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Should I be here, I don't think I'm an audiophile

solderdude

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I don't consider myself an audiophile but am comfortable with the term amateur.

Positioned myself in mix of green and yellow in the Venn diagram below. For me yellow and green are the same thing accurate = pleasing. The red will be included automatically when you know what matters and what not putting me in the 'enjoys Listening to Music part who also likes the equipment.

1618479568243.png
 

Wombat

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Like everything else Audiophile begat Audiofanatic and Audioextremist. Both of those groups also contain significant populations with more money than sense.

Bell curve stuff, although on audio forums the bell curve tends to be biased towards either extreme.
 

Pennyless Audiophile

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I just want the music I play to sound good. Does that make me an audiophile?
If you sit down and enjoy the music as opposed to having the music as a background, in your car or walking around wit earbuds, you are an Audiophile.
If you enjoy the music, you will also want to sound decent, and this requires some investment. However we live in a day and age when this investment can be small enough to be accessible to almost everyone but those at the bottom of the society.
 
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Yorkshire Mouth

Yorkshire Mouth

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Thanks to everyone for the almost entirely constructive contribution to the discussion.

Here's a little (but true) story.

I work in a set of offices, and every room has it's own tranny radio on, sounding awfully tinny 'chinky-chinky-chinky-chin'k, and I can't stand it.

With permission from the boss, I wanted something 'nicer'.

I had an old Denon UD-M31 which I'd not used for years, which I used to have in the kitchen. I bought a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze BX1s used from eBay for £100. I stuck the two together, and play music through my iPhone (Amazon Music HD) through a cheap FiO i1 DAC/amp, into one of the Aux inputs on the Denon.

Audiophile kit? I wouldn't think it immediately cries out for that label. But it sounded great in the office (it's now in my home office), and far better than the unlistenable tinny crap everyone else puts up with.

I don't know if that's audiophile. I don't know what that is. Except the best sound, for the money I had, for the situation in which it was going to be used.
 

Weeb Labs

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I typically refer to myself as a "Hi-Fi Enthusiast", which I think serves to delineate my goal of accurate audio reproduction.
 

Berwhale

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I don't know if that's audiophile. I don't know what that is. Except the best sound, for the money I had, for the situation in which it was going to be used.

I think this epitomizes the 'Pragmatic Audiophile' approach you will find most folks on ASR attempt to adhere to.
 
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Yorkshire Mouth

Yorkshire Mouth

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I don't consider myself an audiophile but am comfortable with the term amateur.

Positioned myself in mix of green and yellow in the Venn diagram below. For me yellow and green are the same thing accurate = pleasing. The red will be included automatically when you know what matters and what not putting me in the 'enjoys Listening to Music part who also likes the equipment.

View attachment 124133

I really appreciate the time you've gone to in making this - is there a venn diagram creator page?

I think the main flaw is the major labels of the three circles.

To be in the 'Enjoys Listening to Music' area in the middle you'd have to both 'Focus on pleasing to listen to' and yet 'Doesn't give the process of listening much thought'.

Having said that, you've done that very quickly, and I've probably picked up the bit you didn't intend to focus on, so I apologise for the pedantry.
 

solderdude

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Stole it from post 36 not my diagram, nor my words.

I think the guy that made the diagram feels that regardless from which 'church' you come they all enjoy listening to music ?
 

Koeitje

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If you sit down and enjoy the music as opposed to having the music as a background, in your car or walking around wit earbuds, you are an Audiophile.
If you enjoy the music, you will also want to sound decent, and this requires some investment. However we live in a day and age when this investment can be small enough to be accessible to almost everyone but those at the bottom of the society.
I rarely sit down and just listen to music. Guess I'm not an audiophile then.
 
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Yorkshire Mouth

Yorkshire Mouth

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Stole it from post 36 not my diagram, nor my words.

I think the guy that made the diagram feels that regardless from which 'church' you come they all enjoy listening to music ?

