I think my friends have begun to consider me an audiophile, but the best part of it for me is that I'm beginning to have a little influence on them…another one just picked up a turntable yesterday.

The only thing that separates me from vinyl is laziness really. Even a used technics 1200 TT with a rega RB300 and $180 cart will sound better than most cd players. But when I had my vinyl rig (up until a few years ago) I also had a Lp vacuum/washer, it was the only way to fly.

It is funny to see someones face hear the LP version vs the mp3 they are used to. "Whoa...".

I've heard it said that one should never refer to himself as a writer until someone else has called him one. I guess it's the same with being an audioplile, or a gormet, or for that mater a golfer. All are labels that thave a bit of pretention and some presupposition attached to them. I wouldn't claim the credentials to call myself any of these things but I certainly enjoy music reproduction , food and sometimes, even golf.

Pretense seems to be part of the draw since the late 80's. It's self-aggrandizing. It's seems more now about making a label, and elevating oneself through expense and rhetoric. I really dislike the pretense, especially when someone has zero knowledge of electronics and they argue based on sales literature or market hype. For me, it has nothing to do with stratification, and everything to do with enjoying music. Mp3's and poor recordings like gangsta and deathmetal are banned from my house.

Off topic a bit, but I think the pretense is also a symptom of the fact that it hasn't been all that easy to be in the audio biz for quite awhile now. My sense is that there was a time when mass-market availability actually lined up with good sound, which worked out fine as long as the masses were demanding (or at least felt they needed) decent stereo systems.

I could be wrong, but it seems like the boutique manufacturers got a lot pricier once it was clear that they'd always be selling less no matter what innovations they were coming up with. Bose kinda split the difference by understanding a paradigm shift: They made folks believe their products are a step up when the only thing they really had going for them is that their systems could be hidden in your living space. And then (drumroll, please), Apple changed the game completely by making bad sound "cool" by virtue of its invisibility…iPod's are portable and hold a ton of poorly-rendered music. How do you sell something no one wants to look at? The idea of HT addressed this to some degree, but HT systems aren't really for music (and btw, um, how do we hide the subwoofer?). I'm rambling a bit, but the bottom line is that we're such a long way from the consoles and stuff that used to define good audio.

I am amazed that more of the outrageously price boutique and vanity hifi companies haven't folded. Why does anyone need a $13,000 mini monitor, and why is the expensive even remotely justifiable? Snell and Dunlavy built well-engineered speakers that weren't THAT expensive and they folded. Has any amp costing $10K proved it could do something that a $2K amp can't? (Not in blind listening tests anyway.)

While the average stereo component (not speaker) is significantly better than what was around in the 80's, we have hit a consumer crossroads. Bose may have hit a design niche, but has sacrificed fidelity. So has some home theater gear. A SUBWOOFER reproduces the 1st octave of audio. Now we have too many WOOFERS disguised as subs that boom at 80hz and die by 40hz. Great for explosions, bad for fidelity.

Rule #1: there is no replacement for displacement. Subs have to be fairly big to speak with authority at 20hz (none of those 6" bandpass boxes or single 8" things...) Speakers do not have fidelity that are comprised of a 2" whizzer cone. Me? I hate to hide speakers. Speakers should be elegant and furniture-like, not invisible. I don't care if they are standmount or floor standing, but they are part of the soundscape. Some speakers are too pretty or cool looking to hide.

As much as the term "Audiophile" has become ruined in my book, there is the antithesis of fidelity which is mp3's played through a jewel-cube system.

I've never thought of myself as an audiophile. If i had to put a lable on my self it would be "enthusiast" - an A/V enthusiast.

I read a blurb on a high end speaker site a few years ago..

"That type of person probably watches TV while listening to music" Like the idea of audio+video not being "audiophile approved".

I happen to think Genesis: when in Rome sounds really cool in 5.1 on a bigscreen.

It's funny. My brother can't understand why i spend so much time with the TV on and listening to music rather than the program. I tell him it is like having a "living picture" in the room plus most TV is so simple it is not too difficult to follow without the TV audio.

When my wife sees me watching T.V. and listening to music at the same time, I tell her I am multi-tasking. And who says men can't multi-task?