Is Budget Audiophile an oxymoron?

My answer is no, based on how I define "audiophile." An audiophile is just someone who appreciates sound quality and enjoys putting some effort in to pursuing it. It’s not about how much excellent sound quality they can afford.

The room is half the sound.

We all start with the budget thing, a tweak here, and upgrade there, then suddenly, you have more in your system than you have in your car.  Don't worry.  You can't take it with you.  That, and I use my system a lot more than I use my car. 

Real keys for success for budget audiophiles are luck and tolerance melded with skepticism. I have had several lucky system upgrades thanks to used items from  generous friends.  And the house we moved to 10 years ago has a room that has worked out acoustically extremely nicely with my electronics with intentional treatment limited to a rug.  I am tolerant of some shortcomings and skeptical of the value-added  metrics of many items. 

I have never heard anything like many of this forum's far fancier systems, certainly not for any length of time.   And the semi-high end one I am privileged to hear (over decades of changes) is very often considerably better than mine. So nice! But, I may be fooling myself in hearing, every once in a while, a song that isn't nearly as good as when played on my stereo. At least at the moment. Probably due to his electrostatics vs, my paper cones and our individual predilections. Note to self: make a list and try again.

I can live with one sub and zero fancy anything, other than performance and recording. Sometimes the experience is so truly transporting and I cannot imagine living with lesser equipment.  So I can understand how the chase gets underway.  All in all I have tremendous enjoyment of the music without the expense and anxiety that comes with the never-ending search for perfection.

Audio = Music.  Phile = Love.  That's what it as all about for me. 

But I really should address that problem with the Thorens....

It’s only an oxymoron to elitist @$$hats.