Why an audiophile ?

As a teenager I was always passionate about music and had a girlfriend whos father had a LP12 and Quad amps and ELS 57's and hearing that system made me realise there was more than japanese. hifi.At the age of 14 I was reading the UK hifi press and by the time I was 17 had a LP 12 and Nait and Linn Kans.

I still get a buzz of an evening listening to my system after a day at work.

A big record collection and a good system do complement each other well.

I find audio design fascinating.

I'm an engineer so a bit geeky and interested in the hardware for its own sake to some extent. I appreciate the engineering, design and quality of manufacturing in high-end compnents. For example, I love the "marginal gains" that TT designers eke out with their design innovations and think many high-end TTs are beautiful (but less love for the aesthetics of the "fruit box"). Speakers can be works of art to me. Pride of place in our living area. My wife and I are both happy for large speakers to dominate the decor.

The digital world is less "obvious" to me, and I find it harder to be interested in information theory and compression algorithms etc. Network protocols and the laughably named world of so-called UPnP twonky streaming are of zero interest, but I guess I'll get there one day. I do appreciate the lack of CD-case clutter that we have with our "direct-to-dac" Mac Mini set-up though.

But music is a bit of a passion of mine, and I guess that's the main reason I am interested in hifi. I appreciate good quality reproduction as a cleaner window into the music.

An audiophile is one who puts more value (literally) in the cost and brand of the system he (or she, but usually he) uses to listen to music.

Most music lovers don't really care about the equipment.

For me it was a natural process. When I was young I wanted to become a professional musician, but didn't have talent enough to follow that path. So I became an IT professional. My interest for music of course stayed high and I always had a pretty good hifi installation. This massively changed when I returned back from Hong Kong - I transferred myself to Naim and was sold to the concept of upgrading. Through upgrading I started to more and more get into it and had more and more appreciation for what it means to be able to hear music at the best levels possible. At some point in time I noticed that I started to become more and more knowledgeable, I started to visit events etc....

So I guess my story is gradually I became more and more emerged into the hobby of hifi and now I would indeed consider myself an audiophile. But one more interested in music than the technology behind the music.

I bought a copy of this and needed to play it so I bought some boxes

You don't need per definition such refined boxes to play this....

Why not...

Only for a love of well reproduced music. 

The boxes have little interest, except for their ability to make music sound good. Looking back I think there were certain tracks that made me realise my Ferguson stereo could be bettered by something. Elton Johns "don't let the sun go down in me" was one. 

My daughter is still amused by when I agreed to go to work in Brazil and my first concern was not where I would live it was how I could take a decent hifi to Brasil. A uniti, a pair of totem rainmakers, and a qnap nas was the answer. Sure this fairly modest system saved my life on many occasions.

Money spent is one thing, but what you get from spending it...that's something else.  I suspect we all beat ourselves up a bit over the amount we spend on hifi, but put it in perspective.  As an example, I am a complete petrol head, and I love driving and motorsport just slightly more than music.  Running a rally car ain't cheap folks, and I could replace my naim kit many times over vs cost of that pursuit per year.  By comparison, for most on this forum....I think, though I can tell from some avatars there are people like me here, driving is a means to an end, and not a pleasure in itself, but how many of us drive a car to work that costs less than our hifi?  For some reason it's fine to spend say £20k to £30k on a car, but absurd to spend that on a hifi.  Why?  

I spend a lot on cars because I love them.  I spend a lot on music reproduction because i love music.  And left to my own devices, I'd spend bugger all on anything else. 

Everyone is an audiophile...everyone loves audio that can hear it.  To me audiophile is not specific enough.

There is a whole other world out there who have no idea what audiophile would spend in money to achieve their audio nirvana.  If you say that your hankering after an amp worth lets say £1000. they would look at you as if your truly mad..!

Because I love music, and especially because I love certain music by certain artists and I want to hear what they played as close to their intention as possible.  I have friends who love music but who really don't care about playback quality and I have friends who don't really care for music but to me good music and good books are the joys of life and I'm happy to pay what I can afford to enjoy both.  Even with my modest system my friends think I am truly mad to spend what I do so some of you lot would be seen as certifiable!

It can be fun discussing powerlines with random people.

I can quit whenever I want.

I can quit when the funds run out.

I'm not an audiophile; I just love music.

+1

One question to ask oneself; Can I enjoy a system of lower spec?

Today I was listening to my second system, CDI, NAC72, NAP180 into old Linn Index speakers whilst packing for a trip. I then went to the listening room and listened on my 500 system. I didn't enjoy the emotion of the music any more in the 500 system but did appreciate the improved presentation.

Music first/ hifi second. A top system is just the frosting on the cake.

I have always been interested in, moved by, curious about and generally surrounded by music. I have minimal interest in TV and music has been the background (and at times the foreground) for many of my days as a student and at home after work.

Decent disposable allows me to really be absorbed by music reproduced on a great system but I really am generally incurious about the process. I never fiddle with or tweak my system for example. I don't really post in the HiFi section as I really don't seem to listen to my system with the analytical ear that most others in there use.

Naim provides the tools for my hobby, it maximises the pleasure but it is not essential. Same with a decent bike vs an old hack; the fundamental pleasure of the activity is still there.

I understand that others are more consumed by the process, or the science etc but ultimately I guess I am not actually an audiophile in those terms.

bruce

Bruce,

Apart from your source your system is identical to one I had a few years ago. Spending what you have it would be a pity not to hear the system at it's best. Being an active system careful cable dressing and system setup can reap big rewards. I'm not saying you need to fiddle about with it everyday but once every year a rebuild and care with cable placement  will be sufficient. I personally hate situations where I'm evaluating a piece of kit and listening to the hifi rather than enjoying the music. 

Steve

I came across this description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts and repetitive, ritualized behaviors you feel compelled to perform. If you have OCD, you probably recognize that your obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors are irrational—but even so, you feel unable to resist them and break free.

When I read the various feverish threads on upgrades, as every audiophile wants to have the best, not to be out done by the latest HiFi component, talking about components which cost eg £2,500 and then somebody else mentions a better component which costs eg,£8,500 and every body is infused with the quality of the latter component (well what a surprise it just happens to be a little more expensive.. ) then the above description of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder may not be so out of place when describing the behavior of an audiophile.