How did U get into this expensive hobby?


So I was up last night listening to my system and thought to myself, when am I going to be 100% satisfy with my set up. Just for once I like to listen without thinking well maybe if I can add this or remove that I can improve on this or that area. A mist all that I thought how did I ever got into this hobby any way? Well, the nightmare began for me when I was working in my college university's periodical section. We had over 3000+ magazines on file. The first stereo magz I ever picked up was the AUDIO annual price list which was about 300 or so pages of all major audio mfg. and models..also known as the audio bible; what ever happened to Audio magazine anyway? I remembered being so intrigued by so many brands that I have never heard of before and how the workmanship and industrial design seemed so much far superior than the average Kenwood and Pioneer back then (no offense to Kenwood and Pioneer owners). This was 10 years ago and I started by scraping every pennies I had to purchase my first NAD integrated amp. Although 10 years have passed, I am still scraping for money to own something new every now and then, but this time instead of pennies, it's dimes a nickels since my tasted have upgrade with my salery. It'd be interesting to hear how some of you fellow audigoners got started in this hobby. Upon adding to this thread, you'll find that you'll get a little grin on your face after spilling your guts out on how you began on this deep pocket journey and how far you have come. Happy Holidays guys and gals.
3chihuahuas
I started paying way too much for my stereo equipment, and shazam! I was in. ;-)
had a JVC receiver and CD player with Cerwin Vega speakers, which imaged well they don't. I saw the cover of high fidelity magazine with plexiglass speakers, had to check them out. started reading audio magazines. Read Polk ad about stereo dimensional array speakers and why there imaging is better than conventional speakers. Went to absolute audio in Orange CA to audition them and was totally blown away, had no idea a stereo could sound that good. Purchased Polk speakers a few weeks later. I wouldn't listen to a Polk speaker today, have learned to hear in the past 15 years or so. what I thought was good then is terrible now.
My brother-in-law had a Garrard TT and some Fraiser midgets which were given to me. I loved music and was working at the AV department at the university while working on an EE degree. I needed an amp so my boss gave me the amp out of a motion picture projector and a Bogen pa amp. I don't remember for an RIAA pre but it played music.

I became an audiophile the day I walked into a teachers dorm room and he was playing musin on a Thorens TD125 / McIntosh C28 / Citation 12 / Klipsch K-horns. Tull's "Locamotive Breath" is STILL in my memory even today!
That day changed my life completly..... Chris
without music,there would be no hobby,however,the hobby can be half the fun!(that was for leaf)cough...cough...jerk...cough,man,excuse me!now then!it began for me at age 13.at my neighbors.his system wasnt that great,pretty much the best of the chain store goods,but at the time that was the best id heard,my parents just had the worst stereos.so to hear this was wonderfull to me.i had no idea recorede music could sound so good.(keep in mind i was 13)and it took off from there.my mom worked at a library,i saw all the back issues of stereophile and audio,and looked in aww!!!at 14-16 i dreamed of having the equipment i have now.but now its not good enough!i love this hobby,and i love music!!!(you can love both right)lol
This is a cool story:

I was stationed in Japan on the USS Midway in the mid 1980s. My best friend at the time was a guy who was REALLY into audio gear. The navy exchange in yokosuka had a superb high-end audio department - Accuphase, Nakamichi, Denon, etc. Anyway, He had purchased quite alot of stuff already that was sitting in a storage unit on the base. I caught the bug from him and was planning on buying some gear at some point before my hitch ended. We were out to sea and someone in our division got a cassette tape in the mail that had some preacher telling about the evils of rock and roll and all the backwards messages that were in these songs. We all listened to the tape and it was interesting because he would play the section of the song forward and then backward and then we'd all get a good laugh. My buddy the audiophile really got freaked out by this. That night he pitched his 300+ cassettes over the side, came and woke me up and said, "you wanna buy all my audio gear?". To make a long story short, I ended up buying all of it from him for a bit less than what he paid at the exchange, which I later found out was more than HALF of what these items were retailing for in the states. All top of the line stuff that he hadn't ever even opened - including a Nakamichi Dragon, Denon Hi end seperates, a Teac X1000R open reel deck, Audio Technica ATH8 electrect headphones (2 sets), a Denon DP62L turntable and and 3 very nice moving-coil cartridges and a DBX 3BX dynamic range expander. It sat in the storage unit for about a year until I shipped back to the states - I shipped it all back with me and that's how I got into this hobby.

I still have the Teac, the headphones and the DBX unit. I sold the seperates, the Dragon and the turntable & cartridges many years later and actually MADE money on them! Pretty sweet!