How Did You Get Started in Audio?

[gusgranite]

I have memories of my Dad and Grandad leaning against our home built marble topped corner speakers (18 inch woofers) and listening to BBC radio through the Radford tube amp.

 

[Mechnutt]

It was about 1974 when audio peaked my interest. My father was an electrical engineer and computer designer. He built our first stereo from a Heath Kit tube kit and speaker kit. It sounded awesome. Then when I started college in 1976 and heard Marantz and Sansui systems and I was hooked. I went out and bought a Pioneer VSX-15 receiver, JVC TT and Altec Model One speakers.

 

[Myles B. Astor]

C'mon! Know there's a more interesting tales out there!!!

 

[mep]

C'mon! Know there's a more interesting tales out there!!!

OK. So I was sixteen and this high-end call girl asked me to come over to her place. She poured me a glass of wine and I sat down on her couch. She had the most amazing high-end system I had ever seen or heard. She sat down next to me and started running her fingers through my hair. I couldn't take my mind off of the sound of the music as it poured forth from her speakers. She asked me to follow her back to the bedroom and I told her "No, I must sit here and listen to your system." She promptly threw me out the door and that was the last I ever saw her or heard her system. I'm still wondering what glorious sounds I missed hearing if only I could have stayed longer.

 

[RedSectorA]

c'mon! know there's a more interesting tales out there!!!

ok. So i was sixteen and this high-end call girl asked me to come over to her place. She poured me a glass of wine and i sat down on her couch. She had the most amazing high-end system i had ever seen or heard. She sat down next to me and started running her fingers through my hair. I couldn't take my mind off of the sound of the music as it poured forth from her speakers. She asked me to follow her back to the bedroom and i told her "no, i must sit here and listen to your system." she promptly threw me out the door and that was the last i ever saw her or heard her system. I'm still wondering what glorious sounds i missed hearing if only i could have stayed longer.

lmfao

 

[just dave]

I was 14 and my best friends brother who was about 24 had a Marantz 2215 receiver and a pair of Marantz speakers played Vulcan Princess by Stanley Clarke and I was blown away. I knew from that moment on that I had to have a great stereo.
We became friends as well but sadly he died last year.He had gone through many stereo upgrades over the years and I never saw that little receiver again.Then earlier this year my friend asked me to help him go through his brothers things and I found the little 2215 IN THE CORNER OF HIS BASEMENT! My friend asked if I wanted it and I said Hell YES!
So I took it home and cleaned it up and it still works.A testament to how well gear was made back in the day.

[/IMG]

 

[Myles B. Astor]

I was 14 and my best friends brother who was about 24 had a Marantz 2215 receiver and a pair of Marantz speakers played Vulcan Princess by Stanley Clarke and I was blown away. I knew from that moment on that I had to have a great stereo.
We became friends as well but sadly he died last year.He had gone through many stereo upgrades over the years and I never saw that little receiver again.Then earlier this year my friend asked me to help him go through his brothers things and I found the little 2215 IN THE CORNER OF HIS BASEMENT! My friend asked if I wanted it and I said Hell YES!
So I took it home and cleaned it up and it still works.A testament to how well gear was made back in the day.

[/IMG]

Really cool story! A friend in college had one he bought from Tech Hi-Fi and loved the feel of the tuning dial!

 

[puroagave]

OK. So I was sixteen and this high-end call girl asked me to come over to her place. She poured me a glass of wine and I sat down on her couch. She had the most amazing high-end system I had ever seen or heard. She sat down next to me and started running her fingers through my hair. I couldn't take my mind off of the sound of the music as it poured forth from her speakers. She asked me to follow her back to the bedroom and I told her "No, I must sit here and listen to your system." She promptly threw me out the door and that was the last I ever saw her or heard her system. I'm still wondering what glorious sounds I missed hearing if only I could have stayed longer.

your fictitious 16 yr old actually exists...only he's grown up now, i've been to too many audio shows to not be proven wrong:weird::lol:

 

[Dpod4]

