I lately wonder why I’m an Audiophile.

Music lover vs audiophile. Some may judge by the expenditure on music vs equipment,  With streaming we have access to far more recordings than most could ever afford or even take the time to purchase. My Qobuz and Tidal libraries are absolutely huge in comparison to the more than 3.5k cd's and aprox. 3k vinyl owned. I now listen to a far greater variety of music than I did with that hard copy, so many obscure contemporary and historic artists and music!  And then streaming sound quality now audiophile quality, this is the golden age for both the music lover and audiophile in each of us! We can be both in equal measure if we choose, or perhaps train ourselves?

Case in point. I recently purchased some mono block amps and DHT preamp. These purchases simply made for offering up another presentation vs my fairly long term references, not a single thing I'm unhappy with here. I went in with little or no expectation beyond the new equipment offering up another presentation. While I may have been in a bit more evaluation mode vs enjoyment of music mode in early listening sessions I never found any of these sessions any less enjoyable than with my reference equipment. Now, finally after over 50 hours of intense listening sessions over a couple months I've come to some tentative conclusions. Point is, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time during this 'evaluation' period, very little time spent in judgement mode, I've learned to let the 'sound' come to me of it's own volition, I've learned sound will reveal itself in good time. Now this assuming there isn't gross violations. Perhaps this not efficient way to evaluate sound qualities of new equipment, but I'm letting the music lover part of me 'win' out vs the audiophile. Just makes me think how much I'd hate to be a professional reviewer, so much equipment to churn through and on top of that, time constraints. And then we have those advocating double blind testing, so much stress from having to judge, and so little time, absolute nonsense. I did endure a form of these tests at dealers many decades ago, great learning experience about how futile this was. 

@retiredaudioguy There are many systems that I have heard that add "note overhang", beyond that which is part of the recording. If this is not understood, I apologize. MrD.

@mrdecibel Thanks, now I understand.  I have been more aware in the past of systems that cut off the decay, and lose the ambience, the sense of space, but I guess I have heard the overhang in the bass of some systems with excessive woofers.

I listen at rather low levels to music with often a very large dynamic range (60dB+) so I prize the ability to resolve very low level signals.  Out of interest I used my phone's spl meter while I was listening to Jimmy Levine's Mahler 1; at the lowest it read about 30dB - probably the background level of my house - and the peak was over 95dB.

Problems problems problems. It’s a good thing when you can choose your own problems.

For me, I’ve always loved music and I’ve had good friends that help me along the way.  About 50 years ago before my career as a chiropractor, back then, I met Richard Fryer of Spectral Audio and secured my very first preamp the Spectral MS 1.  Then, with his advice and another friend, I got a set of Quad electrostatic speakers, A pair of Dyna Mark III kit amplifiers and I was set for many years, listening to Vinyl.  I considered all the new solid state technology including CDs with disdain.

Now, Just recently, I sold the quads, the old amplifiers, and now streaming music!

My current system is a set of Revel speakers, Cayin amplifier,DAC and Eversolo streamer.

And recently discovering the importance of room acoustics, and I am in Auditor Nirvana!

I consider myself an audiophile? 

I hate labels. So I just consider I love wonderful music with a sound stage that makes me think the artist is in front of me with enough resolution, etc. etc. the satisfying my tastes.

listening to music as always given me a certain calm, peace of mind and sometimes an expensive experience it allows me to experience a beautiful reality.  In a reality that helps me spill it over into our non-musical realities.

So I say love your music in which ever form or quality or quantity you want and if it helps you live life better then there’s no lable needed!

I had the good fortune to have had a career as a performing classical musician. As I would encounter the listening systems of my fellow musicians I was amazed at the mediocrity of their systems and even more so the sheer inadequacy of their systems until one day I realized their big secret. They were able to enjoy music that I considered to be sonically inferior simply by filling in the missing ingredients in their heads.!  I tried it and can easily do it but far prefer the ease of hearing it on a great audio system.  I guess that makes me an audiophile ?