Being an audiophile can be a bit of a pain sometimes. You do a lot of things a certain way. Just as a disclaimer, this is only from my personal perspective. But on to the topic at hand, being an audiophile, you notice sounds coming from speakers and, especially for me since I do reviews in my free time, I tend to judge the quality of the sound coming from those speakers. For example, from speakers in restaurants. Other people will tend to not really notice and listen to the quality of sounds from those speakers, but I will, and I will judge them. I will, in my mind, or if my dad is around, talk to him about the speakers, like how they are surprisingly pretty good, or if they are too harsh, etc. Commonly, based on my observations so far, the speakers from the restaurants that I’ve gone to are too harsh because they are really small speakers that are being played louder than it is designed for. Sometimes the speakers are damaged and you can tell from the crackling as they are being pushed a slight bit. Most people will group sounds and the interior in general as the ambiance of the restaurant, but I see sound as it’s own separate thing. It’s something I notice.
At home as well, sound, as you may know, is a relatively important thing. My dad has a very serious system which I’ve mentioned about before. For me, you may know from the information given on my page of my own system, that I have a dedicated DAC, the Music Hall DAC15.2, a NAD receiver, a Velodyne sub, and NHT Superzero (original) speakers. All this is just for my desk. I have other means of quality audio for on the go listening as well. I have my V-Moda Crossfade Wireless 2 and my Sony XP50AP extra-bass in-ear headphones, for when I need a very portable means of budget quality headphones. In the laptop which I bring everyday for my means of school notes, although I didn’t choose it necessarily for the audio, it does have JBL speakers built-into the device which sounds pretty good for when I need a quick listen to whatever is on my laptop I’m viewing, without access to the system at my desk. For personal gaming as well, I have a game room that has a 5.1 surround sound system as well, consisting of 4 Klipsch Quintet III, a Klipsch Quintet III Center, an MTX sub which was gotten at a local craiglist sale, and an Oppo receiver, all for about $200 total. It elevates my gaming experience more than I could ask for. If I may also mention as well, I have a car that I share with my brother for us to use for going to and from college/university, of which includes a 6 speaker system which sounds superb, albeit my equalizing it to sound to my liking, and to crank up the bass whenever I want to (it has only equalization for treble and bass, of which I usually set to -2 and +6 respectively)
As you may see, there is a certain priority to the sound quality in my daily life, that I may, at this point, unconsciously chose over certain things. I have even noticed it in the way I do things as well. Every time I feel like I want to listen to music, I tend to want to wait until I’m at my desk of if I have access to a speakers like those in my car, or my headphones. If I don’t absolutely have to, I won’t listen via my phone’s speakers or my laptop’s default built-in speakers. That is how I would definitely identify as an audiophile myself. I prioritize quality over a certain need to listen to something at the moment. Of course there are exceptions such as sounds from videos on social media such as instagram or facebook as it is way more convenient to just listen via the speakers on the phone because of how often I check, and the absence of quality audio on those media outlets.
Of course, audiophiles do have their own budgets, means of getting their audio equipment, and their priorities, so their way of doing things to get better sound can be way different than me, or quite similar. I might never know exactly how similar or different, but this is just me sharing how I do things, for your entertainment. If you are curious about something you can feel free to shoot a comment and ask. Most, of the equipment I have mentioned actually were gotten through means of owners/dealers selling owned equipment, which, taking into account depreciation is a means of me getting as much bang for my buck as possible. Hope anyone who reads this found it interesting, despite the gap between my last post and this one.
HIFI Sound Enthusiast 