My oldest brother got me hooked. He helped me assemble my first true high end system when I was about 15 and had a kick-ass room (shag carpet, wood beam ceilings, 30x40 foot room that was a "big" room converted from a garage). That golden moment comprised Rickie Lee Jones Pirates LP played on an Empire 698 turntable with Grado cartridge into NAD preamp into modified Hafler amplifier that fed (via lamp cord) the signal into Maggie speakers. Rickie was in the room. Prior to that I had since grade school had pioneer receivers, onkyo integrated (just bought both these vintage exact models for my son and daughter), etc. But it was the empire-nad-hafler-maggie sound that captured my soul and the sound that I chase to this day. Also as a footnote, my early years I lusted after A/D/S speakers. I remember going to a dealer in St Louis when I was probably 13 and hearing and seeing the entire line of speakers from 300s to 1290s and lusting for that. My first car when I was 16 (1976 Buick Century tan on tan 2 door) i outfitted with Sony head unit and amp and ADS 300c in the rear deck....i still have those 300c speakers (center channel in a home theater). My vacation home's theater is decked out in 100% vintage ADS speakers all the way around. And I just bought my son ADS floorstanders and an all automatic ADS turntable. I am clearly working through some early life issues...

 

[Myles B. Astor]

My oldest brother got me hooked. He helped me assemble my first true high end system when I was about 15 and had a kick-ass room (shag carpet, wood beam ceilings, 30x40 foot room that was a "big" room converted from a garage). That golden moment comprised Rickie Lee Jones Pirates LP played on an Empire 698 turntable with Grado cartridge into NAD preamp into modified Hafler amplifier that fed (via lamp cord) the signal into Maggie speakers. Rickie was in the room. Prior to that I had since grade school had pioneer receivers, onkyo integrated (just bought both these vintage exact models for my son and daughter), etc. But it was the empire-nad-hafler-maggie sound that captured my soul and the sound that I chase to this day. Also as a footnote, my early years I lusted after A/D/S speakers. I remember going to a dealer in St Louis when I was probably 13 and hearing and seeing the entire line of speakers from 300s to 1290s and lusting for that. My first car when I was 16 (1976 Buick Century tan on tan 2 door) i outfitted with Sony head unit and amp and ADS 300c in the rear deck....i still have those 300c speakers (center channel in a home theater). My vacation home's theater is decked out in 100% vintage ADS speakers all the way around. And I just bought my son ADS floorstanders and an all automatic ADS turntable. I am clearly working through some early life issues...

Ha! What is there about RLJ? First time I visited Andy Singer's old store on Lex and 34th St, he was driving Acoustat 1+1s with a Hafler amplifier along with a Audio Research preamplifier and Linn turntable. And while it was her debut album, I too got goosebumps listening to her and feeling like she was in the room with me.

 

[GaryProtein]

When I was eight years old and got a three speed bicycle for my birthday, I was informed that it was my last bicycle as a gift and if I wanted another one, I would have to buy it myself. I knew I was going to want another one in several years so I started doing odd jobs. When I was nine, I started playing the drums, and the need for a record player louder than the little old Magnavox console player became a necessity.

I started a lawn mowing and snow blowing business when I was ten (yes, my father set me loose on the neighborhood with an Ariens snowblower!) and I was saving a considerable amount of cash. I asked my father if I could spend a portion of what I saved and get what used to be known as a "portable stereo" for a few hundred dollars and the request was declined. Being a little sarcastic, I asked about spending all I had saved on components and I was approved. The bicycle took back seat and I had saved for two years and got my first receiver, a Lafayette LR1200T, (tested by Dave O'Brien at 40 wpc RMS) Tandberg 64x, Dual 1019 turntable and KLH5 speakers. Not exactly high end, but rather exquisite for a 12 year old. I drooled over the Mac MC275 amp and C22 preamp that I couldn't afford on the shelf nearby.

 

[Myles B. Astor]

When I was eight years old and got a three speed bicycle for my birthday, I was informed that it was my last bicycle as a gift and if I wanted another one, I would have to buy it myself. I knew I was going to want another one in several years so I started doing odd jobs. When I was nine, I started playing the drums, and the need for a record player louder than the little old Magnavox console player became a necessity.

