Is your now then?

My first exposure to the high end sound was in a stereo sales shop in the mall. Perruex amps driving large ADS towers with Teac reel to reels. Wow that sound coming from those speakers! Tight bass, quick, dynamic. I never heard percussion so good. The smooth sounding equipment was the Yamaha line. It was 1981. The salesman played Crime of the Century from Supertramp on Mobile Fidelity half-speed master recording and it was amazing. Anyway, that started it all. I just got my ADS L1590 Towers restored by the tech that does them now. He used to work in the factory long ago. 

I was raised in a house of music. My dad had a McIntosh system playing through a set of Klipschorns. 1970s and the music was getting so good but my dad was stuck in the 50s. Had to play my albums when he was at work, he just could not get into Led Zeppelin. But dam I could rock the house when he was not home.
My first personal system was a massive Sony receiver and a top of the line Sony bio-tracer turntable thru some Advent speakers. I took that system to college for four years but upped the speakers to Klipsch Cornwalls. My room mates and neighbors loved me but only on the weekends.After college I married my high-school sweetheart and moved into a nice townhouse. She was soooooo pissed when she came home one day to a set of Klipshhorn (in a freaking townhouse). That quickly faded after she listened to them for a while. She married crazy so she has to deal with crazy.Twenty years of kids and work slowed me down but music was always playing in our house. My oldest son got the bug early and took advantage of me and my gear when he got his own house. He took all my albums and the Bio-tracker turntable and some of my dads old mac stuff and built a killer setup while I was playing Golf.So not to be outdone by a kid (he's 29) I kicked it up last year and now it is game on. He can try but I have crazy on my side and a wife who loves music and puts up with crazy. 

I started my journey in 1975 with B&O receiver and TT with small B&O shelf speakers.Graduated to Luxman L81 amp and Linn Sondek TT feeding Rogers Studio 1 speakers in 1979. This has been replaced with my current system only in the last 6 weeks. The new system comprises,Sonus Faber Sonetto V speakers, powered by NAD C298 power amp & C 658 preamp, still with the Linn. Also a 6 year old NAD CD player.
I'm still on this journey and so much has changed in the last 40+ years. Surprise surprise. I have so much to learn. I am happy with the new system but still refining it with cables etc.
Needless to say it is a completely different experience to my old system. My son will get use of the old gear. Love to hear your thoughts on my new system,suggestions and comments welcome.

"Do you think we strive to return to the past and remain in those influential times? Are our choices psychological, nostalgic even....?"

Woody Allen referenced this perennial dream in 'Midnight in Paris'.
A tourist gets picked up by a vintage car and driven to a party taking place in the 1920s.  He stands at the same spot the next evening and the same happens.  He decides he would like to stay in the 1920s.  There he starts with a girl who has a similar experience but is taken to the Belle Epoch - the 1890s.  She decides she wants to stay there and they split.

Allen is making the point that everyone thinks the golden age was prior to that in which they are living.  It is probably a delusion.

My first was a Sansui 7070 receiver with Bose 901’s Pioneer pl112d turntable, the year is 1978 At this time it was all albums with some radio. I lived in a fringe area for radio so I installed a 50 foot mast and fm antenna. The combo of Sansui and Bose would vibrate nick nacks off shelfs of houses across the street. The Sansui could double as an arc welder on weekends. My first over budget addition was a Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck that is still in my system today and I still does not receive the respect it deserves. Our best outlet for equipment was American tv who carried everything you could want. They had a licked high end room that I was able to visit after my Dragon buy. We got to play with the new Carver system they set up. I can’t recall the speakers think they were B&W. I sat in there for over two hours damaging my ears with pure joy. This was the first time I recall hearing things in a recording that never came through the radio of my Pioneer entry level tt. Last thing I recall was walking out of the room extremely disappointed knowing I could never afford to spent that much money on a “stereo” system. Now is today and I am in a position to buy what ever I want and I happily progressing through the journey. I am now hoping to pull the trigger on a high quality r2r DAC. To answer you question. Am I trying to get back to that day with Carver? Kinda of but also aiming way higher because I can!