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How did you get started in this hobby

As a college kid, my roommate had KLH speakers, the Beatles Sgt. Peppers came out and homegrown Flemington flash came on the scene. My eyes were opened along with my ears. I visited a local audio store Audiolab and another not too far away Soundex. The effect on my listening, I was stunned by what I was hearing and how the management just let me listen to all the gear knowing I was just window shopping. I'll never forget Soundex( out by Willow Grove Pa)  letting me listen to all their rooms at different price points and more than a few occasions.One room had $30,000 each in electronics and $100,000 speakers. Well, I could not afford even the entry-level stuff but again my horizon was broadened. So off I went to NYCity with my roommate in tow. I ran into an audio store while he waited in the car and asked the sales guy what I could buy with the meager dollars I had. I picked up a pair of AR speakers, and a Dual Turntable, my roommate had an old HH Scott that was in his father's food store that did not work. I got it fixed for free by the teacher of the electronics class in my High school where  I would occasionally substitute teach ( babysit) to get beer money for college Thursday night beer sessions at the Extension bar.

Much later a fellow employee who was an audiophile got me connected with his buddy an audio salesman who sold me his Snell c2 mk.2 speakers and another of his friends who was looking to sell his Adcom GFP 400 pre amp/tuner and GFA 555 amp along with thick monster cable. Adcom was just starting up around 1980 and was thirty minutes away in New Brunswick NJ. For a box of donuts, they went over my gear and made some changes to the amp and preamp. I remember their CD player had a tendency to jump if vibrated that was fixed as well all while I waited for  just for a box of doughnuts.  Woo that was my system for almost 40 years.  I wanted something different, I found out about Audiogon and bought within a week a Technics SU G 700  and Canton speakers about two years ago at tremendous savings from local audiophiles one in bucks county near New Hope Pa., and another in Freehold NJ. That's my story. from start to finish.

Based on what I've seen here I am not an audiophile but someone just interested in listening to good music with good gear at good savings and who is intrigued by the character ( good and bad) I see on here and the stellar systems they have.

scott22
coralkong's avatar
coralkong
684 posts
 

I've always been a music fan. I grew up on rock and roll (The Who was the first band I was into).

I wanted to be a guitarist when I was a teen, played in a couple of bands, that kind of thing.

When I was about 19, my roommate at the time knew a friend in NYC who worked in an audio store and he took a bus trip and he said his buddy "hooked him up".

He set up his new stereo system, which consisted of a Sony ES amp, a Sony ES CD player and a pair of Rogers LS speakers. (I think they were LS3/5a's, NOS).

As he was hooking the speakers up, I looked at him kind of funny and (didn't want to insult him) incredulously asked "You paid HOW MUCH for THESE?"

When it was put together, he popped on a Stevie Ray Vaughan CD (who had recently died in a helicopter accident), but I was familiar with him and saw him open for Robert Plant the summer before.

In any event, he started playing the CD, and my mouth hung open.

HOLY $H!T.

I had never heard music (or a stereo system) sound like that before.

We ended up going our separate ways, but I still remember that system. As a matter of fact, I spoke with him a couple of years ago and he still has it.

That lit the fire for me.

 

scott22 OP
265 posts
 

These are fun reads of our earliest exposure to audio and also of the retailers and friends that fostered our education and exposure to what audio could be.

petg60
1,486 posts
 

I will always remember setting up my first system, back in 1975, positioning the Wharfedales on crappy stands, connect them to the Trio amp (regret not getting the Sansui) with a questionable speaker cable, try to align a Shure cartridge on a Lenco turntable. More lp’s, more interest in music, more magazines, more visits to stores, time to learn.

And all that because of a Philips mono record player (rather good quality of its kind), a National transistor radio in 1971, and two years later of a friend who played some of my hard earned lp’s on his system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

@cleeds , I would go a step further. Music is an instinctive necessity. I could not go without music as I could not go without food. Being an audiophile is the highest religious manifestation in service of that instinct.

I have been playing records since the age of four. By age 10 my father had constructed himself and extremely good system for the day and it became obvious to me that my Zenith Portable was not adequate preferring to listen to my dad's system which I did when he was not around. But, I had to have my own system.

By the age of thirteen I had saved up enough money clearing driveways in the Winter to buy a Dynakit Stereo 70 and a Pas 3X preamp which I had to build. I found a used Thoren's TD 124 and was give a set of AR 2a's which I converted to 2ax's. This was system #1 and the evolution started from there. 

larsman's avatar
larsman
2,024 posts
 

Back in 1975 or so, I went to a hi-fi show at San Francisco Civic Auditorium where I got to see all these high end brands and associated gear. SF Civic Auditorium was also a good-sized live music venue, so they had Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Styx on hand to provide entertainment - shame hi-fi shows don't do THAT anymore, that I know of! 

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