I started a lawn mowing and snow blowing business when I was ten (yes, my father set me loose on the neighborhood with an Ariens snowblower!) and I was saving a considerable amount of cash. I asked my father if I could spend a portion of what I saved and get what used to be known as a "portable stereo" for a few hundred dollars and the request was declined. Being a little sarcastic, I asked about spending all I had saved on components and I was approved. The bicycle took back seat and I had saved for two years and got my first receiver, a Lafayette LR1200T, (tested by Dave O'Brien at 40 wpc RMS) Tandberg 64x, Dual 1019 turntable and KLH5 speakers. Not exactly high end, but rather exquisite for a 12 year old. I drooled over the Mac MC275 amp and C22 preamp that I couldn't afford on the shelf nearby.

Did the stereo system turn you into a chic magnet?

 

[GaryProtein]

We had some good make-out parties!

 

[asiufy]

I'm a first-generation audiophile in my family, and a late one at that. I started buying records when I was 12 or so, but always on cheap and/or vintage gear. By that, I mean gear that was vintage already by the time I could afford them... Since imported gear were extremely expensive in my country (Brazil), we had to make do with local copycats. I still remember this huge, sealed box speaker I had at some point, that were manufactured in my home town. They were made of solid wood, 12" woofers, and were filled with cement. Needed 3 people to lift them...
It was only when I had a sizeable collection of music that it clicked, that I had invested so much money in the music itself, and hardly anything on the equipment. So I decided to fix that, and went around looking for what was out there, other than vintage gear. That was only about 15 years ago. Fortunately, the internet helped a great deal!

cheers,
alexandre

 

[MusicDirector]

My story is boring and just self-evolution I guess. This is the very brief undetailed version.
I’m old school and a first generation music lover in my family. Nobody in my family including myself was ever an audiophile. However, there were friends of family that had very nice and probably high-end systems. When I was young, I remember being at these homes in tow of my parents and seeing these systems and just sitting there and staring at them and hearing them.
I was into music at a very early age, my parents had a console that had a turntable and radio. My mum would put on the radio to the pop stations of the time and that’s where I got my exposure. I was about 9 when my parents got me one of those self-contained flip-lid phonographs. I started buying records at the time. I was earning allowance of 25 cents per week and my first record I purchased was a Beatles single, but I can’t recall which one. I started buying more singles because they were 10 cents at the time. LPs were 25 cents. These were new prices mind you. My first LP was given to me by a neighbor. It had the sub-title of “Auto-racing themes”. (My introduction to the obscure). Xmas that year I was given the LP Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles. The first LP I ever purchased was Hey Jude by The Beatles new for 25 cents.
I slowly accumulated more records (small amount) and over the years went through the usual path of gear for what I could afford, lots of lo-fi and then mid-fi. I also started playing instruments when I was about 14. By this time I had to earn and save for anything I wanted, doing odd jobs, mowing yards, washing cars. I finally got my first piece of mid-fi when I got my first job at a pizza joint in the mid 80s. That also supplied me with enough money to grab up about 40 odd more records (By this time LPs were $4 to $7 new). Over the next 14 years or so I also became heavily involved in the local music scene in all kinds of capacities from roadie to sound engineer to stage manager to band manager and everything in between, even was a reviewer and scout for a bit.
About 5 or 6 years ago I got the idea to try to seek out some of the gear I remembered seeing that I could never afford back then. While I could still not afford the vintage high-end stuff I saw, I knew if I looked hard I’d be able to find something from the time period. My ultimate goal was to get a real turntable for the first time in my life. I finally succeeded and got my first real turntable about 4 years ago, my Pioneer PL510A. My mid-fi system was already long built by then, but I had records that I wanted to play and my mid-fi system could not do it. It had a record destroyer, but no record player. So I put what I had left of my records away. (I had accumulated about 80 records and ended up getting rid of 20 when I switched to CD). I had a lot to learn about turntables and more about records as well. (Still learning about turntables). I ended up getting a number of vintage receivers, tape decks and speakers as well as a few more turntables given to me. I sold off a lot of it and kept what I liked most. I now have 4 vintage receivers, 3 turntables (two in use), one tape deck and one pair of speakers.
About 3 years ago I got my first piece of higher end gear, my Paradigm Studio 100s. It took almost 2 years of saving and a solid 6 months of research and audition to get them. I had been using a pair of Kenwood speakers since 1986 and I had somehow found myself with a job at a fairly sized Jazz radio station where I started as a librarian and within 3 months found myself promoted all the way to Music Director of one of the shows followed 1 month later with a promotion to Associate Producer, followed just under two years later by my resignation when they tried to force promote me to DJ (Air Talent) and my boss was getting creepy too. When I was younger I dreamt about being on radio and used to pretend, but never thought it would happen and never pursued it. How it happened was so shocking and fast that I made note to remind myself not to attend open houses at radio stations anymore. That’s the reason I got my Paradigms. It was because I was doing so much listening evaluations squeezing everything I could out of the old speakers (don’t know how I did it), that I convinced myself I had earned them at least.
Today I have two systems. One is vintage and one is what I call my “upper-end” one, partly thanks in no small part to a few folks here at AS at various levels. Could not have done it without you! I still can hardly even afford to dream about the gear talked about here, but since what I have is satisfying to me, I see no reason to be concerned. I’m about music over gear anyway.

