sessions to eliminate background noise, despite knowing it will lead to much warmer-than-ideal ambient temperatures.

You invest in a backup system to play during thunderstorms while your main rigs are unplugged for peace of mind, because going without relatively high-quality music for 3 hours just isn’t an option.
When you physically remove the ceiling fan because the fixture resonates on bass hits.