Who Is An Audiophile ... Music Listener Or Musical Equipment Collector?

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Both a music listener/lover & an audiophile are music listeners & both have goals. A music listener or lover is a person who is happy listening to music on any medium maybe a phone, computer or a system. For a music listener the goal is to listen to the music he/she loves , thats it.
An Audiophile is also a music listener but spends more time & money in integrating a cohesive system that would give that perfect sound that he/she would want to hear. A person would not take such pains if he/she would not have interest in music. It's an anology like if I am not interested in painiting then why would I spend on colours, canvas & paint brushes.
Now comes the part of reaching Nirvana. In a music lover's case the person has already reached it. In a the case of an audiophile, its a long journey depending on the person's time, income at disposal & his/her mindset how much more is required to get satisfied. A balance needs to be be achieved between what we like & how much further in the journey we need to go. All of us have a different mindsets, time, financial resources & there is nothing fixed or definite, no right or wrong. The idea is not to get lost in the journey & not to enjoy the goal in the pursuit for perfection. If a person tries to be an elitist or exhibits snobbish behaviour, then that's a person's nature & nothing to do with audio. On the other hand there are some very knowledgeable people who are not like that. This is just my personal opinion & may differ from others.

Hi
Nitinji
Agree with most of your opinion. Categorically , there are 3 kinds of people in audio domain. First of all a serious audiophile, second an audio enthusiast and a snobbish group of pseudo audiophiles. Let me analyse, a serious audiophile is one who is essentially knowledgeable and enjoys music all the time. An audio enthusiast comes closer to the former one . The only difference is that an audio enthusiast feels music with out bothering over how many equipments he possesses . A serious audiophile in the other hand will continuously upgrade himself as his aim is to find the chalice. He is like the Superman as drawn by G . B. Shaw in his Man and Superman. An audiophile (a serious one) has so many hindrances to over come but he leaves no stone unturned to find a soothing and charming music. Even language is also no bar to him as he finds beauty in music only. Even if he doesn't have disposable income he will spend money to collect the equipments, and other things that he requires. But those who belong to the third and last group are totally different from the other two. They have neither any knowledge not even taste or ear for good music. Perhaps everyone doesn't have knowledge but he must have a taste for good music. Fortunately the people of the third group are less in number . An audiophile and an audio enthusiast always remain as a source of inspiration for the next generation. However, these are my personal opinion and others may oppose to what I have said.
Regards

 

[firearm12]

I think there are two categories

1) who love music
2) who love reproduced sound


1st category only need music to feed them, dont need any or many gears.

Journey of an audiophile oscillates between 1 and 2 all their life.

 

[Nitin K]

Hi
Nitinji
Agree with most of your opinion. Categorically , there are 3 kinds of people in audio domain. First of all a serious audiophile, second an audio enthusiast and a snobbish group of pseudo audiophiles. Let me analyse, a serious audiophile is one who is essentially knowledgeable and enjoys music all the time. An audio enthusiast comes closer to the former one . The only difference is that an audio enthusiast feels music with out bothering over how many equipments he possesses . A serious audiophile in the other hand will continuously upgrade himself as his aim is to find the chalice. He is like the Superman as drawn by G . B. Shaw in his Man and Superman. An audiophile (a serious one) has so many hindrances to over come but he leaves no stone unturned to find a soothing and charming music. Even language is also no bar to him as he finds beauty in music only. Even if he doesn't have disposable income he will spend money to collect the equipments, and other things that he requires. But those who belong to the third and last group are totally different from the other two. They have neither any knowledge not even taste or ear for good music. Perhaps everyone doesn't have knowledge but he must have a taste for good music. Fortunately the people of the third group are less in number . An audiophile and an audio enthusiast always remain as a source of inspiration for the next generation. However, these are my personal opinion and others may oppose to what I have said.
Regards

Hi Bhaskarji,
Agree with you Sir. Actually a lot of us hear music so differently, hence there is no right or wrong in this hobby. The end goal is happiness derived from what we hear based on our personal tastes. Sometimes keeping things as simple as possible is the best option imho.

Regards.

 

[sound_cycle]

I think there are two categories

1) who love music
2) who love reproduced sound*&


1st category only need music to feed them, dont need any or many gears.

Journey of an audiophile oscillates between 1 and 2 all their life.

* note 1) and 2) are not necessarily exclusive states
& all rights reserved to listen only to Diana Kraal or Amber Rubarth and scorn compressed Bryan Adams

But this categorization appeals to me and if @firearm12 will permit me a rewrite I'd suggest
1) who love music
2) who love music and care about how the music sounds


ciao
gr