How Did You Get Started in Audio?

Myles B. Astor

Myles B. Astor

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Let’s go with the Readers Digest version. I was smitten with the audio affliction thanks to my father who never bought an audio system because none of them sounded like real music to him. But every Sunday like clockwork, we would listen to the live classical music station broadcast from Lincoln Center in NYC.

Fast forward to college where the audio (high-end audio was yet to come) affliction became a chronic disease thanks to one friend who worked in Tech Hi Fi (and used to bring the equipment back to his dorm room to listen to) and another friend who made money on the side selling used audio gear. My main claim to audio fame in college was my nonstop playing of David Bowie, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed on my little KLH all in one system! (though the first three LPs ever bought in HS were Led Zepellin 2, Jethro Tull Benefit and Black Sabbath Masters of Reality.)

It was all downhill after that. After graduation from College in 1976, found myself one day wandering around Greenwich Village and came across the now long gone (gone the way of most of the audio and record stores sadly in NYC) high-end audio store Audio Exchange. This was my first real introduction to high-end audio. In this store was sound coming out of speakers like I had never heard before. And in retrospect, that was a pretty darn good system though don’t remember the specific gear: Tube electronics were from ARC, turntable was from Linn and speakers were Quads estats. And sitting on the shelf, and soon to accompany me home, was a copy of Issue 18 of the then fledgling magazine, TAS. I must admit my head was swimming with names of audio equipment that had never heard of before.

But it was not really until 1980 that I owned my first –and how glorious it sounded at the time – high end audio system comprised of Dahlquist DQ10s (and had auditioned quite a few speakers and came down to the Dollies and the Vandy 2As), a modded Hafler DH200 amp and 101 and the Rega 3/JVC 7045 arm/Grace F9E cartridge hooked together with the original MC speaker cables and some MF1 Super Litz IC cables.

[A quick reality check is in order here. The Super Litz MF1 cost the then unheard of price of $40/meter. I thought I needed my head examined but I forked over the cash (Yes, they did make a difference!). Not quite sure what that $40 would buy one today?)]

Those ss pieces were soon to be replaced after a friend one day brought over his AA POOGED Dynaco PAS-3 preamplifier replete with its own separate outboard power supply. My immediate reaction after hearing my first piece of tube gear? Where did all that music come from? The very next day, I went down to Stereo Exchange, sold the Hafler/van Alastine 101 and bought a used cj PV5, soon to be joined by a cj MV75A-1. And it's been all downhill ever since.
 
I am now 52 and for as long as I can remember back to early childhood, my oldest brother was always building a kit on the kitchen table. Heathkits, Dynacos, and Haflers. We lived in Philly and David Haffler was in Pensauken NJ, 45 minutes away and my brother regularly consulted with and helped tweaking circuits and board layouts for a while.

My oldest brother would build the gear and my second oldest brother had several pairs of AR speakers and would put the gear thru it's testing, then tweaking by the builder for perfection. I got to hear a wide range of music and gear as a little tyke. My first stereo was a Heathkit Receiver and hand built speakers. Not bad for a 12 y/o!

We also had one of the best Audio shops around, Soundex in Willow Grove, PA. First they were in a little strip store, then moved to a big old Victorian house and then built a 22 room showcase building. My brothers took me there regularly but back then I was unsure what I was looking at or listening to. When I was 17, I used the money from my first Income Tax Refund to buy a nice Onkyo Integrated, Cassette Deck, BSR Turntable, and Infinity RSb speakers. Killer setup for my little bedroom.

By then I had a better idea and would frequent Soundex and fell in love with the huge Dunlavey speakers and all the gear of the 80s. Between the Onkyo setup and better gear, I had a Sony AVR with a Marantz CD67SE / Audio Alchemy DDE1.1 and Mirage 970s. From going to Soundex, I fell in love with Dynaudio Speakers early on but could not afford them. I saved and scrimped until one day I was able to plunk down the $2500 for a pair of Audience 82s. My wife was kinda furious about spending so much on what? A pair of Speakers....are you kidding? Well after the Dyns replaced the Mirages, she understood.

