Senior Audiophiles - Audiophile since the 60-70's?

My first interest in HIFI as it came to be called began in the mid-50s; I was just out of high school. A neighbor (Stanford EE grad) had built his own amp, had a Gerrard, and, IIRC, a JBL corner-loaded horn. I had never heard anything like that sound. I built a Heath Kit amp, then bought his amp. We used to visit the many HIFI shops around western LA and the beach area, drooling over the EV Patricians, JBL Hartsfileds, etc. Then I started building speaker cabinets and Dynakits, built a bunch of them.

As a post doc in the late 60s, I bought my first high-end piece, a Marantz Model 18 receiver, for a whole month of my fellowship. I moved on to the the AR-3a, and used an AR turntable with a Shure V15II cartridge.

I still have that receiver, but in the early 90s I replaced it with a Proceed PAV and Amp 2, and replaced a pair of ESS Heils with a pair of KEF 102/2s that I still use, along with a KEF 200C, to supplement a pair of KEF 104/2s for HT.

I've heard a lot of high-end systems, but nothing that has made me want to write a check. I'm happy with the sound of my system, even though I tweek or upgrade it a bit from time to time.

Although my musical intersts have remained mostly classical and jazz, I agree that the mid 60s to early 70s seemed a very inventive time for music.

db

4 years since the inception and I still enjoy reading these stories.

Me too Brianmgrarcom. The only audiophiles I knew in those days were locals who I ran into at dealers and later one dealer who I became good friends with. I can remember his going to CES and anxiously awaiting to hear what he heard. I also remember discovering Stereophile and growing old awaiting new issues.

I also remember somewhat later when I got strongly into racing Hobies. Saleboat racing is very time consuming and meant that my speakers would often go weeks without being on. Often my young children would request that I turn them on at bedtime and play them loud.

I think really Senior Audiophiles got started in the 50s, as I did. Heathkits, Knight kits, Eico kits and DIY projects from electronics magazines got the hobby started for my generation. With the advent of transistors, the kit building hobby took a dive, and the high end products of the early 60s were McIntosh and Marantz, not really affordable gear for the rest of us! There is so much cool stuff today for audiophiles of every persuasion and budget that I think this is really the golden age of audio, although much of the stuff from the 50s still sounds great! (But tubes expiring and hum were no fun then.) The big question to me is did the CD help or hurt the hobby; and what about MP3?

I think audio is a lot like cars. I used to tune cars by listening to them or driving them. Now the chip needs to be read by the computer. Not as much fun but clearly better.

It is still a fun hobby and now you meet interesting people even across the world thanks to the internet.