How rare is an audiophile

Answer is simple. Audiophiles, US and Globally, are very rare. We should be on the UN endangered species list, and I would say the largest concentration of audiophiles are in the US. I truly don’t think there is more than 100,000 true audiophiles (just people who like good music reproduction and willing to invest time in it) in the US. That’s < 0.003% of the US population. And even though recent resurgence of vinyl and even R2R sales has been encouraging, I am losing more and more of my audiophile friends all over the world. Last month, we lost the founder of Feastrex Japan, maker of high end speaker drivers and an ardent audiophile first. His son is shutting down the business. AR is in financial troubles recently. Bill Thalmann, Music Technology, who does a lot of high end audio repairs and servicing is also shutting down. I hope to convert at least one of my kids to be an audiophile but we shall see or rather pray. The next presidential candidate who is an audiohile gets my vote. A candidate who is an audiophile will likely be less of a bullsh..er because at the end of the day, they sit down and try to listen for the "truth". LOL. 😆. 

As soon as their is a majority agreed upon definition of "audiophile", the number can be estimated..

OP here.  After a long day hard at work, I’ve finally had time to read everyones thoughts on the subject. So far, it appears most think we are indeed a rare species perhaps approaching endangered status. I’m in that camp also. I live in Huntsville Alabama which became our state’s largest city last year. We have the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Redstone Arsenal, genetic engineering business incubatos/companies, the FBI ordnance training school, 2 universities, a regional medical center etc.. i’ve read that Huntsville has the highest per capita post college graduate degreed population in the US. All this is to say there are a lot of school educated people with good incomes. I’ve met many people here who enjoy music and go to concerts (here in Huntsville, Nashville, and Atlanta).  I’ve travelled to many states for my work meeting and working with lots of people that ive gotten to know.   But i’ve never come across another audiophile. Or at least willing to admit they were. 
 

@riie, im sorry, but i don’t understand you comment “Based on your question, you shouldn’t be that busy.”

@roxy54, i didnt want to post my system (very modest compared to the majority of the chat contributors ive read over the years) to avoid the discussion getting sidetracked. I can share that on a separate discussion. 

Any more thoughts on % or number of audiophiles in the US are welcome. 
 

Respectfully,

Ezstreams

I guess I’m an outlier here. I already had audiophile friends in high school. In college, just about all the guys in the dorms were into good stereos, and several had what even today, and even after years of earning, would still be considered good equipment (Advent and ESS speakers, Stax headphones, etc.). For some years I’ve belonged to a very active Audio Club (about 30 regular members, meetings every other month or so; Richard Vandersteen is coming to visit us in September). Three of my good friends are serious audiophiles, with much more invested financially in their rigs than I have in mine, who are not even club members. Frankly, most of the people I’m fond of are audiophiles to some degree. Just about everyone other than my wife—who, however, is a pianist and musicologist. Go figure.

I personally know one aspiring audiophile who can afford anything and is ready for an system upgrade; have met a radio engineer who admired my system and wished for something equivalent; and today learned that my cousin's son is a music blogger. She sent him a photo of my system and he reportedly commented, yeah, I want to build something like so I can hear everything on the records (he's a vinyl-only guy, about 40). So while we're very much a rare breed, we're not yet quite yet extinct.