Who Were Your Mentors


I'm curious about who your audio mentors were, and how they influenced your audio journey and the system you pursued?  Father, uncle, friend, sales dude, local manufacturer, other?
128x128knotscott
My 'mentor' must have been my older cousin.

Back in the mid 1970s he was the only person I knew who had a seperates system. In an era of radiograms and music centres he had a turntable, amp and speakers system.

As a kid I remember laughing at all of the unnecessary complexity that entailed. My cousin was a maths graduate and that was quite daunting back then, so I didn't question him too much.

And then there were all of his strange LPs.

One had a picture on a wall featuring an old man with a cane carrying some sticks on his back and another had a painting of a singer (?) wearing shades facing left on the front and an indecipherable scrawl/sketch on its back.

Truly great times.
@tubebuffer, do you already have an established fan club? If not then why not, I would certainly join. Enjoy the music
My audiophile dad. He encouraged me to listen to recorded music, something I certainly would've done anyway.  He gave me his old systems. I watched him solder together Heathkit tube mono separates on the kitchen table.  I inherited the Heathkit stuff when he went to stereophonic. He took me to audio shows. Later, I was totally blown away when I heard my buddy's B&O speakers at his tiny college apartment in Berkeley. I went shopping for them at some high-end stores and wound up with KEFs connected to NAD electronics. I was a nuisance at L.A.'s plethora of high-end stores.