There are some audiophiles...I'm not sure they're music lovers.

There are some audiophiles who I definitely wouldn't consider music lovers, in the respect that they listen to a load of absolute rubbish.

I know music is a matter of taste, but...
 

solderdude

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Who doesn't like music though ? (not talking about taste)
There are lots of people that don't like certain kinds of music but they always seem to like some kind of music.
 

sailor2005

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If you sit down and enjoy the music as opposed to having the music as a background, in your car or walking around wit earbuds, you are an Audiophile.
If you enjoy the music, you will also want to sound decent, and this requires some investment. However we live in a day and age when this investment can be small enough to be accessible to almost everyone but those at the bottom of the society.
What you describe is not an audiophile.. that is a music lover. An audiophile cares more about the equipment, the music is just an excuse.
 

devopsprodude

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Well, I'm a music lover, but one who wants his music to sound as good as possible (within certain parameters, like cash), so is that audiophile?
Do you want well engineered equipment? If so, this is the right place for you.
Do you want to save money by not buying overly expensive equipment that does nothing to improve the sound of your music? If so, this is the right place for you.
Do you want to learn about the science of audio? If so, this is the right place for you.
Are you tired of places like Stereophile where everything is great, especially if it's really expensive? If so, this is the right place for you.
Do you seriously dislike the snake oil sales tactics used by so many companies in the industry? If so, this is the right place for you.

This is not a place for the stereotypical audiophile, or anyone who thinks that cables can positively impact sound quality. People who prefer subjective reviews will not be comfortable here. People who make claims that can't be backed up by double blind testing will not be comfortable here.

I think you are looking for what ASR offers. Whether you label yourself an audiophile or not doesn't really impact how much you like this site.
 

devopsprodude

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I suppose we can all sign up to that.

One thing which puzzles me is when people (as far as I can tell from their comments here) own several sets of a particular device. Example - they own 5 or 6 pairs of headphones which cost them maybe £100-£200 each. Why not just buy one really good pair?
Some people are gearheads. Some people are curious. Some people like collecting headphones. No one set of cans is going to be all things. Buying headphones is very much an exercise in compromise. Want good bass? Soundstage/imaging will be compromised. Want good soundstage/imaging? Bass will be compromised, as will isolation/noise reduction. Want good isolation and noise reduction? Imaging/soundstage and overall sound quality will be compromised. Etcetera, etcetera...
 

Robin L

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What Audiophile really means is "lover of sound". This can extend in any direction, could be pointing to an infinite collection of sounds and sound qualities. I'm not sure when audiophile started to point to audio gear, audio reproduction, and really expensive equipment with flashy design. I think the first time I saw that term in that context was in the first issue of "High Fidelity", hypenated as "audio-phile":

High-Fidelity-1951-Summer.pdf (worldradiohistory.com)

I think of musicians being the ultimate lovers of sound, audio production being the primary effect, audio reproduction being a secondary effect. But, in any case, "audiophile" does not necessarily mean "a collector of expensive sound reproducing electronics and recordings."
 

Kuppenbender

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‘Audiophile’ is clearly a relative term. To all those transistor radio listeners in the office, clearly the person with a separate dac, amp and speakers might be described as an ‘audiophile’. There is evidently a broad ‘audiophile’ spectrum, and we’re all (members of this forum) somewhere in that spectrum, whether we like it or not.
 

Pennyless Audiophile

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What you describe is not an audiophile.. that is a music lover. An audiophile cares more about the equipment, the music is just an excuse.
Audio-Phile, derived from ancient Greek, it literally means "Sound Lover".
I describe myself as an audiophile but I am not obsessed with gear and my replacement cycle is years long.
I can easily spend hours on a Sunday afternoon listening to music without thinking too much to the equipment.
I recently acquired some new gear after a 7 years hiatus when I didn't buy anything new, still regularly listening.
 
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