The “Slow Ride” post perfectly describes life during the Tour de France in my house, me being an avid cyclist, cycling fan, music lover and audiophile. Thanks for the link!
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To me, audiophile is not about live music. It’s about an on-going quest for perfection in the reproduction and playback of recorded music.
I saw Van Halen twice, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Guns n Roses, etc. There is nothing there I would classify as audiophile.
You’re trying to decide between two recordings of a piece of classical music.
Reviews say that the first recording is an excellent performance, but the sonics are mediocre; the second is a mediocre performance, but the sonics are excellent.
Which do you choose?
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The one with John Coltrane on it. 
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Neither. I’ll keep on listening to Patricia Barber.
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Heart troubles earlier this year necessitated a few lifestyle changes. This is my house these days:
I’m using a lossy source most of the time (Apple Music). Most of my listening nowadays is while travelling (Bose headphones), running/working out (Bose earbuds) or commuting (Mondeo 2019). Ergonomics are through the roof.
I sold off my tickets to audiophiledom (gone are the Meridian speakers, the Devialet Phantoms, the MrSpeakers headphones with an everchanging array of amps and DACs).
I’m light as a feather now (quite literally as well, after losing 100lbs ;-)). And never in my life have I enjoyed listening to music more as I do right now, with the gear mentioned above.
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Honestly, I would look for a third choice. Curious how many have gone to live music which is so over amped that it approaches the threshold of pain. Live music can be just as bad as recorded music. The engineers are important and so often less is more.
If my decibel meter on my iPhone is to be believed I seldom listen to loud passages above 75 dB. I am not interested in slamming bass or anything just accuracy which I guess is an illusion. All I am saying is I agree that nothing matters more to my enjoyment than the source. Is that audiophile?
Source :Roon Nucleus and EERO Mesh Wi-fi, Qobuz
Streamer: Auralic Aries G2
DAC: Benchmark DAC 3
Amp: Benchmark AHB2
Speakers: B+W 802d3
Of course it’s about definition. I’m enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction, so I guess I’m a kind of audiophile.
I like Darko’s sentence concerning money spent:
maximising sound quality within one’s own means
…because I do like to get bang for the buck, doing a lot of research and knowing my physics and computer science.
My problem with the concept is with the seemingly large group of science denier audiophiles, which pays $250 for a power cable and $1000 for a USB cable (cryogenic, baby!) - old men that say they hear a difference even if theory and measurements says otherwise. Elvis, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
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I enjoy tinkering with my nuc and raspberry pi’s and find my 3000 euro system expensive enough, but in the end i also enjoy music on the lousy speakers in my car from 1999…
Hands down the best bang for the buck is a good headphone set up. What you lose in bass slam you make up for with amazing detail and lots of extra money to buy more music.
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I don’t consider myself being an audiophile because I really don’t like Diana Krall 
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I love her. I had never heard of her before I signed up for Roon.
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I’ve been a fan of Diana Krall for years and have seen her many times in concert. For me, it has nothing to do with having a quality stereo system, it’s her performances (both live and recorded) that have won me over.
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I’ve ticked both boxes, because sometimes I consider myself an audiophile and sometimes i’m more a musicologist. When I was a lot younger I owned quite a low-end system but quite a large library of records. When visiting people with a better hi-fi I noted that many of them owned an abysmal small and limited record collection. Whatever that was popular at the time like Hot August night, Kenny G, James Last or some Doobie Brothers pap. Some of my most enjoyable music listening was played by Pirate radio DJ John Peel to a transistor radio glued to my ear. As i’ve aged, my hi-fi equipment has improved to the point that I use Roon with a nucleus plus with a 4tb ssd directly wired to a Naim Uniti Atom and 10 year old Whatmough speakers plus subwoofer in my music room. I also stream via WiFi to other systems round the house. I do appreciate audiophile sound, but for me it’s always the music that trumps the system. Am I an audiophile? Yes and no.
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Clearly you are not going to the gigs I go to.
My taste is for great sounding intimate gigs, often in people’s living rooms or in churches with minimum amplification and what there is controlled by highly skilled sound engineers. This is over and above the small intimate venue I volunteer at.
The joy on an artists face and the subsequent pleasure in performance achieved by a good sound engineer on good equipment leaves all recorded music dead in the water. IMHO
I agree, less is more…
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Listening to my equipment. Great suggestion.
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The Audiophile test:
Do you like Diana Krall
- no (music lover)
- yes (audiophile)
In this case I’m also not an audiophile like @Nyquist 
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Diana Krall is just the latest in a long history of audiophile favs. While she is very talented she is still somewhat middle of the pack for female jazz vocalists (her piano playing is basically forgettable) BUT she is well recorded, which is why she’s an audiophile fav.
However there are much, much worse. For me the Casino Royale soundtrack is the epitome of the well recorded but mediocre music that many audiophile seem to love. Oh and just about any other recording that ever made it onto those infamous HP SuperDisk lists. Records To Avoid was my name for his lists.
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I am reminded of the band leader who’s output is often referred to as ‘Music for people who don’t like music’, James Last…
Very successful though and so must have been doing something right for his audience.
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