Who Do You Credit For Getting You Into This Hobby?


I didn't know which forum to post this in so I hope it's alright to have done so in "Speakers".

When you look back over this obsessive hobby of ours, who do you give credit for helping you take the plunge? I am extremely grateful to Albert Porter and John Fort, who were salesmen at Arnold and Morgan (Dallas) in the mid-to-late 70s (I believe Albert might actually have been the sales manager), and spent a lot of time with me to assist in finding the best system for my tastes and budget. They also treated me the same as their male customers, and never made me feel like the minority (female) that I was in this particular hobby. Their love of the hobby was infectious, and I quickly became enamored with the quest for getting the sound right. That first small system was comprised of a middle-of-the line Yamaha receiver (1977), Yamaha speakers, and a Dual turntable. I still own the Dual turntable and have kept it for its sentimental value. It is currently not in use although it is still operational almost 30 years later.

So, thank you, Albert Porter and John Fort, for taking the time to help me all those years ago. It's also evident here at Audiogon that Albert continues to help all of us as we pursue this endeavor, a few of us much older than when we originally began the journey.

--Mary
mcrheist
I think vegasears got it right. When we were kids we would go see bands like Santana, Jethro Tull, A. Brothers and we would try to recreate that ambience at parties with whoever had the baddest amps and using stacked speakers. Surprisingly we rarely overloaded the amps as I recall. Ok maybe not hiend but the chemicals probably made up for it.
Hey, my first post! I'd have to give the credit to my dad who let me "play" with his Scott 299B/Garrard/Pickering/ElectroVoice system. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago, but I still have the memories and the Scott, which I plug in every now and then. It still works, but unfortunately, I get a little shock when I touch the controls. Oh yeah, he also had a Wollensak reel to reel. Mary, thanks for taking me back in time. :)
About twenty years ago, I went to my first "high-end" store. I brought my wife along as I wanted her to be involved in and become interested in the process. (It didn't work. She still doesn't give a rat's tail about stereo equipment, but she does comment that our system sounds better than our daughter's boom box. Thank God for that given the difference in price!)

Anyway, here we were in the store in a small room with turntables made by Linn and Rega with price tags that exceeded the cost of entire systems I had previously been looking at at the local department stores.

The salesman, "Mike" (I don't know his last name), stopped in and politely answered my naive, uninformed questions. Then, while I was commenting on something to my wife, he put a record on one of the turntables at a polite volume so that we could still talk. He then backed out of the room and quietly closed the door without me even noticing. We were left in the room with the music playing. I remember saying to my wife: "Boy, this sound good". I was hooked from that point on.

So, whoever you are, and wherever you, thanks Mike.
once i was exposed to live music, i wanted to try to recreate the sound of acoustic instruments, to the best of my ability.
Mr. T, out of curiosity, who told steered you away from the shift key and into audiophile haiku?