Audiophile 101: What is an Audiophile?

Feb 23, 20235100 VIEWS

Image credit @Evshrug

In my time browsing various headphone and audio forums, I’ve observed again and again a somewhat amusing contradiction. If you go to a sound science forum and ask “What is an audiophile,” they will tell you an audiophile makes purchases based on emotion and nostalgia, with little regard for research, price to performance, and specs which would allow a system to be EQ’d into any sound (including the “ideal” sound). Meanwhile, there’s an opposite camp that will happily buy anything just because it makes them feel good, because “that’s the point of music,” meanwhile they would define an “Audiophile” as someone who pays more attention to gear, specs, and listens to tone sweeps more than music. Conundrum! Paradox! I’ll do you better: ‘WHY’ Audiophile? The truth is the word “Audiophile” comes from two roots: Audio* is easy enough to understand, while -phile comes from the Greek root “philos,” which carries a meaning that doesn’t directly translate to “loving” or “affection,” but also an attraction, tendency, or pursuit towards something. My Philosophy professor said that his field was not merely the study or love of knowledge, but a passionate journey for a complete understanding of everything there is to know, an ideal that could never reach a conclusion. Similarly, an audiophile is a person who is attracted to audio, an iceberg so deep that it also causes exploration, whether that person is trying to improve or change their system’s audio performance or whether they’re unable to leave their parked car until the song on the radio finishes. Dan Clark giving an audio seminar, Image credit @Evshrug

However people explore audio, it’s because we all share that common attraction to sound. It’s half-chosen, half-instinct. Often it’s awoken by someone close, a friend or family member who is already far along their audio journey, and they share their excitement and a taste of their experience. This taste sparks the imagination for just how music could fill our sense and feel like we’re ascending beyond the life of pure survival, or ignite a curiosity that if things can sound THIS good now, just HOW good can it get? How do you audiophile?
Image credit @Evshrug

Keep in mind the commonalities in the hobby… we all have a shared interest! That’s a great chance to carry conversations and perhaps strike up new friendships, maybe we can be that “Audio Uncle” for someone else (the cool uncle, I assure you ;) ). I would also encourage the perspective that people gaining expertise in another area than you is an opportunity to learn from them, and hopefully showing your respect sets the vibe that they can respond in kind. Also, don’t be afraid to be spoiled by something incredible… sure, you may have to readjust and maybe cheap experiences won’t be as thrilling anymore, but treating your senses to state of the Audio art, even just a demo, is one of the valid times to remind yourself that “You Only Live Once!” Image credit @Evshrug

I’d love to read your comments and stories about how you got into audio, and what brought you here 😃 Thanks for reading, and sharing - check back later for the next installment where I share an overview of the Audio Component chain! Footnote: * (if language roots interest you, audio comes from the Latin audire ‘hear’)

(Edited)

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Mar 16, 2023

i wouldn't really call myself an audiophile but i guess i started appreciating music and audio stuff more around 2021 because of a channel called dankpods. I couldn't really understand what was going on because everything sounds the same out a phone speaker. and coincidentally my sony mdrzx310 broke so i thought, what the hell i'll buy some nice headphones. My first purchase, akg k271 mkII. They sucked, but i rolled with them for a while because it was a hefty investment for me and i just needed something, but i had to mess around with the eq just for them to be serviceable. then my birthday rolled around and got some dt770s which blew those other cans out of the water. I just sort of wanna try some new things which is also why i got the 6xx's since i haven't used open backs, now looking for planar magnetic but that's a bit of a pipe dream

Evshrug

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Mar 17, 2023

IAmNotAnAudiophileAppreciates music, wants to try new things: name doesn't check out (in the most positive sense!) Welcome to the hobby! I totally understand sticking with your first "good" purchase for awhile... you may say it sucked, but it was a better "nice headphone" than the mainstream Sony on-ears you had before (Sony makes great HiFi stuff too! In fact... they're one of the major music labels, have top-shelf headphone and speaker gear, and they're even behind the "HiRes" sticker, haha). DankPods is hilarious, good place to find out what the stinky headphones are XD I'm very happy to hear you're enjoying your time with the DT 770's and HD 6XX; Drop actually sells a few planar magnetic headphones around the same price range as the HD 6xx, check out our listings for HiFiman and keep an eye out for Fostex Planars :)

