2. misc-audio
  3. 1054226429

When did it all start?

I heard a song this morning that reminded me of when I first became interested in music production and in audio equipment. I heard this song for the first time on my older brother's new system in about 1978.

He was home from university for the summer and having acquired a good paying job from a local chemical plant, had been in search of new equipment to replace his hopelessly outdated (and pathetic) "system".

I recall that he had gone to a "big city" to look for audio nirvanna and had come home with a technics reciever the size of a Buick, a technics turntable, a JVC top-load cassette deck and a pair of mammoth Acoustic Research speakers.

When he hooked it up in his 9' x 8' x 8' room and turned it on, I was hooked.

I was about 12 years old. Maybe I'm just feeling a little too nostalgic, but it occurred to me that this was an epiphanous moment in my life.

Did this happened to you?
wdhsvbgod
warrenh's avatar
warrenh
2,299 posts
 
It was, like, yesterday. Went to my friend's house and he played me the Sounds of Silence (shows you how long ago that was. It wasn't an oldie, then) through his father's Fisher receiver and AR3 speakers. I went out of my mind, especially when he really let it crank. Probably had more of an impact on me, then any other thing I've heard, since. We're talking impact, here. Audiomania germination. Brain synapses. Was possessed from that day on to get rid of my Zenith victrola. I had been released. That was back in the '60s.-- Music, drugs, psychedelia, King, Kennedy, Beatles, the end of stockings (what a shame), Turkish Taffy, Star Trek, The Graduate---take it from me, my fellow audiophools. I've got students calling. peace, warren
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Do you remember what speaker cable and wires were used?:-)
kinsekd
252 posts
 
Padgitt's Hi Fi. (I think that's how they spelled it.) Waco, TX. Mid 70's. I was a poor, starving law student at Baylor University. All I could do was drool and dream over the blue glow of McIntosh tube gear amid the sounds of the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.

Funny thing. By the time my bank account finally caught up to my taste in tube gear, I had moved on to Audio Research.
ozfly
887 posts
 
For me, it didn't start all at once. I took a few years of electricity/electronics in high school -- even designed and built a tube amplifier. That got me hooked on electronics.

During high school, a local radio station in Chicago played very unusual album oriented rock, etc. I still remember listening to Osibisa at 2:00 am. That got me hooked on music.

When I went to college, a couple of engineering pals had very fine systems (one all tube, one all solid state). Hearing quality music through those systems got me hooked on sitting down and attentively listening to music while appreciating the reproduction. One of them ended up doing the technical work for a major midwest audio chain and I bought my first system there and loved it.

Take that history and mix in a healthy dollop of obsessive behavior and insanity and here I am. Just another audioholic on the Gon ;-)
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
I grew up in a home with a killer console stereo. Mom and Dad had just gone to the race track for an afternoon of betting and I was left alone with Meet The Beatles. The rest history.
More to discover