In the borderland where technology meets art, something like a religion is created...

What is an audiophile—and why would you want to be one? A good way to know how to become an audiophile is to describe what an audiophile is not. It is not the same as being a music lover, although almost all audiophiles are. It is different from being a record collector, an audio recording engineer, a designer of audio equipment, or a collector of "vintage" equipment (for nostalgic or commercial reasons)—even though these activities all overlap in major ways.

In essence, an audiophile is someone who is interested in the quality of sound recording and reproduction. What is rarely added, because it's normally so obvious, is that the sound of interest is almost always music (at least, to that listener's ears!). This is not a fine point; in fact it's central to understanding why, for some people, the pursuit of the best possible sound is such an obsession.

Given its origins, the pursuit of the best possible sound quality is as much an art as a science, but some steps are basic. Fortunately, these are not steps that must be done in a particular order, nor must any one be completed before another. In fact, they will usually be done more or less concurrently, and what you learn in one activity will enhance your enjoyment of the others.

If there is a starting point, this is probably it. You could assemble an entire multi-channel home theater stereo system costing thousands of dollars, then start listening to FM or Internet radio and watching movies on cable TV, before buying a single CD, LP or DVD, but that would be unusual.

The kind of music you like may influence the type of equipment you want to buy, but all types will benefit from being played by better equipment. Buy audiophile versions of music you like, and when possible, go farther. Compare the way they sound to how the less expensive versions, marketed to the wider public, sound.

Note that recordings that are truly of audiophile quality can be downloaded in lossless formats (that is, exact replications of a digital original such as a CD), often free of charge, though there can be serious legal issues for many of these; proceed with caution.

Listen with care, and repeatedly to the same things , paying attention to new things with each listening. In the long presentation in the YouTube clip below, near the end, one audience member asks whether one needs to have especially good hearing ("golden ears") to appreciate high-quality sound, and one member of the panel gives a convincing answer that essentially reduces to "No," for the very reason that hearing well is something you learn to do over time, and it is generously rewarded in increased listening pleasure.

If possible, try to make time to listen to live music, played with little or no amplification. This will help you to keep your perspective as to what music really sounds like as it's originally played. If you have musical training, so much the better; practice your art regularly, for similar reasons.

Obviously, this needs to be done with care, as it usually involves substantial sums of money. You can get a lot of enjoyment out of a system that comes in under USD 1000, but it is entirely possible to spend USD 100,000 on audio playback alone (not to mention video, or the ability to record and mix music). No doubt there are many people whose audio systems cost more than their cars, or even their houses.

One way to get premium-quality sound is to put some serious money into well-chosen headphones (or in-the-ear phones, which have become much more popular in recent years). It is even arguable that the best headphones (or earphones) provide better sound than the best loudspeakers, but in fact a truly direct comparison is not possible; the two listening experiences are different in fundamental ways.

These include the more popular periodicals such as Sound & Vision, as well as the more limited-circulation publications such as The Absolute Sound and The Stereophile, which will sometimes venture farther from the mainstream of subject matter and opinion.http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/ http://www.enjoythemusic.com/tas/ http://www.stereophile.com/

Have conversations in places such as stereo shops, clubs, and of course, in Internet discussion groups. If you avoid these conversations, you can avoid raising your blood pressure; but if you avoid the controversies, you miss a lot of the fun, for the fascinating thing about this pursuit is its ability to generate passionate arguments over things that only a tiny minority of the public cares about at all.

This is an optional step but recommended. A couple of activities are worth mentioning as options, as they may help you in doing the other things. First, you could choose a collection of recordings to use in listening equipment that you are considering buying. Since it is so easy to burn CDs, you may wish to collect a number of tracks, from your collection, to use for testing various characteristics of loudspeakers and other equipment. A song with an impressive drum track can show how well a speaker handles deep bass. An acapella passage of a vocalist may be great for evaluating clarity in the middle frequencies. Cymbals and other metallic percussion instruments can provide a test for tweeters.

It's also fairly easy to use a digital audio editor, on almost any computer, to create a CD with test tones and other synthetic sounds that will allow a more analytical evaluation of equipment performance. This can be an activity unto itself.

By now, CDs are old technology; if you really want to be current, you can load even more recorded material onto a USB flash drive, and have many hours of material to use at your local hi-fi establishment, if they are equipped to play the contents of such devices through their systems.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that audiophiles do not always limit themselves to getting the most accurate reproduction from an existing recording. With modern, computer-based facilities, it is also possible to manipulate sound in order to make it sound better. This may involve removing clicks and pops in vinyl (or high-frequency hiss from tape); changing the equalization (a refinement of the more familiar bass and treble controls); or even adding reverberation, or other extra sound enhancements to simulate a three-dimensional sound environment. The same person may, as it were, wear different hats at different times, sometimes aiming for certain types of enhancement for some recordings, while at other times taking a "purist" approach and staying as close to the sound of the original recording as possible. This opens a whole new range of possibilities for listening enjoyment—and for still more spirited discussions.