Not long before the Dyns, I bought a Hafler setup of the 945 Pre-Tuner and matching 9180 Amp which was fabulous for me at that time. (still have them and still using the Pre now in second system) I shortly realized that the Dyns wanted a bit more juice so I researched and eventually ordered an Odyssey Stratos Plus, which I waited months to be built and shipped. But Oh My! The Dyns now sounded like they did in the store. Shortly thereafter, I decided I needed a better Pre and bought an SS version from Sound Valves (Sound Values) but it was horrid so I sent it back and traded up to the SV101i Tube Pre. Another step in the right direction. That system lasted several years until I totally lucked my way into my current system, still from the 90s but worth more than I could have ever afforded until about now.

When the market was crashing 7 or 8 years ago, my neighbor who had a real setup asked me to help him sell the gear because his wife no longer wanted a big loud system in the house. He had stashed it all in the garage and bought some small cheesy system to appease her. He told me that one channel of the amp was not working right, and he was unsure about the tubes in the Pre. So here I am trying to find the value of gear that might not be working and trying to sell it all. After much research, I tried to sell each of Pre-Amp-Speakers for $500 each and could get no hits besides a lowball on the speakers. Each Item was between $4500 and $5500 when new. Since all were unsure of working condition, I offered him a ridiculous ammont to take the gear and see if I could get it all working, but it was a crap shoot. He said NO, my son in law will sell it for me. Several months later during the first snow of the year, I get a call from him asking if I still wanted it all and he would bring it all over. I jumped on it straight away because if anything, the 2pr of ICs and 14'run of Speaker cable were worth close to $2k new alone and I just wanted the cables and tried again to sell the gear. I ended up taking the Counterpoint NPS400 to RHB Soundezign, a mile from my house. They brought it back to life and retubed it for about $200. I bought all new tubes for the VAC Pre as he had 4 12ax7s in place instead of 2 ax7s and 2 au7s.

Before Soundex went out of business, the newer building was incredible. 22 Sound rooms, upstairs was all Home Theaters and furniture and such, while downstairs were all 2 channel rooms. One always had BAT electronics, a nice Oracle turntable, and Proac speakers. Consistently a great room to listen in. Room #1 always had the latest and greatest so I was able to hear some killer stuff including Wilson Grand Slams, Watt-Puppies, JM Labs Grand Utopias, B&W flagships, Krell, Levenson, Rowland, you name it. I think my favorite was when I got to hear the full Dynaudio Arbitur electronics with the Consequence speakers. WOW!

So now I am just in limbo with gear while I await downsizing of my home in a few years. I intend to sell off most all my gear and put together a smaller simpler killer setup. And with the help of everyone here, I have been able to compile a short list (getting longer every day someone points out some cool stuff I never heard of) for that killer setup.
 
Shadowfax said:
I am now 52 and for as long as I can remember back to early childhood, my oldest brother was always building a kit on the kitchen table. Heathkits, Dynacos, and Haflers. We lived in Philly and David Haffler was in Pensauken NJ, 45 minutes away and my brother regularly consulted with and helped tweaking circuits and board layouts for a while.

My oldest brother would build the gear and my second oldest brother had several pairs of AR speakers and would put the gear thru it's testing, then tweaking by the builder for perfection. I got to hear a wide range of music and gear as a little tyke. My first stereo was a Heathkit Receiver and hand built speakers. Not bad for a 12 y/o!

We also had one of the best Audio shops around, Soundex in Willow Grove, PA. First they were in a little strip store, then moved to a big old Victorian house and then built a 22 room showcase building. My brothers took me there regularly but back then I was unsure what I was looking at or listening to. When I was 17, I used the money from my first Income Tax Refund to buy a nice Onkyo Integrated, Cassette Deck, BSR Turntable, and Infinity RSb speakers. Killer setup for my little bedroom.

By then I had a better idea and would frequent Soundex and fell in love with the huge Dunlavey speakers and all the gear of the 80s. Between the Onkyo setup and better gear, I had a Sony AVR with a Marantz CD67SE / Audio Alchemy DDE1.1 and Mirage 970s. From going to Soundex, I fell in love with Dynaudio Speakers early on but could not afford them. I saved and scrimped until one day I was able to plunk down the $2500 for a pair of Audience 82s. My wife was kinda furious about spending so much on what? A pair of Speakers....are you kidding? Well after the Dyns replaced the Mirages, she understood.

