How did U get into this expensive hobby?

My father bought a nice Sansui rack system which costed $900 in 1980 when I was 7 year old. He wasn't into music much but listen to it ocasionally; I actually listened to it more than him. In 1985,five years later I bought a new Pioneer receiver (60wpc)for $180(life saving) at the Good Guys to power a pair of used Marantz speakers given to me from a cousin. I was a 12 year old at the time.Within that same year, I upgraded(oh yeah!)the used speakers to a pair of Fisher which costed $60 and had a 60 watts Max:it's a great match to the Pioneer.I loved the black and white 10" woofer. Don't laugh, remember that I was in the 8th grade and other kids had envy for them. Sylvester

"Expensive" is a relative term, so I am not sure I qualify to leave a post here. But since I can't sleep again, here goes.

It all started when I was 3. I never had baby sitters. I was often home alone. My father worked late, and my mom and older siblings were always out with their friends. I'd spend my time watching tv or playing with my siblings' LPs.

Even now, I am 27, I still prefer the company of electronics than people. Yes, call me a freak, a hermit, a geekmeister, whatever. But, do not accuse me of being a gear head because withut music, all this electronics would be meaningless to me.

Let's see, I have no idea what stereo I was playing with when I was three. I had various boom boxes, mainly Panasonic, JVC and Aiwas, when I was 6 to 12. When I was 13, I purchased what possibly turned me onto higher end gear, a nakamichi receiver and a pair of ECM speackers.

I still use the Nakamichi TA-1A. I got a pair of NHT super ones and a Technics DVD player hooked up to it, and that is my "hometheater".

I fell in love with a pair of speakers when I was 17, now that might be the real reason I am into this hobby. Every CD I threw at the damn speaker, it reproduced it with stunning image and detail. Perhaps the sonic signature of that speaker was like first love to me, so no other speaker can tear me away from my KEFs, except maybe Tannoys...

I finally purchased the KEFs. Actually, I got them really cheaply since, by some awesome coincidence, a client of mine while I was working at an audio store in santa monica wanted to trade in his KEFs. So I struck a deal with him. I sold him a pair of B&W 801s at near cost and he sell me his KEFs at next to nothing.

After I got my KEFs, then cam the chore. For the past 6 yrs of my ownership of these fabulous speakers, have been absolutely heart wrenching. I devoted my time and money to satisfy her, but she always treated me with coldness and harshness.

Since I worked in the audio industry for some time, I inevitably acquired some equipment, some high end, some not. I got to play around with all sorts of stuff, not only in my store, but of other stores in my area as well.

I find it quite funny how I accumulated all my gadgets. I got my audiotruth cables by selling audioquest cables. The AQ reps reward us by giving us cables. Monster never offered us cables, so I only sold audioquest. After selling about $10k worth of AQ, I was rewarded with argents and midnights.

So i got my speaker cables taken care of. Next is the amp. There was no way my Nakamichi receiver with 30w rms can carry the kefs which are 4ohm 4 driver 3 way 87db speakers that already killed my mom's luxman integrated amp. Plus, the nak receiver has too much sentimental value for me to kill.

I fell in love with the way my nakamichi receiver sounds. So I always dreamed of owning the nakamich seperate amp and preamps. They are retailed at 3k a piece, so I always thought it was just a dream to own them. But, low and behold, my boss at the audio store struck a deal with the president of nakamichi of america, and we carried the last remaining NOS separates. We never were able to sell any, but atleast this brought me closer to my dream.

I brought home the Nak separates. I purchased them at cost. Ca-7a preamp and Pa-5ii 150w stasis zero feedback Pass design amp. I hooked up my NAD 502 with Monster reference ICs and AQ speaker cables and turned the baby on! What did I get? Utter dissapointment. All I got was glare city.

Needless to say, I convinced my boss to take back the amp, while I kept the preamp. I settled for a denon poa8200 amp to tie me over for the moment. At about this time, I got fed up from working at that audio place. I started showing up late and, at times, not showing up at all. Maybe I got a big head by being his top salesman for the 5th straight month. But he fired me by the 6th month.

