Who Were Your Mentors

Opening a high-end shop in 1973 and learning by LISTENING to the many, many products we carried--over 75 different manufacturers--crazy bookkeeping--and then spending my time LISTENING to everything when we closed the doors for the day.

I also happened to have a number of actual musical instruments that, while I am no musician, I could play well enough to HEAR what they sounded like live.  

Then, I continued to go to many concerts of ALL KINDS of music (except opera--there wasn't any down here back then, and frankly, I was not really interested in it enough to find it somewhere else--mea culpa.)

Anyway, I changed my opinions on almost everything by LISTENING and focusing on the specific sounds of instruments and learning to "separate" them in my head while doing so.  My time learning to play guitar iin college by listening to guitar parts "only" helped me with this.  It is not "scientific" any more than my playing my various instruments "live" was, but it helped.

Finally, I played in many bands when younger and worked with actual musicians who wanted a specific "sound" from their instruments on various songs, so I learned that all musical instruments could produce many different sounds.

Complicated, but the Mayorga Direct-to-Disc pressings were also helpful in all this.

SO, it is a combination of many elements that go into this hobby that result in "learning" to listen to music.

Finally, I taught a "Listening Skills" class at my job (large computer company) after I sold the store, and let me tell you, teaching engineers and programmers and managers to "listen" --especially to each other!--is much harder than determining if the drums were mic'ed correctly on a specific recording!  

We always said that "listening" is the hardest skill to master.  I believe today's world illustrates that better than anything I could post.

Cheers!

I love to explore… I was an Exploration Geologist for ten years… the guy out by himself finding the next property to explore. Later as a IT executive I implemented cutting edge systems to global corporations. So, no one. I love figuring out really complex problems then guiding others to follow.

@pwpacp

I’m probably not an "audiophile" yet by anyone’s standards here and this journey is surely incomplete. I continue to be amazed at what I can now hear from my own audio collection and sometimes find myself wiping a tear from the emotion of it.

Perhaps that is what really drives and excites me most.

Love this!  That emotion is typically the primary reason we begin the journey in the first place, and is a great indicator that you’re on the right path. What it takes to achieve that feeling is different for each of us, and some never quite find it.

I was blessed with having brothers 14 and 10 years older. One was a Kenwood guy the other Pioneer.

We took a road trip when I was 10 from Iowa to Pittsburg Kansas to visit my older brother in college. I stayed at his house sleeping on the floor in his living room. He left the stereo on to an FM station. I was transfixed by the glow.

"One Of. These Nights" by The Eagles and that was the moment I fell in love with music. Honestly, just got goosebumps thinking about it.

He bought me a Technics turntable for my 13th birthday.

In high school, hanging out with my oldest brother listening to music.

Both gone now, but not the memories.

[Edit: Punctuation] 

A cousin, John Nichols, in the mid-70s.  His gear was strictly Pioneer. Spec series amps, 909 r2r, tuner, equalizer, even a 1000 oscilloscope. Bose 901s. But the piece that really got me was his B&O 4004 turntable. Even with its drawbacks it sounded amazing and seemed a freak of nature. I was a pre-teen with a Craig composite unit, so it was thrilling to take a new album to John’s and listen to it “properly”. I now have my own listening room with high end stuff. I always thank John for his influence.