Not long before the Dyns, I bought a Hafler setup of the 945 Pre-Tuner and matching 9180 Amp which was fabulous for me at that time. (still have them and still using the Pre now in second system) I shortly realized that the Dyns wanted a bit more juice so I researched and eventually ordered an Odyssey Stratos Plus, which I waited months to be built and shipped. But Oh My! The Dyns now sounded like they did in the store. Shortly thereafter, I decided I needed a better Pre and bought an SS version from Sound Valves (Sound Values) but it was horrid so I sent it back and traded up to the SV101i Tube Pre. Another step in the right direction. That system lasted several years until I totally lucked my way into my current system, still from the 90s but worth more than I could have ever afforded until about now.

When the market was crashing 7 or 8 years ago, my neighbor who had a real setup asked me to help him sell the gear because his wife no longer wanted a big loud system in the house. He had stashed it all in the garage and bought some small cheesy system to appease her. He told me that one channel of the amp was not working right, and he was unsure about the tubes in the Pre. So here I am trying to find the value of gear that might not be working and trying to sell it all. After much research, I tried to sell each of Pre-Amp-Speakers for $500 each and could get no hits besides a lowball on the speakers. Each Item was between $4500 and $5500 when new. Since all were unsure of working condition, I offered him a ridiculous ammont to take the gear and see if I could get it all working, but it was a crap shoot. He said NO, my son in law will sell it for me. Several months later during the first snow of the year, I get a call from him asking if I still wanted it all and he would bring it all over. I jumped on it straight away because if anything, the 2pr of ICs and 14'run of Speaker cable were worth close to $2k new alone and I just wanted the cables and tried again to sell the gear. I ended up taking the Counterpoint NPS400 to RHB Soundezign, a mile from my house. They brought it back to life and retubed it for about $200. I bought all new tubes for the VAC Pre as he had 4 12ax7s in place instead of 2 ax7s and 2 au7s.

Before Soundex went out of business, the newer building was incredible. 22 Sound rooms, upstairs was all Home Theaters and furniture and such, while downstairs were all 2 channel rooms. One always had BAT electronics, a nice Oracle turntable, and Proac speakers. Consistently a great room to listen in. Room #1 always had the latest and greatest so I was able to hear some killer stuff including Wilson Grand Slams, Watt-Puppies, JM Labs Grand Utopias, B&W flagships, Krell, Levenson, Rowland, you name it. I think my favorite was when I got to hear the full Dynaudio Arbitur electronics with the Consequence speakers. WOW!

So now I am just in limbo with gear while I await downsizing of my home in a few years. I intend to sell off most all my gear and put together a smaller simpler killer setup. And with the help of everyone here, I have been able to compile a short list (getting longer every day someone points out some cool stuff I never heard of) for that killer setup.
Click to expand...

The Clearfields you're using were one of Albert Von's early speaker designs, right?

Heard them years ago driven by the original Counterpoint OTL designed by RM and in its day, the system did some very magical things.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
The Clearfields you're using were one of Albert Von's early speaker designs, right?

Heard them years ago driven by the original Counterpoint OTL designed by RM and in its day, the system did some very magical things.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Clearfield line of speakers was sold under the Counterpoint umbrella but designed and built by von Schwiekert. My pair, a pair I saw with a google search and a guy that contacted me from New Zealand are the only 3 pairs of Continentals I know of. Someone on the AK site just recently picked up a pair of the big Metropolitans, but I never saw those either.

I love the Clearfields, the system was well put together for my neighbor by David Lewis Audio and has good synergy. I swap my Dyns in every once in a while but usually put the CFs back in play quicker than not.
 
My late Father was an audiophile dating back to probably the 50's. When I was about 6 or 7, I became quite interested in what he was doing with all these amplifiers, R2R machines and turntables. I would watch in amazement (this was the mid 70's). About the age of 9 or 10, my Dad thought it would be good or me to learn - starting with hookup. At the time, he had a full blown quadrophonic system with modulating devices and all sorts of things. Four Sony monoblock amps, a Pioneer Quad Preamp, a Quad R2R (Akai I think) and even a quadrophonic turntable. I can still remember hearing DSOTM in quadrophonic sound.

So, after a few lessons with me likely only paying half attention, one Saturday morning, I came down to the basement and find every amp, preamp and cable laying on the floor, with my Dad proudly sitting on the sofa waiting for me to "hook it all back up". I'm guessing this would have been 1976 or 1977. Over a number of weekends, I quickly learned how everything worked. Even mounting cartridges, but admittedly, we didn't have all the fuss and bother that we have today. We eyeballed everything and we listened. Too much bass? Back off the counterweight. No digital microscopes in those days.

