Why are you an Audiophile?

I have been doing this on and off since I was 16. Gear is a lot of fun but a vehicle to music.Music is where it's at. When the world is not treating me right it is music that gets me through.
 
It is okay, audiophile's are overrated anyway!

Jim

You can say that again! Especially as it is nothing more than a marketing term these days. For instance, the Shure M97xE claims to be an "audiophile" cartridge. Low cost not withstanding if you apply the true purpose of an audiophile based on true definition the Shure cart is hardly up to the task by any measure. It's not a good cartridge by specs or performance. It's labeled "audiophile" to the unsuspecting to sell more units. I should know, I bought one 3 years ago.
 
The Shure cart is the best tracker! ...And the best tracker is 'audiophile' territory; in my red/blue book of wisdom. :)

Yeah, it's an inexpensive cart, not like fifteen grands, but still the best goddamm tracker in the entire spinning world.
 
The Shure cart is the best tracker! ...And the best tracker is 'audiophile' territory; in my red/blue book of wisdom. :)

Yeah, it's an inexpensive cart, not like fifteen grands, but still the best goddamm tracker in the entire spinning world.

Perhaps it depends on what table it's on. Also it has such severe roll off of highs that it's hard to listen to at least for me. My AT95E is my favorite cart and wipes the floor with the Shure.
 
After getting my AH! Tjoeb CDP, I have never missed vinyl.

Jim

Hence my passion for music, vinyl and CDs live very happily together in my world. (I too have Joe to thank for my CDP)! There is also room in my world for streaming high bit rate MP3s for casual listening. HiRez files are blocked from my world though mainly because I do not have the required gear downstream to play them and won't have anytime soon. That makes me a Music Enthusiast, not an Audiophile by definition.
 
I have a Marantz CD5004. Not audiophile...although it plays like an audiophile unit if you turn off the display and it has some components from Marantz's Reference Series in it... Uh, I also have a pair of Paradigm Studio 100s and a Phonomena II....uh oh, I think I may be at least dangling over the edge into audiophile land seeing as how that gear is designed with the purpose of the audiophile in mind? I may have just blown holes in my self description.
 
Why an audiophile? LOVE listening to music, finding new artists, it's my meditation. LOVE gear, how it looks, smells, sounds. Plus there is the everlasting search for synergy (the whole being greater than the parts), as budget and new technologies permit. Getting the quality of sound that puts a goofy smile on your face, that's what it's all about!
 
I've concluded that it's most likely safe for me to be described as an audiophile here at AS, but I do not allow it anywhere outside of AS. ~Eric
 
Why an audiophile? LOVE listening to music, finding new artists, it's my meditation. LOVE gear, how it looks, smells, sounds. Plus there is the everlasting search for synergy (the whole being greater than the parts), as budget and new technologies permit. Getting the quality of sound that puts a goofy smile on your face, that's what it's all about!

+1 Big time! Well said Ron.
 
Why an audiophile? LOVE listening to music, finding new artists, it's my meditation. LOVE gear, how it looks, smells, sounds. Plus there is the everlasting search for synergy (the whole being greater than the parts), as budget and new technologies permit. Getting the quality of sound that puts a goofy smile on your face, that's what it's all about!

+2
 
I'd like to have ultra hi-end audio gear. :) ...And a new ultra hi-class girlfriend. :exciting: :derf:

I'm just kidding, in case. I want nothing else than peace, and music is a good provider of that.
I wish that they would all listen to peaceful music in Egypt.
And that would be the best foreign help we can provide them, I think.
 
Why an audiophile? LOVE listening to music, finding new artists, it's my meditation. LOVE gear, how it looks, smells, sounds. Plus there is the everlasting search for synergy (the whole being greater than the parts), as budget and new technologies permit. Getting the quality of sound that puts a goofy smile on your face, that's what it's all about!

Well said
 
My journey to the hobby came about through a friend who had just bought a high-end audio system. Before that, I was like most others - had a few hundred CDs that I listened to on a crappy system bought at a big box retailer. Usually had music on as background while I was doing something else. But when I heard my buddy's system (I remember he had JM Focal Lab 918 speakers I believe, a Pathos Logos integrated amp, a Cary CD player which he later replaced with a Burmester CD player, and a VPI Scoutmaster with Lyra Helikon catridge and an Aesthetix Rhea phono stage), I remember thinking to myself I could not believe what was coming out of those speakers! This was in NYC circa 2000-2002. When I moved to Boston in 2002, I always had that sound in the back of my head and I started researching local dealers and reading up on gear. I bought RH's book (Intro to High End Audio or something like that) to start learning the lingo and what to listen for when auditioning gear and started making the circuit at different local bricks and mortar dealers. I struck up a good relationship with the folks at Goodwins and the rest was history.

The interesting thing for me is that I became a music lover because of my high-end rig. The ability to reproduce music at this level made me want to explore new music and I went from listening to largely rock and some pop and some electronica to listening to that stuff plus blues, jazz, folk, some country and classical. More importantly, as many of you have already said, it's a way to completely unplug and relax. It's a form of meditation and mental stimulation. It's a trip when you are in the right frame of mind.

I am also a tinkerer and a perfectionist and love the equipment side and love to read about it but again with the primary motivation being to get the playback system to a point where it can get me even closer to the pure enjoyment of the music.

So in a funny way, I came to the music via the equipment first.
 
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