Like a lot of things, audiophiles are not a homogenous group. It reminds me of that old saying, “One person’s ceiling is another person’s floor.” There are people (like me) that fancy themselves audiophiles that “real audiophiles” would not. Part of the difference is money — my entire system only cost $8,000, and for some here that doesn’t even afford what they consider high-end speakers. But, I think the bigger part of what makes an audiophile is the continual search for something better. It could be different equipment, room corrections, spacing of components, all the other tweaks that we read here that people have tried. I think of Mahgister as an audiophile, even though his equipment is modest — he tries all of the various tweaks that most likely don’t even think of, in pursuit of the elusive sound.
I used to consider myself a “baby audiophile”, as my equipment purchases have have been modest, while being open to making improvements. But then I realized that I’m likely not moving on from my initial equipment, for the foreseeable future anyway, because I don’t really want to fiddle with all the details and the hassle of trialing new equipment, sending it back, sampling something else, sending it back, finding something better and selling my old pieces, etc. And questioning, “Did I REALLY hear a difference, or am I fooling myself?’ I’m not good at selling anything, and I find most people want something for nothing. I’d just rather not deal with it. So, these days I’m mostly a “listener of music” rather than an audiophile. Which is OK. I still have better equipment than anyone else I know, and those people think I’m a nut for spending as much as I have.
P.S. I think of audiophiles as like the guys that keep adding stuff to their souped-up cars to make they go faster, corner better, look sportier and sound more aggressive. Obviously, these guys also love the tweaking and trying out new gear, and communicating with others that share that passion. Other people don’t understand them either.
