[proton007]

I cant speak for the rest, but my take on the audiophile is as follows:
Give them a budget, and your preferences, and they'll suggest you the best possible choice. Its not a club that requires you to spend atleast $1000 in order to be a member. Yes there are those that spend a lot because they can, but a lot of us try to understand the science of sound, and try to make the best possible decision in the given constraints.
 
Being a snob has nothing to with with being an audiophile. The ones who claim to focus on "enjoying" their music more than the equipment are also being a snob in a way. 
 
To the OP: Your comment about beats needs a bit of clarification. While you may have found that beats-bashing is a regular feature on Head-Fi, thing is, they're overpriced for the sound they have, people buy them for social/promotional reasons rather than the sound,  and there are cheaper options that provide a similar or maybe better sound.
Whether you want to take advice from audiophiles is upto you. No one is asking you to spend hundreds of dollars, or charging you for the advice.
Its hypocritical to say that spending $300 on a headphone is bad if the advice comes from an audiophile, but spending the same on Beats is a matter of enjoying the music. 

 

[BillsonChang007]

I am no audiophile by any means but I do love audio gear as much as my music. I dislike "comparing" my audio gear with anyone. Accuracy? Is that what I'm looking for? To be honest, not excatly, I have two taste when it comes to this. During the day when I'm active, I prefer something with good bass punch, warm mids and clear highs. At night, I want something that sound relaxing. Why? That's because I been studying the whole day, I wanted something that can relax be instead of "fun" sound. However, I dislike strong bass which give me an headache.
 
Being an audio gear lover to me, it's not just about accuracy. It's about searching what you really like. Everyone has different taste and that's why there's several audio gear companies and different genre of songs. One thing for sure, I will non stop searching for better ones and try them at the store. I'm not gonna buy them but just try them. Improve my knowledge and understand is it what I am looking for. With my knowledge and experience, I too like sharing and helping others. 
 
I agree it's like a quest but not like a game neither is it defending my audio source. Quest in finding good headphones that suits you but not a game to compare with others how huge is my collection or how good my audio source sound. What for defending? In my opinion, there's getting less and less people caring how music sound & the spirit of music are droping everyday. People are downloading mp3 instead of CDs and causing records company downgrading their records quality. 
 
As for why are we so aggressive against Beats, it's not about stoping them from buying what they are looking for. The style, the sound and popularity but as I said, a lot of people who bought beats(no offence) are not using it to listen their favorite music but to show off how proud they are to own beats. That I think it's a disease. If everyones are doing the samething, this world will seriously be filled with selfish people. Draging them out of selfish world does not only safe them but you yourself too. 
 
all and all, never did I take this my hobby as a game. 
 
I find this thread is a very interesting place to share how we see/view about audio.

 

[BillsonChang007]

Oh and as we get a new headphone, our taste will change & start looking for new headphones. That is why multi headphone is better than one