Anyone under 30?

Haoleb, It is very cool that you are discovering it all now.
Just think what you'll have by the time you are 30?
It's just making sure that it survives college and the early 20's - outta control "guests" that don't have a clue, you know...set the ground rules early and budget for renter's insurance....
When I was in high school, we would go down to the high end audio stores and "audition" the good stuff. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon was the record to take....

Thats kewl angela. Aint no guests gonna be kicking holes in my spkrs, i have some KLH's that they can throw ovr a cliff for all i care. .. and yes Imagine when i am 30..a system of dynaudio's and Musical fidelity Nuvista M3..ive got my eye on few things already.

I started with a mass market sony receiver and a pair of Eosones (dipole towers), which I bought at Best Buy (and those were the top 'o the line at Best Buy, so you can see where my tastes are going!). Since then, I've been gradually converted by my audiophile friends from college. They dragged me to the high end cottages around town, albiet grudging at first. ;) But the more I listened, the clearer it all became. Damn, man. Had they have come along sooner, I would have started out with some better stuff for the money$$$. (Nice int amp, instead of 5.1 receiver, Vandy 1C's instead of Eosone speakers, etc..)

Currently I'm running the following:
marantz cc47 (5cd)
Audio Alchemy DTI Pro w/ ps2
Adcom GDA-600
Audio Alchemy DLC preamp w/ ps2
Audio Alchemy OM-150 amp
Eosone RFS-600
wires: kimber, straightwire, tara labs, music metre.

And it's not done yet! I just need to scrape up a little more dough$$$ for the vadersteen 2ce sigs to replace the eosones. Then she'll be good until the next forklift upgrade!

It's hard to balance this hobby with my other two: fast cars and fast computers. I'd have a better stereo system (tubes?) if money wasn't so tight with the college bills and all. I just try to steer the $$ around for most impact, lately is was the PC's turn. But the next 6-9 months is all audio. After that the car will become the main focus again. Then the PC will need upgrades, etc.. et infinitum...

It'l be frightening to imagine what my system will look like by time I'm 30. Scary...

Aroc: seems like you have a clear investment objective. I'm not sure which of the two -- autos or hi-end -- is more expensive. At least the price a a giga has dropped steadily these past few years. More than one can say about the price of the Watt (stereo or otherwise).

Your system at 30? Fascinating I'd say, something to look forward to! Far superior to mine @ 40, I bet!

Cheers!

I'm 23, BTW. I forgot to mention that in my first post. I'm surprised I didn't do that. ;-) Yeah, so far my system has a good synergy, except for the speakers. Darn things are so bright and forward. Yuck. They were the only Best Buy sold that wasn't overly murky and muddy. :-/ I auditioned a pair of vadersteen 1C's. They basically have the dark quality that I am looking for. Some might say they are too laid back.

The highend store around me is supposed to be getting a Vandersteen 2ce signature so, that I can audition with my AA OM-150. I'm eager to see how some of my Pipe organ CDs sound on the vandys. I should get last few registrers that I am missing. (<40Hz) :-)