I can still remember my Dad taking me over to one of his friends house to listen to McIntosh tube amps and Klipschorn speakers. My Dad told me "that's what you should aspire to. That's the ultimate."

My parents weren't the kind of people to give their kid anything. You had to work for it. So, I got a paper route and saved up to buy a turntable. I wasn't quite sure how I could get enough money for speakers or even a big bad 70's "receiver", but no bother, I wanted a turntable more than anything first. After about a year of saving, along with some money from birthdays and such, I bought my first table. It was a CEC with a Shure cartridge. I THINK I paid $149 for it. That was a crap load of money for me back then.

I borrowed an old rickety stand from my Dad and proudly placed it in the basement, in a corner, under a window while I would save up for speakers and a receiver next. It wasn't two weeks later, someone broke into our house (through the window above my TT) and stepped on it as they broke in. Needless to say, the table was demolished. The thief was caught and ironically, the guys name was Steve Crooks.

As time went on, I bought some old IMF speakers, added some amps/preamp. As we moved into the 80's, I purchased a pair of Genesis 44 speakers which were quite unique in shape and sound for that era. They are still in my Mom's basement, but one of the tweeters is blown. I have been able to locate a replacement tweeter and may get them fixed. I hooked them up last summer and they still sounded good (except for the one busted tweeter). I remember they cost me around $1000 which was crazy money at that time, but I had a job fixing cable set top boxes at the time and was paid decently.

As we moved into the 90's, we saw the use of new materials - especially in the tweeter - most of which would make your ears bleed. I remember these Celestion 10 speakers. The tweeter in that thing could make your ears bleed.

In the late 90's, early 2000's, I went through my Magnepan phase owning many many Maggies from the MMG's to the 3.7's.

Over the years, I've owned a variety of different speakers, amps, etc. I've owned so much gear, I can't even remember it all. All of it has brought me experiences and knowledge.

I would like to add an observation. My late Father lost complete interest in two channel music after he purchased his first CD player in the early 90's. At the same time, he sold his turntable and gave me all his records (which I still have). It was interesting, but not surprising to see that a CD player (and likely a bad sounding one at that) caused him to lose interest in music very quickly. It wasn't until just before his passing that I bought him a REGA RP3 TT and a stack of new records that he was back to listening to music again.
 
Well lets see, going back to my high school days (1960's) of playing in a local rock band(s) in Gainesville Fl got us all interested in music which meant audio..
 
my introduction wasnt as far in the past as you guys. late 90's i had a friend who was sitting in his living room looking at this krell amp he had and i asked why he never hooked it up, he said he was going to look at a cd player for it. he told me to come with as they had lots of cool guitars to check out. so after a couple phone calls and i found that they had a paul reed smith guitar i wanted. it was one of the early models of the brand that prs actually made himself. so we got in the car and drove up to white plains,ny. the shop was toys from the attic.
i walked up the stairs and there was sooo many vintage guitars and amps, i was in heaven. after playing a few i heard the sounds of beautiful music out of the other side of the building. and it dragged me in . my buddy was listening looking at this big tank like gold Phillips cd player. but the music was coming from a pretty cool looking little turntable. after that i went to the listening room and heard a full blown walker table with big old Cat amps i dont even remember what the pre and phonostage was. at that time i didnt even know i needed a pre and phonostage. so long story short, i had brought $3500 with me to get this guitar, i instead left with a vpi hw19 table w grado reference cart, bat 3i pre with phonostage and platinum solo speakers. the rest my friend filled in with his krell and some cheap cables. but i had put a deposit on a bat vk60 and some aq caldera speaker cables. and python ic's.which took me all summer to pay off and pick up. the rest is history. i started upgrading one piece at a time and had a pretty sweet system, until the real estate market fell part and i sold everything to get out from under a financial rock. then i took a few years off and i started all over again in 2010 with a small investment in a vpi scout/c.a maestro/ fosgate phono/jas integrated/and kef xq20 speakers. and i stuck with that system and seldom used it for a couple years, until the bug hit me again and now im fully addicted again. give me more gear and records!!!!!
 
CPP said:
Well lets see, going back to my high school days (1960's) of playing in a local rock band(s) in Gainesville Fl got us all interested in music which meant audio..
Click to expand...
do you know the allmans? they are from there around that time. figured id ask.lol.
 