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Logistics

Mar 6, 2023

Shortest path to enjoying your music is realizing that nobody hears the same as you. Nobody can tell you what will sound best to you and price has no bearing on whether it will sound good to your ears. Try before you buy and start small so you can recognize incremental changes as you go. Some of them will yield "better" according to your hearing and some will be "different" and some will obviously be "worse." Sources do not output a flat frequency response whether analog or digital, pre-amplifiers do not output flat nor amps nor speakers nor headphones, and YOUR HEARING is not the least bit flat and there is no realistic way to graph your hearing. But this brings to the fore the irrelevance of using meters to adjust your system until it outputs flat by means of EQ's because your hearing will still have peaks and valleys and removing a peak in your rig's output may be bad if thats where your hearing had a dip. You'll also run into those who feel they need to stay true to the original recording, which means nothing because it gets remixed by a person at a sound board anyway. Just try something first-hand, but don't get caught up in the game of buying more and more expensive gear thinking that's the answer because it's not as long as you're judging equipment with your ears and not your ego. Buy gear that allows you to enjoy your music, not impress others and you'll be a true audiophile.

Evshrug

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Mar 8, 2023

LogisticsThis is true. Not only does each measurement rig put out different results from another, even among the same product line (though the tolerance is lower on higher end setups), but also each seating of the headphone onto a rig produces a different result, and our ears each act as a filter more unique than a fingerprint, to the point where mids vary and you may as well disregard everything above 7 kHz. Background noises, dirty AC mains power, and even humidity and air density can affect results. It is all too easy to make one measurement, or only cherry pick measurement results, or even massage the headphone’s position and clamp until a resonance peak or modal dip in response appears or disappears in a place that backs up the subjective claim someone wants to make, and then hold up the graph as if it was objective fact. Then, there’s the fact that we perceive audio differently than we see light or it is represented on a freq graph: We see each frequency of light blended together to make a single color (or white if all frequencies are equally present), and the Frequency Response Curve graph is made using a single, synthetic, pure sine tone without any harmonic overtones (though the dB graph will be affected by cup resonances) that plays a sweep across the range one frequency at a time… but when we listen to music or videos our brains are able to separate and process multiple frequencies played simultaneously, able to distinguish vocals, drums, piano, guitar, etc, though sometimes it gets even more complicated as some sounds boost or mask others to a degree. A headphone will literally never sound the way it graphs. They are often held up as objective fact, but are not able to be accurately reproduced on other equipment at a different location. They can be of some use to headphone makers to see the effects of design tweaks and materials/positioning, but even at the highest level the final evaluation requires human audition and is subject to the listener’s personal “ear EQ,” hearing, and taste. Unfortunately, many consumers have been taught to evaluate headphones with their eyes (or YouTube recording “demos,” which are their own can of worms) without understanding the limitations of frequency response graphs.

(Edited)

JeZu

Mar 6, 2023

Hi I’m uncle audiophile

Tousana

Mar 4, 2023

I stumbled across this topic and found it very enlightening. Am I an audiophile? If you mean do I like to hear the best sound I can, then yes. Am I itching to buy the latest greatest thing nope..... I am a recording engineer and have been for nearly 40yrs. and have seen many changes in audio. When I started there was only tape, now I do most of my work in a computer. I have a decent system at home, but nothing like some of the 1000+ per side systems I get the chance to listen to while working. I love to explore and listen as well as work on many different types of music, it's what I do, and my system at home is where I listen to what I want in my preferred 2.0 configuration, but I do also have a nice 7.2 system for movie viewing, which to me is where multiple speaker listening is most appreciated, just my opinion. I will always strive to hear the best sound from what I can afford!

Dylan.Aragorn

Mar 3, 2023

Anyone want to recommend a solid amp/dac and headphones for someone who's interested in audiophile stuff? With so many options it's kind of overwhelming to actually figure out what I want or what's a good 'first buy' to get into this stuff.

