Do you refer to yourself as an 'audiophile'?

[Ze Frog]

I'm curious.

As most of us here are here for enlightenment and actual real world science and substance to decide what is potentially a good investment or not I find it really rather strange that a large number of people still refer to themselves in such a way. The term 'audiophile' to me is almost derogatory and signals being one of the cult, the simple of mind lead by the influencers masquerading as reviewers and in so many cases genuinely believing they are some kind of oracle that would have the mighty lord creator bowing at their feet. Seems like something people here should maybe try to avoid, after all the term 'audiophile' is such an industry and influencer created trope to herd the flock into a bracket whereby they are lead to believe that with the badge comes greatness and they have been bestowed with the elevation above any doubters or anyone that questions.

Each to their own and all that, but it really seems like a cliché that people who think and like to be genuinely armed with knowledge rather than the promise and fable of some false prophet. I love music and a good sound system but I've never referred to myself as an audiophile, it's self deficating in my mind.

How do others feel regarding this?

 

[Doodski]

The term audiophile was at one time a compliment and a standard that was accepted as one whom has elevated knowledge and abilities. I never considered myself one at any time. I always consider myself to be a music afficianado that needs the electronics to enjoy the music. That need to use music for knowledge and the enjoyment of the fluctuating rhythms and such created the need for acquiring electronics for listening and thru that I needed to learn to be a electronic technician because I wanted to go to the next level and challenge myself to understanding what makes the stuff tick. This has been going on since ~age pre-teens.

 

[delta76]

many audiophools gave audiophile a bad meaning. Anyway, I would not consider myself as audiophile. more like a music lover (and even that is a stretch)

 

[Robin L]

Yes, I do. But it should be understood that "audiophile" really means lover of sound. So, the true meaning is not just attached to electronic means of enjoyment but includes the love of sounds made without electronic intervention. Playing music with others is an audiophile passion, so is going to concerts. As long as one remembers that, there's nothing potentially pejorative about the term.

 

[Rednaxela]

Yes, but when I do I usually also explain what it does and doesn’t mean in the context of my hobby.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi.

Music lover and an audiophile. Comfortable with being both.
Was a quasi-audiophool in a previous life. Have seen the light. Thanks to ASR.

Peace.

 

[Mojo Warrior]

No,

Audiophile is a pejorative in the 21st Century

 

[DVDdoug]

No. The word makes me cringe.

It's a perfectly word to describe me as a lover of audio & music but the "audiophile community" is dominated by nuts!

But, I believe Amir describes himself as an audiophile and he's not nuts!

 

[Mr. Widget]

An audiophile is a person who is interested in high fidelity reproduction of sound. Period!

If you want to "phool" yourself into thinking it means you advocate or appreciate expensive trinkets that have little real effect on high fidelity audio, that is your business, but no one outside of the hobby will see the difference.

A music lover is happy to listen to an mp3 on a cell phone speaker... sound quality is almost entirely irrelevant... it is all about the music.

If you appreciate well designed audio gear from Topping to Benchmark to McIntosh you are an audiophile. If you think you aren't, you are deluding yourself.

 

[Waxx]

In the first place i'm a music freak and a nerd, and my interest in the technical side of it comes from the combination of the two. But i don't care for status or so as i'm also an (pragmatic) anarchist, and don't care about status in life in general at all. So what you think about me is at the end not that important...

And as audiophiles are people who claim to be elevated above the general crowd about their "knowledge about hifi" i'm surely not one of them. I know some stuff, but i'm sure many know much more than me... and many also much less, mainly because they don't care.

 

[DLS79]

To me being called an audiophile is an insult.

The phrase audiophile immediately invokes a mental image of some pretentious and arrogant upper middle class guy with a lack of social skills. Think Christian Bale's character in American psycho.

audio enthusiast or something similar is a lot more palatable to me.

 

[egellings]

I use 'audio crazie[sic] for myself.

 

[mc.god]

I'm curious about some things, -phile about nothing.

 

[egellings]

I'm curious about some things, -phile about nothing.

-Phile, when appended to another word, means a love of what the word it's stuck on is.

 

[mc.god]

-Phile, when appended to another word, means a love of what the word it's stuck on is.

I know it well and is precisely what I intended.

 

[Doodski]

An audiophile is a person who is interested in high fidelity reproduction of sound. Period!

If you want to "phool" yourself into thinking it means you advocate or appreciate expensive trinkets that have little real effect on high fidelity audio, that is your business, but no one outside of the hobby will see the difference.

A music lover is happy to listen to an mp3 on a cell phone speaker... sound quality is almost entirely irrelevant... it is all about the music.

If you appreciate well designed audio gear from Topping to Benchmark to McIntosh you are an audiophile. If you think you aren't, you are deluding yourself.

I am veryyy particular about the sound quality. I won't listen to music if the electronics/transducers are lacking. I really need sparkling highs and midrange. The bass I am not as particular about. A cel tel peizo speaker sounds pretty bad for me and I can't see any reason @ all to even bother listening to it unless it is a speaker phone telephone call. I listen to ~>5 hours of music per day and someday I'm into the ~15+ hours zone. I use Sennheiser headphones now and before it was all KEF and Altec Lansing horns gear with American made amps. MB Quart, Magnat, Polk and ENERGY and JBL speakers have been the norm over the years for me. Anything Japanese other than Yamaha speakers which I do enjoy a lot have no place in my listening pleasure. Those monkey coffin cheap package speakers last about 3 seconds before I shut the gear down and get rid of it.

 

[ryanosaur]

Didn't we do this topic last year?

 

[MattHooper]

Yes, I'm an audiophile. So is everyone here by my reckoning.

I think the Wikipedia version almost has it right:

An audiophile (from Latin: audīre, lit. 'to hear' + Greek: φίλος, romanized: philos, lit. 'loving') is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction.

Whereas I would make a slight change:

An audiophile (from Latin: audīre, lit. 'to hear' + Greek: φίλος, romanized: philos, lit. 'loving') is a person who is enthusiastic about High Quality sound reproduction.

The reason I substitute "high quality" for "high fidelity" is to include someone seeking "high fidelity/accuracy" but also accommodate that plenty of people in this hobby are not obsessed with accuracy per se, but rather their own compelling sonic experience pursuing high quality sound as they see it (which might included seeking "lifelike" sound whether it's strictly accurate or not).

In other words, it would seem silly to me to say that someone who has spent decades of enthusiastically owning and auditioning higher priced audio gear, reading all the audio magazines, participating in audiophile forums...but because he chose a tube amp and horns, well then he's not an "audiophile." I think we all normally view these folks as audiophiles, rightly so.

 

[anotherhobby]

I think the word is fine, but I avoid the term because of the reactions you are seeing here: it means different things with different connotations to different people. If I say that's a hobby of mine to somebody, how do I know if the other person knows what I meant, or at least what I want it to mean? Instead I just call myself an audio and music enthusiast when I talk about my hobby. If the word audiophile comes up, I just contextualize my own experience.

 

[egellings]

I know it well and is precisely what I intended.

If you leave a 'h' out of the word, then you get someone with bat guano ideas about audio.