getting people into 2 channel audio.....


A friend of mine found a pair of speakers cheap and asked me if I wanted them, since I collect old stereo stuff. I knew he had a boom box with an old portable hand held CD player plugged into it. I said, Keep the speakers, I have an old Kenwood amp I will give you, along with a Technics Tuner, Yamaha Cassette deck and a Sony CD player. You need a better system than that old boom box. He was ecstatic about the sound after he got it set up. He put the pieces together, I was not there to do it. He set up one speaker on one side of the room facing the sofa, and the other speaker on the opposite side of the room facing the other speaker, next to the sofa..... He said excitedly the next time I visited him: "See!! I have surround sound! This sound is awesome" He was so excited, that I did not have the heart to tell him that both speakers should be on the same side of the room facing the sofa..... I had hoped to get him onto the first step to better 2 channel stereo sound to listen to music, but I do not know.... What do you audiogoners think, and have you gotten any friends into 2 channel stereo that were not into it previously????
playtrim
In high school I was lucky enough to have a pair of magneplanars. Five or so of my friends at that time went from boom boxes and walkmans to good quality stereo systems after hearing the magneplanars. I'm assuming that the love of music and good sound can be at a critical forming point when we are the height of hormones and emotions. One of my friends has gotten into hi fi recently and is neering 50. I dragged him into a shop when I was looking into the Watt/Puppys. The dealer played some dynamic pop music at full volume and my buddy was hooked then and there. He is no longer a Bose person.
Sc53,

...and what does it take to be your friend?

Just kidding! Nice post BTW!

cheers...
Recently for Christmas put the finest, musical, least expensive system together for my dad. Bought a used mint Kenwood KR-2120 Rec.($22),
Electro-Voice Bookshelf Spks.($35), 80's Hitachi CDP (1st
CDP I owned, still mint/perfect), and 25' of AQ Type 2 speaker-wire. ($10) This system sounds absolutely wonderful. The EV's lack bottom-end, but the most important mid-range is exceptional. The Kenwood will pick up stations (in stereo) w/o an antenna! He's very pleased. Everyone who's listened to one of my system's has been surprised at the sound quality possible given the cost of the equipment.
I watch little TV, few movies, but go to alot of live music concerts - all types of music. "stereo" or two - channel sound is what it is all about for me; not matter what kind of system a person can afford. I like and respect you guys in Audiogon and in the 'high end community', and log on to Audiogon every few months to read the forums.... I guess I really belong on the "audioasylum vintage" forum; I buy older stuff cheap... I guess what is referred to as "mid-fi".
I kind of knew I had an uphill battle with my friend mentioned in the post when I said, "You get better cassette copies when you hook two separate single tape decks together than with a double cassette deck." He looked at me blankly and I think he said, "what???" I did not say anything, I did not know exactly how to explain it to him.....
THAT I guess lets you know how far I am into high end sound... I still run cassettes. I DO have two Nakamichis, three three head Yamahas, And I have a five Auto-Reverse single decks hooked up to timers to record radio broadcasts....... my computer using, MP3 using, music burning friends really make fun of me and my stack of cassette decks and timers...... Hey - it is analog! We'll see ya, JB
The true test, if you are married, is whether you can turn your spouse on to the audiophile bug. That makes life much easier.