Petro85 said:
do you know the allmans? they are from there around that time. figured id ask.lol.
Click to expand...

they used to play actually they grew up in their sorta high school (Sebreeze High School) years in Daytona, the early Escorts and the Allman Joys played around Daytona Beach bars in the early 60-70's, I did know them personally.

In the Gainesville area, it's the likes of Tom Petty ( the early Epic rock band) actually we went to the same high school, a skinny kid with a Bob Dylan voice even in High School. Don Felder & Bernie Leadon (eagles fame)and also Bob Harris all grew up in Gainesville. Felder had the best band I though around, which was the Maundy Quintet. Damn guys could play not to mention sing.
 
CPP said:
they used to play actually they grew up in their sorta high school (Sebreeze High School) years in Daytona, the early Escorts and the Allman Joys played around Daytona Beach bars in the early 60-70's, I did know them personally.

In the Gainesville area, it's the likes of Tom Petty ( the early Epic rock band) actually we went to the same high school, a skinny kid with a Bob Dylan voice even in High School. Don Felder & Bernie Leadon (eagles fame)and also Bob Harris all grew up in Gainesville. Felder had the best band I though around, which was the Maundy Quintet. Damn guys could play not to mention sing.
Click to expand...
the box set "dreams" has some allman joy cover songs on it. pretty cool.
 
Great story Mike. I bet it was pretty special bringing the love of music full circle back to your dad.

Sent from my HTC One.
 
Cliff notes version. Parents and dad's sister had season tickets to CSO and knew Fritz. Mom, an aspiring opera singer (boy could she belt it out in church. I remember walking home from grade school being able to hear her singing in the kitchen a half block away). Another uncle was a big band/jazz drummer, also in the local Shriner's drum and bugle core. Everybody had phonograph players and we listened constantly. Once we moved from Chicago to NW Indiana, my uncle started teaching me drums as soon as I could keep upright on the stool. Sometimes we had 3 sets in his garage playing the s**t out of 50s era jazz on his phono out there. Drove my aunt crazy. My hero is Krupa, inherited from my uncle. In grade school I added the trombone and in high school the tuba and 4-valve concert bass (what a beautiful German instrument that is/was). I guess you can say it's in the blood.

First "real" system was a Allied receiver, small 2-way bookshelfs, and 60's-vintage AR turntable. I was in heaven with this system for several years. Won't ever forget the first time I put "Harvest" on the platter. Wow...

John
 
My father never had a decent stereo system because my mother said we were broke. For most of my formative years, my father had an old Columbia all in one mono ‘suitcase’ record player. O f course it was vacuum tubes because I was born in 1955. I used to save my allowance and buy Beatles 45s and play them on the old man’s piece of crap Columbia record player.


By the time I was in the eighth grade, I started piecing together a much better system than what my old man had. Buy the time I was in high school, I had a Garrard table, Grado cartridge, a Harman Kardon integrated amp tube amp that used 6L6 output tubes, and a pair of Panasonic speakers. This was all in my bedroom and sounded really good at the time.

Somebody mentioned their mother being an opera singer and her singing in church. My father was a frustrated opera singer and he too used to sing real loud in church every Sunday so he could show off his chops. Of course I wanted to crawl under the pew we were in every time he started belting out some hymn I could never remember the words of. I don’t recall any of the female parishioners tossing their panties his way either so maybe that’s why I soured on opera and dug rock & roll.

Fast forward to my early twenties when I bought my first house. By this time I had gone through a slew of receiver based systems. I built my first dedicated stereo room in the basement of my first house and I was damn proud to have it and damn proud of it. My first ‘high-end’ system was the new AR table with MMT arm bought from Cambridge Audio, Denon MC cartridge, an NAD 3020A used as a preamp, and a Halfer DH-220 amp I built from a kit. Speakers were my own designed and built transmission line speakers built with Dynaudio drivers and separate transmission line subs using Peerless drivers.

Below is a picture of my first room before I actually had it finished and trimmed out. I didn’t have the money to finish the room at first, but I damn sure wanted to listen to music in my room. Dig those awesome speaker stands and the dampening on the wall I was using then.

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It has never stopped since those early days and I hope it never does.
 

