Audiophile

An audiophile is a person with a strong interest in high-quality sound (usually music) reproduction.

Audiophile values may be applied at all stages of music reproduction: the initial audio recording, the production process, and the playback, which is usually in a home setting.

"Audiophile" recordings include those using conventional formats but with special attention to audio quality, as well as recordings in high-resolution formats such as Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio. Recently, there has been interest in lossless file formats such as WAV, FLAC, WMA Lossless, and Apple Lossless.

A key goal of audiophiles is to capture the experience of a live musical performance in a room with good acoustics, and reproduce it at home. It is widely agreed that this is very difficult and that even the best-regarded recording and playback systems rarely, if ever, achieve it.

The term High-end audio refers to playback equipment used by audiophiles, which may be bought at specialist shops and websites. High-end components include turntables, digital-to-analog converters, equalization devices, preamplifiers and amplifiers (both solid-state and vacuum tube), horn and electrostatic speakers, power conditioners, subwoofers, headphones, and acoustic room treatment.