Should people who can't solder, build or test their speakers be considered audiophiles?



  So, if you bought that Porsche but can only drive it and not fix it do you really understand and appreciate what it is? I say no. The guy who can get in there and make it better, faster or prettier with his own hands has a superior ability to understand the final result and can appreciate what he has from a knowledge base and not just a look at what I bought base. I mean sure you can appreciate that car when you drive it but if all you do is take it back to the dealership for maintenance and repairs you just like the shape with no real understanding of what makes it the mechanical marvel it is.
  I find that is true with the audio world too. There are those who spend a ton of money on things and then spend a lot of time seeking peer approval and assurance their purchase was the right one and that people are suitably impressed. Of course those who are most impressed are those who also do not design, build, test or experiment.

  I propose that an audiophile must have more than a superficial knowledge about what he listens to and must technically understand what he is listening to. He knows why things work and what his end goal is and often makes his own components to achieve this. He knows how to use design software to make speakers that you can't buy and analyze the room they are in and set up the amplification with digital crossovers and DSP. He can take a plain jane system and tweak it and balance it to best suit the room it is in. He can make it sound far better than the guy who constantly buys new components based on his superficial knowledge who does not understand why what he keeps buying in vain never quite gets there.

  A true audiophile can define his goal and with hands on ability achieve what a mere buyer of shiny parts never will. So out comes the Diana Krall music and the buyer says see how good my system is? The audiophile says I have taken a great voice and played it through a system where all was matched and tweaked or even purposely built and sits right down next to Diana as she sings. The buyer wants prestigious signature sound and the audiophile will work to achieve an end result that is faithful true to life audio as though you were in the room with Diana as she sings. The true audiophile wants true to life and not tonally pure according to someones artificial standard.

 So are you a buyer or an audiophile and what do you think should make a person an audiophile?
mahlman
During the last 50 years I have built many DIY speakers, amplifier kits, simple electronic components, installed electronic component upgrades etc.  Due to a worsening vision impairment I am no longer able to do any of there things.  Does this suddenly make me a non-audiophile?  Don't be ridiculous.

" During the last 50 years I have built many DIY speakers, amplifier kits, simple electronic components, installed electronic component upgrades etc. Due to a worsening vision impairment I am no longer able to do any of there things. Does this suddenly make me a non-audiophile? Don't be ridiculous. "
  So if you were to read a book do you just peruse the first and last paragraphs or actually read the whole thing?
mahlman, I don't understand your question.  What does it have to do with the question at hand?  I read as much or as little of a book as pleases me.  That doesn't make me a non-reader.

I only read books with pictures, those little ones with the cartoon like colorful action drawings.
My predominate allure in this hobby has always been the music, understanding that my attraction is almost completely emotional in nature. Personally however, I not only enjoy the emotional connection to the music and the way it makes me feel, I also emotionally enjoy admiring all of the designing and engineering precision represented in each of the individual components, the gear itself.
Of course, the majority of my emotional satisfaction is derived from my great admiration for the accumulated knowledge, experience, creativity, wisdom and incredible skill level of the individual responsible for so expertly selecting, assembling and configuring such an extremely high quality a/v system in my room.

Tim
" mahlman, I don't understand your question. What does it have to do with the question at hand? I read as much or as little of a book as pleases me. That doesn't make me a non-reader. "
  What it makes you in this case is uninformed as to why this post was made to begin with. Doesn't make you a non reader just makes you one with superficial knowledge of the topic if this is how you read.