I think im an audiophile, but I'm not entirely sure. Im confused. I don't really understand all of the audio jargon that is thrown out around here, but if someone could please point me towards somewhere that explains it, i'd be most grateful.

If you have to 'think' you're an audiophile, you're probably not one.

It's like saying "I think I'm male, but I'm not sure".

Ok, I know i'm an audiophile, Seriously, I just don't know the terminology.

How about you just give some examples of 'terminology' you'd like defined, instead of us pointing you towards a dictionary?

Audiophile - Wikipedia definition - might clear up some 'terms'...

You don't have to know the audio terms to be an audiophile. You just have to love good sound. How do you know you are an audiophile?

1. You change headphone/canalphone for each song you listen to.

2. You have different setup for home use, office use, and portable use.

3. You stay away from BOSE headphones (and all Bose products).

4. You have an amp for your headphone/canalphone.

5. You spend a ridiculous amount of money for headphones and your family/friends think you've gone mad.

6. You change OEM (stock) wired and pads of your headphones to get the best sound out of them

7. You only use foam tips for your canalphones since they give the absolute best fit.

8. You go to headphone meet, where use can show off your headphones to other audiophile and listen to other people's headphones.

9. You listen for very single bit of detail while listen to a song.

10. Your home stereo system/headphone system is more exspensive than your car.

11. You recognize these brands: Beyerdynamic, Audio Technica, Ultimate Ears, Grado, Alessandro, Westone, Shure, Etymotic, Sennsaphonic, Sennheiser, and AKG.

12. Every Birthday, Christmas, or any special event, you want new headphones as a present.

If you have 6 out of 12 of these statement, you're an audiophile. LOL, i just made it up, but you guys get what i mean. See if you're an audiophile.

If you like music, you can tell crappy production from a good one, and your perception of the quality of music doesn't revolve around how much bass you can kick out with your system, then you're probably an audiophile.


The number of headphones, whether you have x amp, etc isn't the defining characteristic of an audiophile. On the other hand, the number of CD's/LP's you own and how much it grows by is probably one of the defining characteristics.


Having x headphones, x sources, etc merely means like me that you're an audio geek, which is somewhat removed from audiophile (but not necessarily mutually exclusive... I have 3000+ CD's, and can enjoy my favourite music from any of the systems I have). Many audio geeks are however willing to waste all day fanboying their players (and to a lesser extent, headphones) which they play back their five Anime and j-pop albums on

I disagree with owning a lot of CDs is consider an audiophile. Mainly because my friends has a crap load of cds but they use apple stock headphones and swears by them. So by your definition they are audiphile? A person with a lot of CDs? Hardly.

Webster dictionary defines an audiophile as: "a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction." Owning a lot of CDs is not even close to the definition. It does not mean jack if you own a lot of CDs. It just means you like music, an audiophile and a music lover is two totally different things.

On the other hand, owning good headphones, good amp, good sources that CAN produce high fidelity sound reproduction is in essence the definition of an audiophie- since it states "a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction." Well obviously if you own high fidelity sound reproduction equipment, you're obviously enthusiatic about it, and therefore, makes you an audiophile.

Moreover, just because you can tell the difference between a 96kps mp3 and a 256 mp3 doesn't make you an audiphile. It just means your hearing is normal. ANYONE can tell a difference between those two reproduction period. Now to tell the difference between 320kps AAC and LAME lossless (or any lossless) is very difficult (and you probably need audiophile equipment to do so). But that's not the point, you DO NOT have to be able to tell the difference in audio production to be an audiophile. LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF AUDIOPHILE. I'm going by Webster's dictionary because I think it was the most widely use source that is unbias and has a clear defination.

FLAME ON if you like =D But I feel that that is very concise to the definiton of audiophile. No where does it state about telling the difference between crappy reproduction. An audiophile is after reproducing high-fidelity sound, he is not intrested in telling the difference of recording quality/production. That's more of a personal thing.

I think I said crappy music production. How music is produced, not reproduction.


I think that audiophile and music lover go hand in hand and as a music lover, you will be open to new music. No flames, but I think that's the norm. People who have very little music and lots of gear are usually gearheads. But yes, of course you can have audiophile gearheads. But there are plenty of people who will spend a while assembling reasonable system (which they won't change for a long time) in order to listen. That's true audiophilia in my book.


My musician past makes me an audio-music-phile by default but at this time I'm probably evenly balanced between audiophilia and gearheadism. I love my music, but I love my audio toys too.

Well everyone has their own definition of an audiophile, the definition is more of a guideline. But when you're serious about audio, you subconciously have your own definition, and your own definition may not match with another audiophile's definition. Like in this case =D, but differences are great. That's what separate us from lemmings :-D

Nice of you guys to totally blow off the OP's request.

Personally, if I was interested in something like audiophile terminology, I'd go do a Google search for "audiophile terminology".

Which I did. The first match was: a link to http://www.rane.com/par-a.html, which looks pretty thorough. The next match was http://www.audiofederation.com/catalog/links/, which has links to all sorts of terminlology & related pages.

(points finger)

He started it! wah!


Seriously, obviously you can google audiophile terminology. One would assume you've already done this After that, one of the best ways of bringing home the meaning of audiophile phrases versus your experience is to buy something that's reviewed often, either on enthusiast sites or by publications. Then jigsaw-fit your experience around what everyone else is saying. There may be certain things you agree on, and maybe others you don't. But after a while, you'll be able to attach a goodly level of personal experience to the meanings of the words that other people are using to describe some aspect of the performance of equipment.

Being an audiophile has nothing to do with music...i agree with rx7. My dad is a huge audiophile (and got me started into it, more for home theater than anything) but he doesnt use his system much for music. it's more for him about cinema. I really think being a true audiophile is about the equiptment and how you use it, tweak it, and get the best possible reproduction of sound. Believe me, being an audiophile is a sickness, and a huge burden on your wallet. Once you get something it is NEVER good enough, there will always be something new and better.

I've heard some movie-great HT systems that are noticeably poor at reproducing music and also some HT systems that don't quite pack the 'cinema feel' but sound spookily as though you're in the concert hall. HT enthusiasts can have very different priorities from the traditional audiophiles.

either way i think it boils down to the equiptment that makes an audiophile...