How, all this obsession started

Though both came long after my love affair with music began, two events were key in nurturing my interest in "proper equipment". The first was taking a job selling stereo equipment. Talk about a kid in a candy store. It was here that I first learned just how important properly matched equipment is in the reproduction of music. The second came on the heels of hard times. Jobless and lacking any prospects, a friend allowed me to move into the recording studio he and his brother owned. Full access to not only superb equipment (tonight I'll listen to these monitors and that amp...), but also a very extensive album collection, all at my disposal. For some reason being unemployed at that time didn't depress me in the least!

I won my first stereo in a sales contest, the paperboy who signed up the most new subscribers for a local newspaper. One of those real cheesy $100 systems, but at the age of 8, I liked it. I used to go record shopping every Saturday, and one day wandered by a high-end stereo store. I was curious what this stuff was all about, 12 year old kids can be inquisitive. This place had affordable audio, NAD and Mission gear as well as more lofty gear. The people in this small audio specialty store took the time to walk me through some of the basics, and let me cue up some of my own records I had just bought. I listened to a NAD3020, Mission speakers, and Thorens TD147 turntable. I was smitten by the sheer musicality and how much I enjoyed the sound coming from this budget set-up. Compared to my friend's Akai receiver and Ohm speakers, this system was incredible, for about the same money. For the next three months I cut lawns, painted houses, did whatever I could to make the money required to buy this newly found killer rig. That three month period was tough, I learned to really hate the rack system I won and used daily in my bedroomm, and still dropped into the audio store to gawk at the gear. The day came when I finally had enough cash to buy the NAD/Mission/Thorens, and haven't stopped upgrading and tweaking, 25 years later. Oh, and where do I buy the bulk of my gear today? The same audio shop that took the time to get a 12 year old interested in just how enjoyable music can be.

I've been interested in music and audio since 1980. My first full length album purchase was on vinyl, "Pyromania", back in 1984. I got sucked into "highend" with a free issue offer from Stereophile back in 1994. My ears are unbelievably happier, and of course my wallet is NOT!!

The year 1972. Riding my bike to Pacific Stereo and Alco electronics (you california types may remember these stores of a bygone era). I will remember to this day walking into the high-end room (and having a salesman give me a dirty look - like a 12 year old boy is gonna have cash on hand to by a pair...) and stumbling upon a pair of JBL L-300's. The ones with the glass top... Remember? I thought I saw audio God right then and there. Since then, I have burned through countless equipment. All of it good. Some better than others to a degree but all quality stuff nonetheless. Have slowed down quite a bit in the purchasing and selling of gear and am enjoying the simplicity of listening to music. What a concept! The audio purist game, to me anyway, has always been about equipment first and the enjoyment of listening to recorded music, second. Every year - count on it - a new piece of equipment from the power cord to the speakers and everything inbetween comes along and purports to supercede, in some fashion, the existing. And guess what? There's nothing wrong with that. I enjoy seeing the manufacturers of fine audio equipment perfect their art year after year if, for nothing else, than the fact that somebody out there is striving towards the perfection of a discipline or an art. And you cannot deny the sheer magnificence, the level of detail and passion that is poured into the manufacture of certain high-end gear. It's a great hobby and (my chauvinist $.02 here) one of the last bastions of enjoyment and escape from bitchy females!!!! Amp On!