I had saved enough money to live comfortably for the next year without working, but not enough to go back to school full time. So I thought I'd spend all my money then starve to death. After a year has gone by, I didn't want to starve to death anymore. I sold all my audio equipment except my KEF and Nak preamp and receiver, and moved home.

After I moved home, the amp bug bit me again, and I started auditioning different amps that was around the $1k price range, which would be the most I'd spend on a single component ever. I had my heart set on the adcom 5802 because they sounded super warm on my ex coworkers system, and I felt my KEFs needed the extra warmth.

Instead, I got a deal on an Aragon 8002. I bought it from the same store I bought the Nakamichi receiver but 13 years later. The store had a different owner too, so I was kind of sad that I couldn't find the guy who first sold me my beloved nakamichi. But now I owned an Aragon, which was like a dream amp to me. It's better than an Acurus!

For the next two years, I couldn't tame the harshness that existed between the my speaker and my amp's relationship. That caused me much pain. My next purchase was, what i thought to be to warmest sounding cd player at the time, a Marantz 63se cd player. Boy I regret buying that thin sounding piece of british junk.

It wasn't until this summer, where I actually have ran out of money and started living at home again, that I started vegging out online and do some research. This is when I stumbled onto Audiogon! And ebay and audioreview and so on...

I purchased a CAL dac and trans for 600 bucks, fair market price and used my mom's credit card without her permission to buy some LAT power cords. Then, now that I am back in school with loan, I used part of my loan to pay for a Meridian 518. Now my system really sings. It is almost as good as when I first heard it 10 years ago. What's lacking? A transparent sounding sub.

Anyways, I am sure I will make tons of money after I graduate and be able to buy whatever amp or speaker I want. But I doubt I will because they wont mean as much to me as my current system. They've really traveled with me through thick and thin for half my life. I just hope they never break down, or I will be very sad.

I have ears and a soul--that's how I got sucked into this hobby.

Tim

It was during the late 60's, early 70's. It seemed we were all trying to be free spirits,(hippies if you will), and some of our aquaintences had apartments where we would partake of certain Mexican herbs, and listen to Led Zepplin, The Beatles, Jethro Tull and the like, usually on department store stereo units.
I remember my brother had a friend who I hadn't met, where lots of people,(guys and girls), would hang out. I went one day, and heard my beloved music being reproduced in a way I hadn't heard before. It sounded fantastic at the time. I checked out what he was playing it on.
Great big cabinet speakers,(looked like liquor cabinets), with slat, vented doors that swung open to reveal 15 inch woofer, mid, tweeter, with the name: McIntosh.
A big square chassis with 2 meters lit up blue, also named McIntosh.
A box with knobs,(volume,balance), named McIntosh.
A turntable with little dots around the edge of the platter that were illumunated by a light that kept them from spinning around with the platter. Named Pioneer.

At the time I had no inkling of preamp, amps, strobe markings, and variable speed turntables. I was hooked though.
I was never again happy with my Wards reciever, 8 track and turntable all in one unit, with detachable speakers.
I started seriously saving my money from that day on, and have gone through scores of equipment since then.
I have since come from a set of Large Advents, Sherwood 35 wpc receiver and Dual 1229 with Shure M91ED in 1972, to the present.
Klipsh Lascala tweaked with Alpha core inductors, and Jensen PIO caps, 2A3 single ended monoblock amps, Curcio Daniel, or CJ PV10 preamp, Proceed pcd3, and Oracle Delphi with et2 air bearing tonearm.
I am planning for my next upgrade in this never ending quest to recapture the amazement I felt upon hearing music that moved me emotionally for the first time.

Great question. I started seriously listening to music in the mid sixties when I was four years old. My dad had a Harmon Kardon Citation V, a Dyna pre-amp, an AR turntable and AR 2AX speakers. Amazingly, he let me use it, even at a young age. The AR turntable was a marvel, but really hard to set up, so it was replaced with a JVC.

My first pair of speakers were Cerwin-Vega HD-15's. This was back when CV made good speakers. I since moved on to Dahlquists hooked to a B&K 202+.

The beauty of this hobby is the music, the artists and their artistry. Included in that is the blessed recording engineer who cares about his craft. I wish I had more friends locally in St. Louis to share it with.

Merry Christmas