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Its interesting that many dads are credited for planting the seed. my old man had virtually no interest in music, I thought that odd since his parents were from the land of hayden, Mozart, Schubert, strauss, et al. my exposure to audio began with moms magnavox stereo console, from about age 10 I started collecting music (used 8 tracks and bargain bin LPs). In junior high she bought us siblings a real system (dual TT, onkyo separates and infinity speakers) and my vinyl collecting exploded.

at 16 I spent less time at home and wanted my music on the go, at first it was custom cassettes I'd dub from LPs. when the first in-dash car CD player hit the market I had to have one, soon I got into car audio with a multi-amp (bi and tri amped) set ups. with a crash course in passive/active crossover design and the help of speaker cook books and raw drivers from madisound, I designed a system and installed all of the gear myself.

between college and work I sold collectable vinyl for extra cash. I got back into home audio and built a few amplifier kits and succumbed to the slippery slope. by my mid twenties I had a very nice high-end system and large vinyl collection when I realized the time and energy not to mention expense, would be better spent on other priorities like advancing my career. I sold it all and quit audio for about a decade and a half but never quit collecting music (mostly RBCD). I got back into his hobby over the last several years and I'm enjoying it more than ever.
 
Seeds were planted early. I remember hearing I Wanna Hold Your Hand on a crystal radio when I was 7 in '63. I played my auntie's folk records on her portable player at that same age. In 8th grade Otto Pinaradonda snuck me into his dad's added-on audio room chocked full of McIntosh and RTR's. I wasn't allowed to use my dad's GE console, but I was good at re-setting the controls and got away with it for years. It had a cool arm with integral vacuum cleaning for the dust. My parents gave me a Sylvania compact LP, cassette, tuner stereo and a Uriah Heap tape on my 16th Christmas. Dad worked for GTE and could buy Sylvania on interest free payroll deduction from the company store. Everything we had was Sylvania.

I married my HS sweetheart at 18 in '74. In '76 I bought my 1st system - Yamaha CR-600, Beovox M70's, Beogram 1900, and Yamaha HP-1 headphones for $2500 financed by HFC. The year before our new Civic was $3200 out the door :) 40 years hence, she's still with me, we listen to the M70's every night as we fall asleep and I listen to those $200 HP-1's every day at work. Money well spent. The 80's & 90's brought CD's and kids and audio and my '62 356B Porsche were no longer a time or money priority. My records and Dual CS-5000 went in boxes, not the trash. Sadly I sold the Porsche.

The aforementioned dad is my adoptive dad from mom's remarriage when I was 9. When I was 30 in '86 I looked up my biological dad and he was a jazz nut. He offered me his LP's (about 1,000) and his TT because he had started over with CD's. We became good friends and enjoyed jazz together. When he passed a few years ago I got his 600 or so CD's. I had my 1st knee replacement in 2008. My recovery project was cleaning, sorting and thinning our combined LP collections. That's when I got back into music and vinyl in particular.
 
LIke many of you, my parents were a very great early influence on my audio beginnings in the early-mid 50's. They were grand opera fans and we would spend Sunday mornings listening to mono, and then stereo versions of Puccini and Verdi, on Dad's home built Heathkit amps and speakers and some TT that I cannot remember, except it had a fancy Shure tonearm and cartridge.

When I went off to college, I bought my first record albums - the von Karajan Beethoven Symphonies box set for $18.95 (in the fall of 1963). I then bought an AR TT and Shure cartridge and a single used Heath kit speaker and Lafayette amp. The AR factory was across town in a seedier part of Cambridge, but I remember taking my TT to the factory to get some part fixed. While I waited, they upgraded it to the latest model. There were many great live classical performances in Boston in those days. In addition to the BSO where students could get cheap open rehearsal tickets, one of the local universities (BU) sponsored a concert series that had student tickets also - so I got to hear Rubinstein, Serkin, Cliburn, the Budapest String Quartet and many more great performers of that era. We also had quite a bit of music on campus. My house (dorm) had its own drama society and I remember seeing my classmate John Lithgow (who became a pretty well known actor) as a 19 year old playing the part of the judge in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta 'Trial by Jury' in our dining hall.

When I came out to the Bay Area (during the summer of 'Love'), I got to hear Pavarotti singing in his official US debut in La Boheme. Of course, I didn't know who he was, except he had a great voice. My first real audiophile purchase was in the late '70's when I bought a pair of Magnepan speakers, the predecessors to the MG-II's. I had picked up my first copy of Absolute Sound at some store (issue 6, I think). Unfortunately, my daughter, who was born in 1979, was crawling around at about 10-12 months of age and tried to stand up and pulled one of the speakers down. The next day there was an ad in the paper to sell them.

Larry
 
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