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

In the Summer of 1964 my mom and I did a National Parks tour for my Bar Mitzvah (in lieu of a catered affair). While We soaked up Yellowstone the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, my older brother was building a Dynakit PAS3, FM3, and ST70. After my return he took me to a McIntosh dealer in Ridgewood, NJ to shop for speakers. We chose KLH 17s. When hooked up to a Garrard changer with I don’t know what cartridge, that was my intro to HiFi. When I was able, I got myself an SCA 80 kit, a pair of A25s and a Dual 1209…1970.

What opened my ears wider was hearing Rectilinear 3s, IMF Monitors and Quad ESLs in the next few years.

A mismatched pair of Bozak B302A’s that my Dad built at different times ( added the second when stereo came to be) powered by a Dynaco electronics & cables he built & modified, a Fairchild 15” turntable( he worked for Fairchild) w/ a Wooden Pritchard arm all in the 60’s & later replaced by an Elac  Miracord 770H table / arm & a Shure  V - 15 type II in the early 70’s..
 

Then, when my Dad took off & I accumulated some cash “ distributing “ things that have recently been made ok to do…. I purchased my own system  for my 10’ x  12’ bedroom: first single pair  then stacked Advents, Pioneer 1010 receiver, BIC 960 table / arm ( mistake - sounded ok but poorly built) w/ a Stanton 681 EEE cartridge.  I treated the walls w/ large, heavy Karastan wool carpet samples my best friend got for me from his father’s variety store..
 

Like many here, I’ve been on an upgrade spiral ever since for 50 years….

I found out that my kit amplifier was a Knight Kit. I actually found one for sale on eBay. It was sure fun building it back in the day. 

Electro-Voice Patrician 800 speakers!

Mike

https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/Patrician%20800%20EDS.pdf

Like all of you, music is what got me interested in audio gear, broadly speaking. When I was 23 (~1979), I went to a local audio store in Richmond, VA and heard an Audio Research preamp SP-?, Audio Research amplifier, Magneplanar (probably the 2.5’s) and a moving coil cartridge (what the heck is that?). I was thunderstruck.