Do you, or did you, have Audiophile buddies that you shared music, gear, times with?


In my lifetime, from the military, to business, to racing, vacations and more, sharing all with a close friend was part of the magic of those times.
Have you had someone close to you that made or makes your audiophile experience(s) even better?  My primary audiophile friend has passed, but I enjoyed so many great musical times with him.  From Magnepans, to Martin Logan,  Dahlquist, Conrad Johnson, ARC and so many more....a major part of the joy, learning and more was the friend that I shared nearly all of it with.  The fact that we both liked sports cars, Bordeaux and modern architecture/furniture was also great, but the music/audio connection was, likely,  the best.  I think the holidays make me think of friends and family experiences and music has been much a part of those times. 

Have a good and safe holiday season. 


whatjd
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Had a friend who’d lived next door since I was 6 yrs old in the old neighborhood...He was very much like a little brother and neither one of us grew up to be anything remotely approaching rich but we were both into above-our-means audio and had both managed to acquire “higher end of mid-fi” systems by the mid 80s including a reel to reel apiece.  Many great times dropping by each others’ apartments, listening to the tunes, and making the occasional 40 mile pilgrimage to the big city to kick the tires of the Acoustat speakers so tall they probably wouldn’t have fit under either of our ceilings, Levinson 22 and 23-point-something-or-other amps, and Linn LP-12s.  He’s been gone for 6 years now and I miss him.
I've only had one true audiophile buddy.  It was the early 1980's.  At the time I was scraping by, working the classical records section of a San Fernando Valley Tower Records, when a guy started regularly exploring what was pretty much my private second floor enclave.  We struck up a friendship, and I'd like to say I got him intrigued with the notion of quality stereo.  Eventually, the guy actually became a writer with The Absolute Sound.  He was actually summoned to Hairy Person's house, where he listened to the audiophile god's Infinity IRS system.  Of course, we were both picky as hell when it came to hardware & software, and our relationship cooled.
I've been fortunate to find a music club locally where (pre-pandemic) we get together every month and listen to member's picks of music based on a theme.  We've been continuing in virtual mode.  I've had a number of guys over to my place and been to some of their houses to listen to their systems and developed friendships with some outside the confines of the music club.