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Someone who attempts to reach a simple acoustical nirvana through whatever form of music or set of equipment that allows you to reach that nirvana.

Someone who loves music enough to spend time and money to make sure it sounds as close as possible to how it was recorded. It also can be tech-heads who care as much or more about equipment than the music. The music lover always has the bigger music collection; the tech-head has more "demo" recordings.

An audiophile is somebody obsessed and/or in love with music and sound.

Someone who knows how to obtain deep audio satisfaction. There are many ways to obtain it.

A passion for recorded music and a willingness to sacrifice other pleasures to get the best results.

Passion for sound and the appreciation of music reproducton.

Anyone who purchases separate components with care—be they from one manufacturer or several—with the express intention of producing a holistic system that will sound better than buying an "all in one" from a high street chain. An audiophile believes that music deserves more than this, be they spending $300, $3000, or $30,000.

In my humble opinion, an audiophile is a music lover who wants to get as close as possible to the original source of a recording. It is not how much you spend, as evidenced by the budget components reviewed by Stereophile.

An audiophile, in my opinion, is someone who is never satisfied with the sound of his setup and is on a neverending quest for audio nirvana.

Audiophile: Someone concerned over the quality of reproduced sound above and beyond any musical content. An audiophile will spend his/her time listening for reproduced minutia rather than enjoying the content of the recording.

A person who enjoy to hear and listen.

Someone who appreciates the ability of high-quality equipment to improve the playback of music. Has very little with how much you spend or what kind of music you listen to.

An audiophile is someone who spends way too much money and a great deal of their time in pursuit of a goal that they can never attain. Me personally, I probably have between $40-50 thousand invested in my two systems. Most people would think that this is an insane amount to spend on a "stereo system". Most of my friends have systems where everything came in one box. But it's amazing to see the look on their faces when they hear the differences between what I have and what they have. If you compare this hobby to any other, you'll find its really not that different in price. For example, a close friend of mine is into motorcycle riding. He has a $75k motorhome, a $10k trailer plus all of his famiy's bikes and stuff to go with it. But here's the real difference between me and him. I get to enjoy my hobby any time I want to, day or night 365 days a year, and I don't even get dirty doing it. He on the other hand only gets to enjoy his hobby maybe 6 to 10 times a year. He has to pay to store all his stuff because it doesn't fit in his driveway and it takes a good day to clean everything up after he's done.

Person who (really) cares about the quality of reproduced music and sounds.

A. A person with 25 big band recordings and a 5 figure plus dollar system. B. A person who loves audio equipment. C. A person who loves good sound more than good music. D. A person who likes good sound.

I define, at least for myself, the term audiophile as a music lover who is aware of the shortcomings of most playback systems and is both willing and eager to invest time and money into a system that has fewer shortcomings.

An audiophile is someone who understands that hi-fi is really about the most realistic reproduction of music, regardless of budget. In my mind, a true audiophile is someone who works out their maximum budget for hardware, halves it, and spends the other half on live music, which is what it's all about: music and your emotional response to it and how it makes you feel!

A person who enjoys and appreciates sound. This is a very simple definition but, I think, captures the heart of what the term means in common usage and furthermore, encompasses not only "music" but also sounds not necessarily labeled as music (such as natural sounds), and not only recorded sound but live sound as well.

An audiophile is a person who is at least as interested in the sound quality of a recording as the musical value and seeks to if possible maximize the sound quality, hopefully so he can better appreciate and undertand the music.

One who enjoys high quality playback of audio. Regardless of technology used, the amount of money spent or personal level of snobbery.

An audiophile is a sucker who prefers to spend an awful lot of money in "musical event illusion" equipment instead of attending live musical events for a fraction of that amount of money. Definition #2: Also, it's a person convinced that he will achieve the impossible goal of "musical reality" whith the next replacement of one component in its audio rig.

Best sound for your budget.

Audiophile: A somewhat demented, azimuth-compulsed, wife-nagging, vinyl-eating, tube-swallowing, cable-inserting, speaker-moving tweaker who is in love with music and its reproduction. I ought to know, as I'm describing myself.

Someone who appeciates high quality music, regardless of the source.

Audiophile: The result of a passionate love and humbling respect for music, and those who play it, that results in the never ending desire to hear recordings in their ideal state.

Synonomous w/Audiophlake.....unable to grasp reality, beleives in magic, hears things that ain't happening. Doesn't understand electrical science, or realitys of proven science. Subscribes to to many magazines that continue the fantasy.

Audiophile: A person that recognizes that the quality of the equipment and the quality of the recording(s) can make a significant difference to the quality of the sound heard from a stereo.

I have no idea, and I don't particularly care! I am a musician who loves great sounding equipment. But I also opt for having as much music as I can when away from home and have an iPod and use 256k or even less at times for MP3s so I can have music when I travel. I don't need appproval for what I love! "Audiophiles" and others could do with some loosening up of their need to label everything! If you like something, be happy with that and don't let anyone tell you it isn't okay, I mean after all, they aren't the ones listening, are they?

An audiophile in my view is simply someone who enjoys high-fidelity music reproduction in the home. It doesn't matter how much or how little you spend—you're just striving for the highest fidelity within your price point.

I think it is all about how you want your music to run or what is your taste, not money. Nobody listen to money, we all listen to music, the way we want it.