I am no different from most here, an inward looking INTP type.
For me, listening to music is solitary because my wife can’t sit down to listen, only have music in the background when she’s driving or exercising.
Sometimes, I think I wouldn’t have had any friends at all if not for my wife. She’s the exact opposite to me - an ESFJ, a natural leader and an outgoing extrovert, who once posed nude for good cause. A lady said to me at our wedding that marrying her I’d never be short of friends. That was prophetic. She has taught me much about how to socialise successfully.
Yet despite my introversion, I have managed to make a few good audio buddies under my own steam.
First off, my ex-Linn dealer in the north of England, who went to work for a well known loudspeaker manufacturer has become a close friend. He has a similar system to mine, but is also into home theatre in a big way. My hifi mentor in many ways.
Second, another guy in the south who worked hifi retail from the Steve Hoffman forum. He is a bit of an authority on setting up LP12s. We exchange long emails about audio, football and life in general every couple of weeks. Never spoken to him, but still consider him a good friend - like kids had pen pals in the old days.
Then, I have a very good friend in Canada who has travelled north America and Europe helping people set up hifi systems as a hobby. He befriended me on the old WAM forums when I got cancer. We bonded because we had both lost our first partners in tragic accidents involving buses. He has dozens of audio friends. I talk to him on the phone every week. An obsessive tweeker for which he got driven off the WAM, he is into surround music, which I dabbled in for while, too. He writes articles for an online audio magazine.
I have another friend who I met through the WAM. We both clashed with a highly opinionated intolerant moderator there, who banned my friend. Over the past few years, we’ve gone to the North West Audio Show and occasionally travel the 100 miles between us to chat about audio and other stuff. Like my wife he works for the National Health Service.
There’s a chap with a similar system to mine who is friend on Facebook. We met through the dealers. He goes on record finding trips to the US. We occasionally speak on the phone about our systems. We actually co-operated through the dealer to acquire some parts for our loudspeakers by cannibalising a perfectly good pair.
My current dealer and one of his friends have set up a monthly vinyl club at our local pub. It has been going for a couple of years now and is very popular. Occasionally, my daughter and younger son will go if they are around, my wife too sometimes if I twist her arm. My kids aren’t really audiophiles, but they are all into vinyl. We’ve got to know many people at the club.
Finally, there’s a friend with a nice system who lives just round the corner from me, who I met through my dealer. He’s quite a bit younger than me, but we still get on well. We usually go the vinyl club together. It was because of him, my sons and the vinyl club, that i bought another turntable and stated buying records again last year. I am so pleased that I did that and became a born again vinyl lover.
So, I consider myself blessed with many good hifi friends, more than I would have thought possible twenty years ago. It’s a hobby that’s full of surprises.