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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
shoe
204 posts
 
Over at a friends house cutting school in the garage up to no good we listened to Edgar Winter's "Frankenstien" on some JBL speakers ( the one's with the thick blue foam grill covers, what model was that? ) back around 1974. Then "Dark side of the Moon" Pink Floyd, Steely Dan and "Tres Hombres" by ZZ Top " They gotta lotta nice girls out there ". I was hooked and bought my first system on the money I made after school, a little Sony system.
Then when I got out on my own I bought an Advent reciever/ BSR turntable and some very nice solid oak veneer JBL speakers, can't remember the model number of those either.
Those JBL's lasted a long long time.
I dropped out of the hobby for some 20 years and then a few years back I bought some new Magnepan MMG's wow! Hooked again.
audiobroke's avatar
audiobroke
51 posts
 
I always played with whatever stereo stuff we had laying around the house as a kid, an old turntable and such. But it wasn't until I heard my brother in laws system in my teens, with some monoblock amps that looked like legos he was working on, and a Theta DAC that the spark happened. It was the first time that I really saw that there is this whole subculture of people that are obsessed with the quality of the sound. Before this point I didn't really even think about it. Now it's all over, I'm one of them!

I did recently get a chance to purchase the very monoblock amps that got me into this hobby, so I bought them. They still sound good, but now they remain in my collection unused and under a dust cover for nastalgia sake.
audvidsvs
16 posts
 
Early 70's the last school day of the year some friends and I went to a guys house in a Lutheran Seminary,his dad was the dean of the school.

I was caught by surprise by the sounds of Yes-Roundabout through some big NEW Bozak Concert Grands and I have never been the same since.

I have been involved in Audio and the business of it ever since in some form or another.

Forward to the mid-late 70's and I met Roy Allison and Gordon Gow at the dealer I worked for. I did what it took to get some Allison 3's and an old Mac 225 Tube AMp. I had a Rek-o-Kut Rondine Table and Mac pre-amp too.

Then we moved and our neighbor was an Audio Consultant who rigged the Masters and Johnson "Clinic" here in St.Louis.He was a Crown and Electrovoice dealer and had a pair of custom speakers featuring two of those god-forsaken 30" EV Foam Woofers driven by Crown through tube crossovers he had built himself.
A certain new madness overcame me right then and the rest is really a blur.

What a hobby!
tomryan
796 posts
 
Sept., 1969. A guy on my dorm floor had Dynaco speakers, Dynaco integrated amp, don't remember the turntable. I'd never seen or heard anything like it and spent the next 3 years drooling over the Allied Radio catalog.

1974 - Went through listening sessions at Tech HiFi and Almas Stereo in Michigan, checking out the Ohm Walsh designs vs. the Heil Air Motion Transformers. Got completely hooked and started saving and spending most of my pennies for equipment, especially after I heard Stevie Wonder and Bach on Maggies driven by Audio Research in 1976.
dazone
57 posts
 
Worked in a record store when I was a kid that sold Altec's and various box speakers. Loved R&B on Texas radio and my best friends older sisters collection of Kenton, Chet Baker, June Christy, etc.
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