What is an audiophile? Are you an audiophile?

Yes, I am an audiophile, and everyone thinks I’m nuts....😄

Russ69 you must be a genius.  You hit it on the head.  I really get turned off by arrogant jerks who think they know more than anyone on the planet who are quick to put someone down because they know they have a cheaper system.  To me these are not audiophiles but snobs who think they are better than others.  People have to start somewhere and not all people are rich.  They are hear because they hope one day they will be able to upgrade their system but in the meantime they want to learn.

I think an audiophile is someone who loves music and enjoys music reproduced on a nice system.  They not only love music but want to hear it sound better.  Perhaps we are putting our children through college and needed to put our dreams on the back burner until we finally can spend some money on ourselves.  In the meantime the learning is not only fascinating and at the same time fun.  That is what I call a hobby.  I am sure many of us get turned off when someone tries to be cute.  However, we all know these people are very insecure and unhappy people in general.  We can all spot them.  This group was created to share and to learn more about our passion and we need to respect one another.  Who likes a person who always has to be one up on you.

The name needs a good re-branding. Non-audiophiles can spot an audiophile a mile away. When members swat away the label, you know there's an identity crisis happening. 

having pondered this a great deal, i think it's quite simple: 

if you care about the way WHATEVER you listen to (music / podcasts / John Cage 4:33 ;-) ) sounds, you are an audiophile.

It doesn't matter if you buy a $20,000 DAC, or even anything at all. If you care, you're in the club. It's not about what you own, your scientific expertise, or anything. It's about appreciating that sound can be something that has qualities that can be pleasingly improved. 

Good insight, sheps!