When did good gear start getting your attention?


For me it as when I was a teenager. My older sister had a Panasonic compact stereo which had  a BSR changer with a ceramic cartridge. Then a friend told me about Dual turntables and AR speakers. That was in 1974 or 1975. Sister got married in 1976 and the Panasonic compact became mine, and I realized it just wasn't cutting it. Saved my money, and by 1977 I went to Tech Hifi in Manhattan. Left with a receiver, turntable and speakers. I've come a long way in 39 years but I still have all my old LP I bought at 
Korvettes 

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My first taste of the high-end was the time I visited my friend in his college dorm, and his roommate had McIntosh tube equipment. It was then that I knew I needed something to replace my old fold-up, GE stereo. When I could finally afford it, I bought a used Fisher X-101-ST (still have it!) at a stereo shop and a Garrard Type A from a friend's father. I still needed speakers so, somehow I ran across some EV Wolverines that needed cabinets. I mounted them in cardboard boxes until I could afford the materials to build the huge cabinets in the plans supplied with the EV's.  
I'd had offhand discussions a time or two leading up to then about what gear might possibly be considered good, but it wasn't until the late 60's that I heard my first bona fide hifi: a friend of my brother had an all Mac system paired with Bose 901's in his large carpeted basement. It knocked my socks off at the time...made quite a first impression. To me at the time it was certainly something to aspire to.

My first speakers were the 301's...you can imagine my disappointment...
1986/87- I discovered a Yamaha stack (pre, power & cd player)
that blew me away. We do not get many chances in being exposed to a "first" time...