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What equipment or event thrust you into the hobby?

Many paths have led us into the pursuit of audio nirvana. Was there a single event or piece of equipment in the early years that started you down your path to audio bliss?

I used to sit in front of one of those little portable record players when I was a lad of 3 who loved listening to music...spinning records...and mostly at twilight...and I thought they sounded better in the evening. I moved from kiddie records to 33s, like the South Pacific album...graduating to Georgia Gibbs "Dance with me Henry" at 4, Sinatra, and anything else my parents decided to bring home. From there, the path led through the origins of rock in the 50s and the classic rock of the 60s and ultimately to jazz (still collecting records). My first credible system was built around a Marantz 2252B receiver, a Dual 1214 turntable, drving and feeding a pair of Advents. Saul Marantz must have known what he is doing because that receiver is still alive and kicking today, the only investment being a few cans of tuner spray.
mcpody
jeffreyds
115 posts
 
A pair of B&W Matrix 805's being driven by an Anthem Integrated 1 at a local hi-fi shop. It was the first time I had ever heard a tube amp. I was amazed that I had found something that sounded even better than my Bose 901s driven by my Marantz 1200. Shortly thereafter, I ended up with a pair of B&W Matrix 804's along with a Golden Tube Audio SE-40 and SEP-1.

I'm glad the Bose are gone, but sometimes I wish I had the Marantz 1200 back.

Jeff
photon46
1,096 posts
 
I was 16 and I had a good friend whose family had more dosposable income than ours. When I walked into his bed room he had a system with KLH speakers, a Fisher tubed integrated amp, and an AR turntable playing. My first exposure to a half way decent audio system that day pretty well fixated me on this obsession.
lwood
61 posts
 
My children left the roost and gave me back a room to listen to music in...and listening to tubes once again after 40 years did it for me, along with finding an excellent sounding FM Jazz station.
krell_man
827 posts
 
I come from a musical family. As far as becoming an audiophile itself, my uncle was a college professor who had a dedicated listening room back in the late sixties. He had a turntable and tubed receiver and the music sounded marvelous. I've strived for that ever since.
jameswei
883 posts
 
My curiosity was first piqued in the mid-1960s when a department store salesman told my parents that a Magnavox console was just fine and we should forget about a bunch of exotic looking "components" that were way expensive and only for hobbyists.

Later, in the late-1960s, a lot of guys in my college dorm had pretty fancy systems, and I really caught the bug. My ardor cooled in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Around 1996, I needed something to read during lunch, and I bought a copy of Stereo Review. Julian Hirsch wrote a column about how the highly praised Rectilinear IIIs of the late 1960s would stand up against mid-1990s speakers -- probably not that well. Since I was still listening to my Rectilinear IIIs, I suddenly felt completely obsolete. This started my most recent upgrade cycle.
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