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If you are an audiophile and you aim to STAY an audiophile, you don't look for the best and most advanced solutions, because you'd end up simply listening to music. You're not an audiophile, you're just somebody who enjoys music. Boring, now you gotta invest tons of time looking for music you like.
Well that's no fun so let's imagine there's value in all the outdated stuff. Suddenly you have plenty of reasons to shell out money for things that have nothing to do with superior audio quality. It's "different" right? Play the same ten tracks but with a multitude of different gears. Audiophile for life!
I believe that, even if there is some sarcasm there, it's essentially correct.
I made that point to someone else recently on a forum who was concerned that the more he 'upgraded' his system the, more he sought higher quality playback, the less music he was satisfied with on his system. That he used to only listen to "just the music" and now he finds that harder to do.
My argument for why many audiophiles get in that rut is because they have conflated "sound quality" with "music." Sure they can interact, and music has some inherent association with sound. But they are divisible, insofar as music can be understood to be the notes, melody, instrumentation, production choices, performance etc, where "sound quality" can be seen as the sensuous qualities of the sounds itself.
So for instance, I can enjoy just "Music" on virtually anything, and do so: in my car, on my desktop computer, smart speaker, even on my iphone speaker. Same with anyone else in my family and a great many music lovers.
But when I sit down in front of my 2 channel system I expect something else, something more: the possibility of "better sound" - where the sound quality itself is appreciable. Certainly this can merge with enjoying the music as it often does. But it's not the same thing: if it was, then music lovers would have to be audiophiles, but they aren't, because audiophile denotes someone who cares about the quality of THE SOUND not simply "the music."
But if you conflate these two things, then you start thinking you can't enjoy "the music" unless you are also impressed by The Sound Quality.
That is the way to denuding your musical experiences.
I'm super picky about what will impress me or draw me in when it comes to audiophile sound systems. Most leave me cold, by which I mean while it's interesting to hear them, I don't feel particularly compelled to keep sitting there and keep listening. Because I could get up, go to my kitchen, and still enjoy that music on my smart speaker or iphone.
What I get from systems I love, is that I find myself rapt by the addition of the sound quality - it makes me want to "sit HERE" and keep listening, rather than go listen to a smart speaker while doing something else. But the two, sound quality and "music," remain divisible.
If you listen to music without regard to the sound quality, you aren't being an audiophile in that situation. It's when you devote time and attention to acquiring playback equipment because you appreciating what the equipment specifically brings to the listening experience, that you are being an audiophile. IMO. (To be more specific, I think being an audiophile isn't a one-time thing in that regard. Many consumers can be interested in the sound quality of a pair of speakers they are buying of course. Being an audiophile is more of an on-going interest and concern about audio equipment, it seems to me).