What equipment or event thrust you into the hobby?

As a teenager-early seventies, listening to Ten Years After / Cricklewood Green / Love Like A Man on a friend's system (actually I think it was his dad's), unsure of integrated, unsure of TT except that I had never seen a full size platter before, it was manual and had a pickering cartridge, speakers were Wharfdales with wooden lattice grills over the grill cloth, the sound was the best I had ever heard. That was the beginning for me.

2 years old, my dad recorded christmas morning's on a pioneer 8 track (I still have it), I loved playing with the mics, wires, and watching the analog VU meters move when we spoke. I used to get in trouble (recorded of course) b/c I could not leave the wires and equipment alone. He had (still has) these huge speakers with 15 inch downfiring woofers in a 3 way design. They are called Grenadiers I think, they are octagon shaped, beautiful wood with real marble round tops mom and dad used for light stands. Any chance I could get I would crank his wood cased sony 70wpc receiver...the bass rattled the walls and my chest thumped...I was hooked instantly. From then on I have been cursed/blessed to be part of such a noble hobby ;) Now my toddler son absolutely LOVES looking at my tube amp at night (just like me) yelling out "amlifier...amlifier...amlifier"
as long as he stays away from the pencils (sorry dad) I should be in good shape ;)

Klipschorns in 1982. Wish that I'd never heard them..;)

in '86 I walked into a local highest end shop. I visited every week, for every week the speaker room show cased one set of speakers only. Almost always the choice front end was a Goldmund turntable, Koetzu cartridge. The amps were Mark Levinson or Jadis most of the time.

As I was saying, I walked in one day, and the owner was not present offering his customary glass of wine. The place was deathly quiet, except for a piano recital that came from next door.

So I thought. Walking into the huge room I spied two what looked like to me room dividers, perhaps some fancy diffuser. It didn't matter where I wandered about the room, the piano was being beautifully played down the hall. That vivid image never faltered no matter where I was.

It wasn't until I looked back to the equipment rack and saw the Goldmund spinning a record that I entertained the thought those trapezoid panels were creating the pianist down the hall.

I own those speakers now. The piano has moved into the listening room thanks to new more powerful and transparent amps now awailable.

What event thrust me into the hobby? I saw and heard McIntosh, Marantz, Telefunken, Harmon Kardon, Sansui, Nikko, Fisher, etc. equipment in my late teens and early twenties. Couldn't come close to affording any of it then. When I finally had some money in my 20's and 30's I bought low-fi out of lack of knowledge. When my last low fi gear deteriorated in my late 40's I was getting into the Internet and found some internet retailers and decided to spend my first thousands on mid fi Marsh gear. That was the beginning of the hobby for me. Then I found Galen Carol Audio and then Audiogon. Wish I had the faith in Audiogon in the beginning that I do know. I could have saved myself so much money!I was afraid to buy someone else's used equipment early on because the concept was so foreign to me. I didn't understand how well most audiophiles care for their equipment. Nor did I understand that there was so much well- cared-for-quipment to buy at large discounts. If I could just get my money back and start over with the knowledge I have now!