When did it all start?

My interest in music goes back to as early as I can remember, just something I always loved and was always around. Everyone used to sing around the house as well as the family get togethers, always there was music.

The first time I became interested in well reproduced audio was when my Dad brought home an album around x-mas early 60's. He put it on the Zenith console and I was just amazed at how natural and good it sounded. Couldn't put it into words but I really loved the sound and the music. The album is Pops Christmas Party, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and is a shaded dog recording that I have to this day. My older sister still remembers how much I loved listening to that album during the holiday seasons. It probably spured my interest in participating and playing music through my school years. The serious hi-end of it all started in the mid 80's.

As early as I can remember. My dad always had high-end, built his own kits, transmission lines, single driver speakers, etc. I grew up with music and audio, and it was pretty high-end for the time; at one point in the mid-70's, when I was a teenager, he had a prototype pair of Tympani 4's, triamped with all Audio Research tube gear, SP3 preamp, SP10 turntable, top Ortofon moving coil, etc. My cousin still has the speakers, I think. Then I took a long break from high end while in college and graduate school (living on a dollar a day--love those ramen noodles) and getting started in career. Just got back into it about 3 years ago; I'm making up for lost time.

For me, it really started in '72, the day after I graduated from high school. A buddy wanted to sell an amplifier to raise thirty bucks so he could buy some of the great new weed that had just come into town. I told him I didn't play guitar, so I didn't want an amp. He told me that it was used in a stereo to listen to music, and offered to bring it over. It was a Knight integrated amp, but I don't recall anything else about it. He hooked it up to my speakers(my system was one of those units with a tuner, turntable, and 8-track in one chassis, with separate speakers), and I was stunned at how much better those speakers sounded driven by that amp. I bought it, allowing him to indulge in his addiction, and unknowingly beginning my own. Within two days, I had blown those speakers. I went to the local Radio Shack to look for better ones, and began the first of many, many auditions. I had always been a music lover, but my love for equipment as a means of getting to the music began then. It's been a wonderful 31 years!