What equipment or event thrust you into the hobby?

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!

So, reporting back again, I was a student at Gettysburg College in the late 60s/early 70s. The guy that lived next door in the dorm had a father who was a buyer for a major retailer. Well, one day, a Class 8 truck pulled up to the dorm and out comes some high end SONY electronics, compliments of Vito...not the stuff they sold at K-Mart-the stuff they were selling out of Japan. Turns out the guy took a bribe and the kid was on the receiving end of the payoff. That system really had some serious dynamic drive to it. So when I graduated in '73, I was determined to buy a "high end" receiver...resulting in the Marantz 2252 in 1975. I listened contently to the Marantz and the Advents for 20 years...because I loved the music. Then one day on a business trip, I had a few hours to kill and walked through the doors of Audio Emporium in Brown Deer, Wisconsin...and Dave introduced me to a Threshold T-200 amplifier. I remembered the kid that got the SONY stuff from Vito and decided it was time to play Vito for my own gratification. I mated the Threshold to a Modulus 3 with phono stage purchased from Audio Connection in Verona, N.J. This was hooked up to a rather modest pair of Monitor Audio MA700s...which were replaced by a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8s auditioned during a trip to Chicago. And then I discovered tubes....