What hooked you to audio?

All through HS I would walk by the local Olson Electronics store and, with no money in my pocket, would stare at and lust after all the cool stuff in the window. For some reason it was the headphones that I lusted after the most; especially the real big ones with the big puffy ear-pads. Finally, with enough paper route money, I bought those big puffy headphones and had my first personal stereo. I bought a headphone extension cord and plugged the cans into the family Sears "Sivertone" all-in-one and with the 'phones spread apart really wide and reaching all the way to my bedroom would blast them and USE THEM AS SPEAKERS!!!! Talk about distortion! But, man, I was in heaven listening to the sounds Joe Cocker, John Mayall and Mozart.

When I finally got some real money together I bought a Panasonic "Thrusters" system for $199. My excitement was dampened when it became obvious that although the system sounded "better" than the "Silvertone", the turntable had very audible wow. I returned the thing to the Korvettes dept. store three times before the salesman, who had no idea what I was talking about, finally insisted that I take my money back. The following year, while a freshman in college, I visited Peter McGrath's "Sound Components" in Coral Gables Fla. and heard (I will never forget it!) the system that would get me hooked once and for all: stacked Quads, Janis subs, Sequerra ribbons, Levinson electronics and Linn tt. playing Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam". Life would not be the same after that :-)

Music has some sort of hypotonic effect on me. Because of that, the better it sounds, the more "addictive" I am of it. Searching for the ultimate sound is a lifelong journey. For me the $64,000 question is, "Can one be 100% satisfied with their gear?" For me the answer is "no", as I can always find something I want to upgrade to.

I'm like a coke addict, but this is legal! :)

My first visit to a Hi Fi shop . Hi Fi Heaven .
B&W 801 matrix series 3 speakers behind 20 000 dollars of electronics . The cd was Flim and the BBs Tricycle .
I now have 2 copies of that CD . Dateline mid 80s

J.S. Bach

I remember pressing my nose up to the window at Stereo Exchange in NYC, finally (after a couple of visits) walking in and drooling at the used stuff along the front wall.

At about the same time, my sis dated a guy who worked at a high end audio dealer and invited us to his house to check out his rig. I could not tell you anything about the system (I did not like his choice of obscure classical music) except he had Dalhquist Speakers (awesome experience to have heard them back then) but what really blew my mind was his Sony tonearm (I remember clearly he said Sony) and it was under a cake cover. The arm was the most incredible thing I had ever seen. Hooked? Drugs have not had the effect audio has had on me.