Who R U?

pcweber11: glad to have you among us, phillip. you've been buying equipment since you were 17? interesting that you can't buy cigarettes legally 'til you're 18, and they're much less addictive than audio/ht gear! (but, for god's sake, don't let the politicians know this.) -kelly

David, too kind and thank ewe for the inside joke! and it's never to late to start with the girlfriends -
I would title the book
FAW - Females and Winning (that's WAF spelled backwards)

No no, I said I have loved home theater since I was 17. I didn't get my first piece of gear till I moved out at 18 to go to school. That was a Harmon Kardon AVR20 mk2. After that came the Cerwin Vega RE25 speakers and a Toshiba SD3006 dvd player. I was in heaven at the time! My how times have changed though!

Today I ran across this thread and spent 2hrs learning more about many of you whose opinions I have come to respect over the past few months, and decided to toss in my 2cts.
I'm 33, American, married to a French woman who has been the light of my life for 10yrs. We live in Japan, have one 2yr old 'tube toucher' (a boy) and another on the way. Born in NYC, raised all over the mid-Atlantic, school in upstate NY, deferred law school to spend a year in Japan and I'm still here after 11 yrs. I have worked in the financial sector for 5yrs and now work (is it really "work" if you love your job?) as a proprietary money manager for a large institution. My wife and I listen to all kinds of music; classical, jazz, some rock, blues, etc. We are big fans of single instrument (cello, piano, organ), small ensemble music, and vocal music in particular. Our other hobbies include travelling, and collecting Japanese furniture and Central Asian textiles.
I have listened to music since I was 8 when my parents bought their first system and I got to hear something better than a table radio and I was smitten. I also studied classical piano for 10+yrs in my childhood. Money to go beyond mid-fi for me took 5yrs from college but with a career change, two moves, subsequent employer change, a kid, etc, it took another several to get my act together. I happened across Agon on the web. Reading the highly informative, mostly supportive words has been a great help - in learning much of the theory, and especially in giving me the confidence to trust my own ears. It has helped to build our current system - tubes & panels (ML SL3s, VTL MB450s, SONY SCD-777ES, Cello passive attenuator, Audioquest cbl) upon which subsequent upgrades will likely be inflicted. For the moment though, I have rediscovered my little bit o' heaven where Glenn Gould hums with a graceful intensity (he plays well too), Elvis Costello pours out his soul, and Arvo Part's Berliner Messe gives me shivers, all in my living room.
I thank all those who contribute to Agon, making it a great place to learn and share our common passion for music.
Regards to all, Travis

Welcome Travis! This place is really full of fascinating people. Your mentioning of Gould's humming reminds me, when in my early twenties and at Salzburg with my then pianist love of my life, I stumbled into a room at the conservatory, where he was sitting before a Bechstein, in the warmth of late August, with a heavy overcoat on, a long shawl around his neck, a cap on his head and an electric heater going full tilt on his left and on his right, playing Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue at an incredible speed, yet with the most delicate of phrasings and not humming, but almost shouting. We sat down behind him in awe and amazement and as my chair suddenly creaked, he turned around, still playing, looked right through us, as if his gaze was fixed upon a point far from this world, turned back low over the piano again and played on. There was an incredible aura around this grey, frail figure, which, though he seemed physically already quite emasculated, emanated an incredible spiritual strength. I had forgotten all about this, but it just came back now , as if it had happened yesterday. So thanks, Travis!