Circa 1977, while attending a trashy public junior high school and longing to escape the bickering of my parents, I would escape to the solace of my olive green bedroom.
There, I would kneel at the alter of my Soundesign "stereo" with plastic speakers, staticky volume control and jerky record changer, vigorously flicking lint off the stylus with the pad of my index finger and carefully positioning the speakers about 6 inches from my ears, in my own primitive "nearfield" set up.
Having saved $6.00 from sweating through the mowing of my neighbors lawn, I would carefully unwrap a new album, quickly skipping through the songs for a few seconds, and then resting the arm on the lead in groove, hoping desperately that the record offered more than the hit single that enticed me to part with my last dollar for the next two weeks.
This little taste of music led to my first high fi hankering, a nerdy electronics shop in a strip mall featuring what seemed like exotic separates to me at the time:
Displayed on movable shelves covered with shag carpet, I saw it for the first time:
A bronze faced, softly glowing, Technics (By Panasonic!) receiver!!
The volume control clicked and didn't fall off into my hand?! The silky tuning dial could spin like a top, and at least compared to my plastic speakers, the "Thrusters" brand speakers amazed me with their powerful bass!
I remember that moment like yesterday, leaning closely into those speakers, hypnotized even by Billy Joel's cheesey 70's crooning from the newly released Stranger.
I had crossed the rubicon -- the audio equivalent of my first hit of marijuana, before quickly seeking out the dealers to sample the more powerful and expensive stuff:
Magneplanars!
Dahlquist DQ 10's!
DCM Time Windows!
Apt Holman preamps!
The Quatre Gain cell amplifier!
Rogers LS35a's
The hankering has never ended. I write to you more than 25 years later, still thinking about upgrading my power amp......