Evshrug

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Community

Mar 3, 2023

Dylan.AragornShould I make a video about different sound signatures of headphones used for music listening, similar to what I did here for gaming headphones? The idea was to inform people how to read between the lines of reviews and decide for themselves if a headphone (gaming headset) was to their taste: https://youtu.be/42SRsSlIj-c To give a good recommendation, you ought to share some info about questions that should be easy and not too overwhelming, that will make it much much easier to break down what is appropriate for you in the market: 1.) Total Budget for the system? 2.) Where will you mostly listen (office, sofa, walking park trails, subway, airplane, etc)? 3.) Are you looking for isolation (like ear muffs) or would you mostly be alone in a calm low-noise environment (or would it be a plus to be able to hear someone trying to get your attention?). 4.) One - and - done system, or something you can upgrade over time with your budget? 5.) most people have wide tastes, but Is there a genre you gravitate towards/avoid? 6.) Are you typically looking to relax and sink into a long listening session for over an hour, or do you only grab a brief time here and there and you want to maximize the WOW factor? That should be a decent starting point!

IAmNotAnAudiophile

Mar 16, 2023

Dylan.Aragornif you can, you might wanna just head to an audio shop where they'll demo you different gear and go off on what you like the sound of best that fits with your needs. Personally, I recommend the beyerdynamic dt770 since it ain't too expensive and they sound pretty nice and clean for what they are. the 880 and 990 are also good choices since they have the same guts but they're semi open and open back respectively so they'll leak more noise out. AMPs i'm not sure since i've only got one and i haven't tried over ones.

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glennkresge

Mar 3, 2023

I have lost count of how many Headphones I have along with high-end portable players, not to mention four HIFI systems. But it is still about the music with me. I want to hear it in the best way possible. After hearing music on a great system, then hearing music from an average source, it troubles me. I like good audio equipment. I am not sure if I am an audiophile, but I sure do like good music sources.

Evshrug

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Community

Mar 3, 2023

glennkresgePeople sometimes call me a snob… but I just know that a really lackluster setup is a bit of a waste of my time on this earth 😂 That said, while I won’t tolerate fatiguing, harsh sound, I believe I have a pretty wide stretch of satisfaction in moderate to high end gear :) Sorry Sirius Radio, you’re just not for me 😂

glennkresge

Mar 3, 2023

Evshrugwell stated! I certainly agree. I have wasted money buying middle-of-the-road audio equipment. But no more! It pays to buy it right the first time if you really want the best-sounding audio source.

smenon

Mar 3, 2023

Hi there.... this is actually an interesting topic. I had started being interested in listening to music during my early teen years (80s). However, I gradually realised I did not appreciate the same track if the quality of sound was bad. So it was not only the track but the quality of the reproduction mattered, hence it was the sound. Fast forward 40 years later, I had started getting into low and mid tier headphones, dac/amps and clean source files. Ironically I started with my car systems before moving onto portable equipment. I am no audiophile, by any stretch. But I do think it is a drug - chasing the dragon so to speak. While the rush of hoarding and swapping equipment has its own rush, the real dopamine generator is listening to a track that one knows and anticipating the flow of the sound. If an audiophile is such an addict.... then just maybe, I am one.

Evshrug

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Community

Mar 3, 2023

smenonYes! I totally agree… I always liked music, but throughout my high school and the first half of my college years, it was a tool to make killing time more bearable or background noise to have a bit of stimulation. But when I got my AKG Q701, from that point on, music itself was able to satisfy my ADHD brain as an entertaining activity in itself! Sometimes, a little difference makes ALL the difference! 🤟

LerxstDirkPratt

Mar 3, 2023

My audiophile friend refers to himself as an "audiofool" due to his constant equipment upgrades. LOL

glatzj

Mar 2, 2023

I like the definition of an "Audiophile" as someone who tilts toward using music to play their equipment, instead of using their equipment to play music.

bobrx

Mar 2, 2023

My relationship with audio sound started around late 50s or early 60s (hard to remember that far back accurately) when my uncle, who worked for a company that made stereo receivers ( I believe the the name was PACO) and gave us one to use. I bought a demo record to listen to stereophonic sound and after hearing trains that seemed to be in my living room and the "coup de grace" of hearing "ping" from the left speaker and then "pong" from the right was the beginning of my quest for beautiful sound-- which is still ongoing.