Are you a..fullAudiophile/halfAudiophile/NonAudiophile?

Compared to all my friends I'm a full audiophile. Compared to everyone on here I'm a non-audiophile!

 

I voted Half though for most of my life I would have said Full. I have always pursued the best versions of albums I have wanted and I still do. But, about four years ago I made a move to part with the equipment side of being an audiophile. I opted for simplicity and listening pleasure over the additional pursuit of each new cable or technology that crossed my path.

This has worked extremely well for me but by no means is that the right path for everyone.

 

Non-audiophile.

I'm happy with bog-standard equipment, any old pressing and I don't have a problem with allegedly brickwalled CDs.

 

40k on gear seems full to me.

 

Half as*ed. I've got too many other expensive habits.

 

Full audiophile here, but not by anyone's definition but my own. IMHO, Audiophiles use their equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles don't use the music to listen to their equipment - I've never met anyone like that, although there are a couple of people in the hardware forum who are changing their equipment and rolling tubes so often that they may fit that old trope. That's their business and should not be held up to ridicule.
I've purchased a nice headphone based system because it's cheaper to get higher quality sound than with speakers.
IMHO, audiophiles try and chase the best reproduction of what went down on tape/digital storage, be it via media or equipment. The music is most important and it's nice to be able to hear it well reproduced and finally be able to afford to do that.

 

While I'm not against buying good gear or better mastering, this isn't a priority. I spend my money on music. I don't at all consider myself an audiophile. I prefer the performance over better mastering or recording. But if it's possible to get a better mastering and recording with a great performance, I'll go that route. While I've spend a decent amount on gear, I've spent at least 10x on recording. I like listening to different stuff. I'd much rather buy 100 different albums than buying 10 albums over and over again to find the best sounding pressing. Some of my favorite recordings are far from being considered audiophile.

 

About 30% audiophile.

Cheapskate at heart....doesn't mix well with that hobby. Sometimes the streaming version is just fine.

 

That's only because you don't have $40,000 in available funds to buy stuff, or excellent sound isn't as important to you as to him.

 

Repeatedly buying the same albums would fall into the collector category for me.

Good quote. It seems, to some, being an audiophile is being a bad, stupid, gullible person.

No, that would be the ignorant naysayers telling everyone they are imagining what they hear and Home Depot speaker wire is all they need for perfect sound.

Good point. There are people on this forum that don't have mega buck systems and are very very particular about their equipment and setup. There are people on this forum that are very particular about cleaning records too. It's a misnomer to think audiophiles need to spend tons of money to be an audiophile.

Chad Kassem says, "buy now or cry later".

Would love to know what equipment you are using. Please, fill out your profile.

Well...you certainly have a good reference point there.

It's all a matter of priorities. For me, the priority is having a kick ass stereo with nice records and digital media, if that makes me an audiophile, then so be it.

 

Half. When it comes to the format / mastering, I like the music to sound as good as possible... however, I understand there are limitations. Source quality, commercial appeal, executive decisions, and other factors can impact the final product. I'm empathetic to the struggles of people working in the industry who are being pulled from multiple sides by so many different parties.

In terms of my own equipment, I run a decent neutral stereo speaker set, which works well for audio mixing and music listening. I use a 2.0 external DAC that also has recording functionality. Since I prefer speakers over headphones, I use a pair of high quality Bluetooth headphones when I'm out and about; the loss in quality isn't noticeable in downtown traffic, and it makes walks / bike rides much more fun.

In terms of format, I prefer high res or DSD files (although I have to go to my friend's place to hear DSD in its true form), but I'll settle for standard CD quality if the mastering's good. Spotify is useful for discovering new music via playlists and for the portable listening experience. I've got zero space in my place to accommodate vinyl, nor do I have the budget to pay $30+ per album, so I'm a strictly digital guy. However, I'll listen to vinyl rips converted to FLAC if there's a particularly excellent pressing that's ripped from a quality source.

