How long ago did you catch the bug?

Father was a vocalist, his grandfather a fiddler. Mother played piano despite being tone-deaf and hostile to rock, while her mother, the fun one, reminded people of Mae West and Lillian Russell, was a huge fan of Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Liberace, Elvis, anyone flamboyant really, plus early rock from Bill Halley forward. Bought me Platters, Drifters, British Invasion and much else. So I wasn't going off to college without an all-in-one record player. Then, soph year, I had a roommate with sophisticated tastes and as good a component system as you could find in a dorm suite: my introduction to audiophilia. Then another who would play Wagner at top volume through his Klipsches. Ever since I have always owned component systems within the limitations of space and budget. Finally, now in retirement in the streaming age, I have time to learn, to experiment, and to tweak pretty much indefinitely. This remains enjoyable even though my poor old badly abused ears are pretty well shot by now. 

13 years old, it's been a fun ride...I pretty much have all I ever wanted In a system which includes a Sugden A21 class A integrated, Tannoy Legacy Eaton, Avid Ingenium, Tavish Design Classic phono preamp, Rothwell & Jensen SUT's, Cyrus Cdt, Marantz hd Cd-1 cd player, Border Patrol Dac, Musical Fidelity V90 Dac, Aiwa AD F770 3 head deck, Cambridge/Creek t500/t43 tuner, mini disc player/recorder, even a panasonic 8 track player/recorder...countless phono cartridges both moving magnet/moving coil, several headphone amps, who knows how many headphones (12?), and a host of power conditioners, interconnects, power cords, etc....plus in reserve, I have a Marantz pm14s1 integrated, a Naim 5si integrated, several pair of speakers (wharfedale/martin logan), 2 alternate cassette decks, 5 alternate turntables....I could go on and on....lots of money spent over the many years, but to me worth it.

The early 1960's or so. I built my first amp from a kit. The name escapes me but they also had a turntable kit of sorts also. My first record was the Ventures.

I remember walking into Stereo Exchange in the City when I was 14 and being in awe at all of the used gear they used to have in the racks along the front wall.  It was audio nirvana.  Everything you saw an ad about in the magazines was there in real life.  A little while after that, my sis was dating a guy who was a hi fi salesman at Harmony House II on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC.  He invited us over to hear his rig (a Sony tonearm and table that used a cake cover as a dust cover, Dalquist Speakers and can't remember the rest) and that was it.  1974 

Folks bought me a CRAIG all-in-one in 1974 or so.  Turntable, 8-track, and tuner.  It made music and drove a pair of Koss headphones to my liking.

A couple of buddies were CB geeks.  It was a big thing back then.  They also had real stereos, so I was exposed to better gear early on. 

Then in college it was crazy.  Guys exiting the service and coming back from overseas with all the cool Japanese gear (it wasn't vintage back then...).  I was also exposed to real blues and jazz in college.