~Eric

 

[Myles B. Astor]

I'm a first-generation audiophile in my family, and a late one at that. I started buying records when I was 12 or so, but always on cheap and/or vintage gear. By that, I mean gear that was vintage already by the time I could afford them... Since imported gear were extremely expensive in my country (Brazil), we had to make do with local copycats. I still remember this huge, sealed box speaker I had at some point, that were manufactured in my home town. They were made of solid wood, 12" woofers, and were filled with cement. Needed 3 people to lift them...
It was only when I had a sizeable collection of music that it clicked, that I had invested so much money in the music itself, and hardly anything on the equipment. So I decided to fix that, and went around looking for what was out there, other than vintage gear. That was only about 15 years ago. Fortunately, the internet helped a great deal!

cheers,
alexandre

Wasn't there a speaker made onetime in the US with a concrete cabinet. GNP something IIRC?

 

[Jack]

Myles

Roy Johnson of Green Mountain still uses a concrete based cabinet, but there was another before him whose name escapes me at the moment. Seems like they were much narrower at the top of the baffle than the bottom.

 

[mauidan]

When I graduated from high school, my dad took me to Lafayette and I bought my first hifi system. Lafayette solid state integrated amp, dual TT and Lafayette speakers:

Took the system to college with me, and traded the Lafayette solid state integrated amp for an Olsen TubeReceiver.

After college, I upgraded to a Pioneer integrated amp and some Fisher speakers. The craziness started when a friend at work introduced me to GAS and TAS.

Can't remember all the stuff I've owned over the years, but borrowing from a thread over on Agon, here my personal amp evolution :

Lafayette Solid State Int.Amp, OlsenTube Rec., PioneerSA-9100, GAS Son of Ampzilla,GAS Ampzilla II, Threshold 400A, Kenwood L07-Ms, Marantz8b, ARC D-76, ARC D-150A, ARC D-79A, Futterman OTLs, Rappaport Amp-1, QuicksilverMS-190, Electron Kinetic Eagle 7A, MFA M-120, MFA M-150, MFA M-200D, NRG A200S,Spectral DMA-80, Pass Aleph 3, Mesa Baron, Sonic Frontiers Power One SE, GamutD200 Mk.II, Spectron Musician II, TacT M2150, Modwright KWA 100SE, Decware ZEN TORII MK 3, Leben CS-600, Sanders Magtech, Aesthetix Atlas Signature, ARC REF75. Next up: Devialet 200.

 

[puroagave]

Wasn't there a speaker made onetime in the US with a concrete cabinet. GNP something IIRC?

The GNP speakers i recall were Brooks Berdan's designs, the cabinets were wood. The swedish Rauna from the '80s were made from cast concrete and were way ahead of their time. the woofers were loaded in a transmission line and cabinets were built in halves - they sounded fabulous.

 

[Myles B. Astor]

The GNP speakers i recall were Brooks Berdan's designs, the cabinets were wood. The swedish Rauna from the '80s were made from cast concrete and were way ahead of their time. the woofers were loaded in a transmission line and cabinets were built in halves - they sounded fabulous.

Yes Rauna I believe was brought in by Karen Sumner? The GNP I found were actually made out of lead.