 

Me: Full
Bank account: Half

 

I want the best mastering possible, even if it means I have to do some editing work myself. But I don't care about resolution as long as it's at least lossless 16/44.1 – I can hear a difference in an A/B test between different resolutions, but not necessarily an improvement, just a difference. As for gear, the amount of money I could spend on a mid-level system would pay off nearly all my bills and net me at least 75% of my "holy grails" CD list on Discogs (assuming they were all available for sale at once, that is). I've heard good stereos and I appreciate the sound, but I'm perfectly happy with my headphones that I know inside and out – that money should be put to better use.

 

Non-audiophile. I use audio equipment to listen to music, not vice-versa.

 

I like good sound quality, but not enough to spend $10K+ on an audio system. There's a point of diminishing returns on these things, though the exact location of that point will vary from one listener to another according to their hearing, their financial state, and other considerations. My father-in-law is the sort of person who spends (or used to) lots of money trying out different audio gear. (I think he still has a pair of floor-standing Magnepan speakers somewhere.) I do that with guitars, amplifiers, and effects pedals, and to a lesser extent with cameras and lenses, but not with stereo equipment. Though I do find it interesting to buy different CD masterings of the same album to compare them, which I suppose is a somewhat audiophilish thing to do.

 

Voted Non. All about the music. I’m as happy listening to music that I love on a cheap £20 Bluetooth speaker, in my car, on my phone with cheap earbuds or my system. Rare pressings/Half speed remasters/Mofi etc, not interested. Prefer original. Each to their own is what I say.

 

I say half because I didn't spend as much as many and spent more than some. I have Emotiva equipment, a pair of Bowers and Wilkins speakers and Mogami speaker and interconnect cables so sound quality is somewhat important but not as much as so many others that spend countless thousands.

 

.

 

Could just be your ears keep getting worse. Makes me wonder what my excellent sounding JBL 240ti speakers from the early 1980s really sound like.

 

I'm a full audiophile. But I don't fit into either of these narrow categories you've lined out. I care very much about audio, the audio experience, and making sure the equipment and the room are designed and set up to deliver the experience that audiophile music set up can deliver -- a kind of time machine experience of being transported into the space and moment of the original performance, full of lifelike microdynamics, inner detail, so-real-you-can-touch-it imaging, etc. Letting the recording shine through and the music take you away. Good equipment, properly set up in a dedicated treated room, measured and optimized can deliver a transporting experience that is pleasure unto itself. It's audio and I love it, I'm an audiophie.

I don't much care though about all these specialty pressings and releases and re-masterings. I mean the caliber of the initial recording matters to me more than the mastering. Pressings? I'd rather get rid of the endemic playback noise, distortion and pitch instability of vinyl altogether, to me it just constantly draws attention to the fact that I'm listening to a recording. Sure, there some really botched remastering jobs. But you know, I'm not really interested in buying the same music more than once. In fact, with streaming, I'm not all that interested in buying it at all. I just want to hear it. The one place I'll really seek out the best versions is with transfers from 78. The difference between great transfers from 78 and the very common desultory or poor ones is much great to my ears, in terms of the experience of the music, than the difference between masterings of tape and post tape era material. Then again, I'm mostly interested in hearing new music, so there's often not more than one mastering of the music I'm curious to hear next.

 

My gear is so-so in the audiophile world, but I’ve become quite stubborn about what I buy. I started out buying whatever, to “some digital in the chain is fine” (talking about vinyl here), to “only doing digital sourcing when AAA isn’t available.”

 

Right?

 

You definitions seem rather extreme. I don’t think I qualify under either, but I certainly consider myself an audiophile. Just not an OCD audiophile.

 

Rarely rarely use my sound system.
Happy to hear my music just about any way.
On the radio, in the car, using the laptop or from my mobile phone.

 

I'm as audophile as my budget will allow me. If I could afford higher end gear at this time, I'd probably consider myself full, as is, I'm as audiophile as I can be.