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How did U get into this expensive hobby?

So I was up last night listening to my system and thought to myself, when am I going to be 100% satisfy with my set up. Just for once I like to listen without thinking well maybe if I can add this or remove that I can improve on this or that area. A mist all that I thought how did I ever got into this hobby any way? Well, the nightmare began for me when I was working in my college university's periodical section. We had over 3000+ magazines on file. The first stereo magz I ever picked up was the AUDIO annual price list which was about 300 or so pages of all major audio mfg. and models..also known as the audio bible; what ever happened to Audio magazine anyway? I remembered being so intrigued by so many brands that I have never heard of before and how the workmanship and industrial design seemed so much far superior than the average Kenwood and Pioneer back then (no offense to Kenwood and Pioneer owners). This was 10 years ago and I started by scraping every pennies I had to purchase my first NAD integrated amp. Although 10 years have passed, I am still scraping for money to own something new every now and then, but this time instead of pennies, it's dimes a nickels since my tasted have upgrade with my salery. It'd be interesting to hear how some of you fellow audigoners got started in this hobby. Upon adding to this thread, you'll find that you'll get a little grin on your face after spilling your guts out on how you began on this deep pocket journey and how far you have come. Happy Holidays guys and gals.
3chihuahuas
mwalsdor
94 posts
 
Well I did'nt really GET INTO IT until I could afford too. That was the really frustrating thing about my 25 year love affair with sound reproduction; that early on I was disappointed with what technology could deliver and then as advances were made and evident to me, I was unable to afford them. Now the current state of techology is pretty awesome AND I can afford to get the better stuff. Which frankly IMHO is whats needed to really enjoy this hobby. Perhaps others could be happy with a lesser system, but I feel that it still takes some real change to get a killer system. Yet big bucks is NOT the key: Intelligence, sensitivity, diligence and faith are more important. FAITH, that the ugly duckling you see before you today COULD become something so much more beautiful. MikE
jwong1
42 posts
 
I like to say "Rock and Roll saved my soul" as a teen ager in the early 70's. Word and feelings I could not express found expression in the Stones, Santana, Dylan, Mitchell, and the Dead. Concerts became "church" for me and the records relieved me of my adolescent anxieties and took me to a joyful place. Consequently, the better the music reproduction, the better I was able to re-experience that "magic" over and over again.

What began with my father's laughable table stereo with a built-in 8 Track player and Garrard turn table in 1969 has become a search to recreate and reexperience that musical magic. Today I can appreciate the beauty and grandour of being human through jazz, classical, and folk as well as my beloved "rock classics". I'm now leaving the mass market of mid-fi for the new world of hi fi and I'm having a good time seeing what this new strata of technology and excellence has to offer. Oh, I hope you old time audiophiles remember how much fun it was to "fall in love" with sound and equipment, to learn the names of the different manufacturers, to learn the "inside" jokes and secrets of the audiophile culture/cult because that's where I'm at. For a lot of us, it was always about the music, and about expressing what it was to be human. We just found a more expressive and expensive tool to search with than most folks.
tacs
220 posts
 
Also read High Fidelity and Stereo Review in college, as a way to procrastinate on writing philosophy papers. Same in graduate school. I did not get that master's degree, but I have spent the last four years and over $30,000 spending and tweaking, listening, buying and selling, and being generally obsessed. It's led to some spectacular sonic results from time to time, but I'd say it is somewhat unhealthy for me, like it is a substitute for something else (I don't know what yet).
rball
10 posts
 
I got hooked on the emotional response of listening to music. As time goes by from the late 60's to now it has been an on going evolution of listening and equipment. One of my first jobs was selling high-end audio and have never gotten tired of the feeling the comes with the music and of very fine repoduction.
halifax
51 posts
 
I started out with a Yamaha integrated; I was looking to fix my brother's car stereo when I ended up in a used hifi shop. A short time later I got a set of McIntosh gear which promptly shook my listening room into life. That was the begining, I didn't think about it for some time, I just did not like the sound I had. Next came speakers, still not happy. On a whim I got a MSB Link, which changed my perception of my home system it was a taste of purity in sound that sang thru the deficiencies in my system, I wanted more and I wanted it bad. I got a new amp and pre amp, new cd transport, cables, everything, its not enough, its never enough. Well soon I will at least be semi-satisfied, enough to sleep normally.
Hehe, as I tweak over getting a Rel Storm III to give me, that low end that makes music engaging. hmmm, how long will take me to save for it, and then I need those Kharmas. And maybe a new dac, ohh the DIP is on the way...oh yeah, I think those power cables need to be replaced, my ears are happy and my wallet is empty, and my next paycheck is on the way ;)
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