How did you get into this hobby?


I grew up listening to small boom boxes, never heard even a Mid-fi system.

When i joined the military, i first started seeing some component systems. Bass pumping, louder than the big bang.
I thought, "How cool"

Bought my first reciever a few months ago, and a couple low end speakers. Ever since then ive been upgrading.

Now my current system retails new at over 8k(everything included) paid under 6.5k, and with upgrades ive spend over 11k so far.

Been doing this for maybe 5 -6 years
audiophanatik
In the summer of 1966 a friend and I were riding our little Stringray bikes by a place called “The Ear Drum” in Hawthorne CA. and went in for a look. One Salesman told us to leave but another said let them look and instructed us not to touch anything. He then told the other guy we were future customers. Smart guy! I will always remember the glow of the tubes in dark store. In the early 70’s while in the service and stationed in West Germany I started with mid-fi and progressed from there.
My Father got me to transfer all his R2R to Cassette tape, when I was just about 7 years old. He worked out of town at the time Mon-Fri so when he left Monday morning I had a new batch ready for him. I lived "in" his system till I was about 16, & then at 18 I got serious. He passed away 2 years ago, prior to my Tube journey. I know if he where alive today he'd be hard to send home to Mom, & get my listening room back to myself.
Forced into it by my wife so she's have something significant to bitch about at the girl's club lunches.
walked into the back room of Mace Electronics in Erie PA when I was 14 or so in 1975 and heard a pair of JBL L-200s and Marantz units playing Supertramp and the Eagles.
My first amp was a JVC integrated 30 watter when I was 17, with a garrard turntable, shure cart. and Pioneer Project 60 speakers, bought from that location.
I think I've been a sort of audiophile all my life. I've always listened to music (started at age 3 with Beatles records, used to drive the household nuts!), and even at the age of 7 or 8 was always wanting "more" than the BSR turntable. Started into separates with a Radio Shack SA 10 amp - an output of about 3 watts per channel as I recall - at the age of 13, and then progressed through a series of Pioneer, Sony, and whatnot, until I settled down with an NAD system for about 7 years. Bought a Naim system after that, which lasted almost ten years, then got totally stupid.

This audiophile thing to me is sort of like a non-serious but lingering medical condition; every once in a while it gets bad enough to need treatment in various degrees, then goes into remission for an unspecified time. It was only life threatening once, when my wife gave me the choice of going to Florida or buying speakers. I went for the speakers...