How Did Your First Audiophile Experience Impact Your Audio Journey?

I was maybe 14 or so and my neighbor who was a talented trumpet player in a Chicago tribute band invited my older brother and I into his home and there it was.   Thorens table, Carver cube amp, Klispch speakers.   It opened my ears to a new level of sound I had never heard of.   A few years later I’d start my journey buying a NAD 7155 receiver and it went from there.  

In the 1990’s a friend showed off his system, Yamaha amp, Infinity Kappa 9’s.

He put on The Rolling Stones, Jumping’ Jack Flash.

I had heard that song ten thousand million times by then, but I never heard it like I did that day.

It was stunning holographic and no rational mind could defeat the illusion.

You could look right at the speakers knowing they were the origin of the sound, but the sound was everywhere and the ‘aural’ mind could not square what was seen by the eyes and known by the mind.

I could ’see’ exactly to the inch where each band member stood, could identify exactly where Keith’s pick was hitting strings, could hear the scratching of his guitar pick, could tell exactly where Mick’s mouth was at the microphone, could point out the exact placement of Charlie’s snare drum, could hear them drawing breaths.

To this day, that memory is the standard by which I consider audio.

I was 27 years old in 1970.   I had always listened to AM rock and roll stations and 8-Track in my 69 Chevy Malibu. One could hear the Beatles on AM radio.  One night I tuned into the local Philadelphia FM “head” station and the Band was playing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.  I was hooked.  I spent the next year and ½ reading Stereo Review, Audio magazine and a Radio Shack manual explaining (i) the concept of how inaudible harmonics enriched the sound of audible music, and (ii) how tape recording worked. In 1971 I walked into a local hi-fi store and walked out with a Kenwood Receiver (20 watts RMS per side), a Dual 1215 turntable with a cartridge (I don’t remember the brand) complete with little RCA cables, a pair of KLH 17 speakers and zip cords for speaker cables, all for $500 total. My first two records were Cat Stevens’ “Teaser and the Fire Cat” and “Tea for the Tillerman”. I was blown away.

"White punks on dope...."  *LOL*  I thought there ought to be some acid fanciers 'midst y'all....;)

Personally, I refrained from using a TT in that state....since mine at the time were 'hand cued' and I didn't fully trust self to be accurate or distracted by the process.... ;)

Grew up with older bro' who had what was at the time better than average but minimal gear.  No real 'fi fanciers' in my social circle for most of my life, so was left to my own devices and tastes to bend to my finances.

Still basically stuck in that vein, which leads me to y'all....

Spent inordinate amounts of time in Pac Stereo and other B&M's in my CA years, listening to all manner of this 'n that.

First notable system:  2270 Marantz, Bose 901s2, AR tt w/Stanton 681s2 cart.

Bose later replaced w/Infinity Towers with the Walsh 'ice cream cone' super tweet.

All gave way to Kenwood L07 tuner, pre, and mono amps, Technics SL10 tt w/it's mc cart, Sony cass player, Sony VCR (cd level recordings on video tapes), Revox A77, a pair of ESS AMT1B's, and a 11 band LED'd eq w/calibrated mic for early room eq (forget the brand, but It Worked)....

Very clean, Very loud....closest to nirvana I could manage at the time and era. *G*

Since then....doing what I damn well please. *L*

...littered with all manner of items within that trek....Rabco SL8 on a Marantz table, SAE parametric eq for 'needling', misc. stuff that came, went, or got dragged along....built cabs with drivers of various...

Y'know how that can go.... *G*