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Memories........What made you catch the Audio Bug?

I remember back in high school, my ''industrial arts'' teacher was an avid audiophile and music lover. We are going back to '73 now. I remember one day being very different from any other. Upon entering class for our usual 40 minutes of the usual wood-cutting and bird-cage building routine,(some of us were luckier, getting ,'design' classes instead) we found our teacher,Ed, busy at setting up an LP on a Thorens turntable. Alongside, some strange, industrial-looking brown and orange boxes (QUAD) and a cloth-wrapped box with the initals B&W on them. He informed us that, today, we would discover something new, ''high-Fidelity'' as he called it.

We all sat in awe as our teacher put the SGT Peppers Lonely Hearts on full blast, to the amazement of everyone in the room. Wow! What was THAT? The equipment, the sound, the MUSIC was unlike anything most of us had ever seen or heard. I remember thinking to myself, now this is how the Beatles really sound like? I just could not beleive it.

I remember that we had no quality music equipement in our home back then, as with most other kids.

It was just amazing. Word got around that 'something special was happening, in industrial art's class. Turned out the topic of the week was 'high-fidelity' discovery I guess, as every other class in turn got the same treatment all week long.

The Following year, our teacher somehow managed to get the school board to approve a special ''equipement'' expenditure, officially probably a vacuum system, or new circular saw, or band saw, whatever. The class built a special wooden closet complete with locks, to accept the new ''equipement''. When it finally arrived, holy smokes, a McIntosh amplifier and preamp, with Thorens turntable !

We ended up ''founding'' an audiophile club at school, and would have students spend their lunch hour seating in a closed room in complete darkness, listening to a complete album...against a 10 cent fee that we would keep to buy records !

If you are reading this ED, these 30 years old memories are as fresh in my mind as yesterday. Thank you so very much for sharing your passion with us, and opening our eyes to so many horizons, music being just one of them.

Just wondering how others in this forum got the audio bug also?
sonicbeauty
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t
1,610 posts
 
Circa 1974-75..Lots of my friends had stereo systems in college and they all played loud. I really didn't understand what the big deal was. I got a chance to visit my girlfriend's parent's house.....her dad put on 'Chicago Damn' by Bobbie Humphrey and my life was changed forever. The crystal clear sound of that flute and synthesizer coming through a Sansui 771 reciever, Dokorder 7140 reel to reel and a pair of JBL speakers with 12 inch woofers...it was a life altering experience. I had heard that song maybe a hundred times before, but NEVER LIKE THAT!....the flute just pierced right through me and I was riveted.

As soon as I could save enough money, I went to Leo's Stereo in Van Nuys, CA and bought the exact system with a Techics SL 1500 turntable and Superscope cassette recorder. I bought a stereo system before I bought a car.....I had my priorities in order.
ashra's avatar
ashra
148 posts
 
My Dad is responsible. One day in the early 1960s dad brought home 3 large boxes with the word Heathkit on them. One box contained small glass bottles along with screws and metal frames and other unknown goodies. He introduced me to the careful use of a thing called a soldering iron. He even let me melt something called solder onto a circuit. The best part was watching dad carefully and deliberately construct this thing. I could see by his expression that this was something really special and important and I learned to be patient while he was using the iron and to give him space. The other 2 boxes contained what looked like end tables on tall spindly legs.
When he had completed construction I knew I had witnessed sorcery. When it was first turned on I heard jazz coming through the end tables. All that for jazz?
It is now years later and when I discover an LP that I have a distant childhood memory of I anxiously play it for my father to learn about the artist and whether my dad saw them perform live and what other songs and LPs I should look for. Oh, Four Women by Nina Simone. I loved hearing that song when I was young, even though I never told my dad.
Yep!..music and audio equipment, itÂ’s all my dads fault.
slappy
903 posts
 
ASK ME THIS QUESTION IN 20 YEARS.

Nobody in my family is into this stuff. None of my friends are either. I have a few aquaintenances that are into this hobby, but that is about it.

I first discovered stereo gear in the military, and spent whatever i could to get my system sounding good. It never reached the level of clarity i desired though.

When i got out of the military i went to this place in denver called SOUNDTRACK AUDIO, same thing as audio king and ultimate electronics.

What really facinated me was the room with Martin Logan, Sunfire, Krell, Adcom, and the like. I saw that shit and knew i wanted it. Even in thier crappy listening room it was far far superior to my system and had virtually none of the shortcomings.

I started reading every audio mag i could and checking manufacturer web sites.

Then i stumbled into AUDIOGON one day while doing a search about audio related. I was instantly hooked.

I also managed to piss off the entire audiogon community within a couple weeks. I thought i knew way more than i did, and i got offended when people told me i diddnt know what i was talking about, and i ran my mouth, and was basically chased away.

Couple months went by and i finally logged back on under a new name and tried again. I knew that there was alot of experience here, and that the advice i got could potentially save me from bad buying decisions, and save me thousands of dollars.

Then i lost my system, which sucked, but it was not well thought out and put together terribly. There were some good pieces of gear that i would still like to have though.

Im glad i came back on here though, because the level of experience that i suspected the audiogon community to have was only the surface, and over the past year i have become to realize how deep that experience and knowledge really runs, and how little i knew.

I still dont know a whole lot now, but if my experience then was a gram, i have a ten solid pounds of it now. Which aint much compared to the 50 metric tons that people like Sean and TWL, and Albert Porter have.

So like i said, Ask me this question again in 20 years, my responce will be

"When i stumbled across Audiogon"
aroc
760 posts
 
Holy #$%! That's what a stereo image is? It was 2001, I was fresh out of college, and I heard a high-end stereo setup at a friend's house. Never before had I heard two speakers setup correctly to yield a stereo image. And never before had I heard that level of resolution before. The rest was history.
viggen
838 posts
 
Audiogon certainly made hi-fi affordable to me with its vast available resource of buying and selling second hand goods whereas I otherwise wouldn't have built/trialed so many components in many different systems in a short amount of time within a budget restraint. But, Audiogon certainly isn't when/where I was bit. But, it certianly perpetuated the sting.

I really can't recall when I was bit. Like slappy, I was the only kid into this stuff for as long as I know. My taste has always been very stuck up (and don't give a shit about what others have) no matter what it was either toys, cars, electronics or style. I guess it was just a natural evolution for me that I'd stumble upon and stick to Hifi.

I enjoy learning about technologies, theorizing improvements, and assembling systems as much as listening to the final product. Hifi is somewhat intellectually stimulating as well as job well done gratifying. And, Hifi as a "practice" is also very therapeutic.
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