As A Youngster, What Unit Puqued Your Interest In All This?

Hi! My name is Jerry, and I’m an audiophiliac...

...how many steps are there in this damn program anyway...? ;)

Wayback mechanism just coughed up this....

https://www.thestandalone.com/products/vintage-1960s-scott-radio-supply-inc-company-long-beach-california-receipts

Mid-teens, got the amateur radio/shortwave lurking bug, hung awhile with the ’ham across the street’ (literally), fascinated by his adept use of a ’lightning bug’ morse key for long distance QRLs’ and the occasional voice contacts....

Spent likely too much time at Scotts’ perusing their stock of used shortwave stuff, which led to listening too much to their audio items.....early Infinity, Marantz with the lissajous tuning tube, JBLs, and items of the era. Older bro’ had his HK integrated and Sony R2R, stuffing odd items into his ’56 Chev (...early ’spring delay’ unit that’d give off a loud ’n long "Boiiinnnnngg" when hitting a bump), an auto LP player that worked fine for the first few plays....then began to regroove the disc...8 track cassettes that’d spaghetti after awhile...

Spent hours at PacStereo stores, getting confused with the staff ( "Do you work here?"  No, but what do you want to listen to? *S*); tolerated because I suspect I 'moved product' just f'n around....and didn't ask for %age...

’Got serious’ after I left home ’74~’75ish, moved to the Bay Area to complete the damage I’d already had a serious start at...

The rest isn’t over, mostly hysterical in betwixt....

Next; what's your name and what's wrong with your 'deformative years'?  😏

Grew up in Hong Kong, my dad had a Sansui stack with three way bookshelf speakers. My first 'system' was a Wal-Mart surround sound for $80 bucks.

Didn't get serious until bonding with my fiancé's dad around music and got me down the rabbit hole. 

As a teen, I installed car audio at Soundquest in El Paso. Between cars I would sneak into the listening rooms and check out the Wilson Audio or B&W gear. It was the Meridians that blew me away. For music they were awesome, but with home theater they were shockingly good. The piano lacquer, incredible bass and built in tech impressed the Hell out of me. Then I heard a pair of 7-foot tall Maggies (I could be wrong about the height; I was a teen) and that was it. I had wanted a pair of Maggies my entire adult life, and last November at 48 years old, I got my first (but not last) pair.  

My college roommate from the 1970s had a tremendous system. What I remember most is the real to reel tape, a. TEAC. Amazing component. I think he had a pioneer receiver, and KLH speakers. 
pretty sure his system was worth more than the trailer we lived in. You could hear the guitar pic sliding across the strings. I couldn't exactly get that sound out of my cheap eight track.

My dad had a stereo in the living room of our home. It was an XAM receiver and speakers from Korvettes with a Gerard TT. Loved playing his 33s and 45s in it. I was hooked after that. I was 5 yrs old.