[Affordable$$Audio]

For 99% of us, someone took the time to inspire us into this journey/passion of audio.  Tell us your story!

[maxwalrath]

My aunt married my uncle when I was 12...about 15 yrs ago...he had (still has) a Music Reference RM-9, some Martin Logan CL-3's (I think), a very nice TT setup, and a bunch of other gear that sounded awesome.  I went to a hi-fi event with him in NYC where I saw the Avalon/Spectral/MIT system in a heavily and carefully treated room and couldn't believe how real the music was. 

He had a ton of Stereophile mags, and every time I was over I read all the reviews I could.  Soon I was subscribing to Stereophile while working for minimum wage in high school....looking forward to the 5-6 times a year they'd review something I could realistically afford one day.  With that not happening too often, I'd read the WhatHiFi mags about 6 years ago. 

I bought a NAD cd/dvd combo and a pair of Dynaudio 50's based on their reviews.  I went to the local shop to get a NAD amp, but during the audition the rep threw in a Jolida 1301.  I couldn't believe that for $300, some company I never heard of had a 7 lb. amp that killed the 5-star NAD at more than twice the price.  That Jolida purchase offically weened me off traditional review magazines, and the rest is history.

[Russell Dawkins]

When I was about 13 we had a neighbour who was the rare kind of person who would never buy anything without considering whether he could build it himself. He usually did.

This included his house (unique and beautiful design), most of his furniture, an acoustic guitar, a balalaika, and his hi-fi. He bought the drivers and the parts for the amplifier (Williamson design) and turntable. He made the arm and the platter - just bought the cartridge and bearing for the platter. Turned the motor pulley. He had made a number of electric motors, but bought the turntable motor.

All this was housed in a beautiful cabinet with cedar about 1/16" X 1" woven in and out of vertical 1/4 X 1/4"rods forming the sides, so air could circulate and cool the tubes!

It was mono with two 15" woofers concealed in a closet, a 12" midrange concealed in the wall near the fireplace and a multi-cell horn tweeter firing up at the very high ceiling from the top of the closet where the woofers were. He liked the pipe organ and this system did the trick!

He even built the Heathkit TV!

I used to babysit for him and get paid in electronic parts and stuff like Xenon light bulbs!

That was my introduction to home hi-fi.

[weirdo]

In the mid 70's I was in my early 20's. I was friends with an older co-worker named Ron. We stopped at his house to hear his stereo on the way to a job one day. He had Phase Linear Pre and Power amps, a scott tube tuner and I don't recall the TT. His speakers were AR Pi12's. He had everything wall mounted with the gear extending through the wall into his garage behind the wall. He lived in a simple house but this was clearly his hobby and he was very proud of his gear. He put on some Thelma Houston.  It sounded pretty damn good to me.

He later sold me an American made Marantz solid state integrated amp ( incredibly powerful ). I purchased a pair of AR 12 inch 3 ways and I was off to the races. Since then a continual pursuit of good sound and I hope I have influenced others if not by my equipment then at least by my attitude towards good gear and good music.   

[Zero]

In the beginning; life was good. Rewinding the clock back to the year 2000 when I was just a teenager, myself and a neighbor went out to waste time and check out the local electronic scene. One of our stops was Circuit City. Prior to this evening I’ve visited their home audio department months before and was taken back by the performance of speakers from a company with a funny name; Polk Audio. Polk Audio, waa? Visions of a funny looking guy in a polka dot shirt with an accordion danced in my head. What an odd name (and thought). Regardless of the name, it was the sound that stuck in my mind most profoundly. Like most kids, I was into music – but never did I really consider attaining better sound quality. Those were the good days, the pure days.

So the neighbor and I ventured into the store expecting to look and drool, eg; window shop. We made our way back to the home audio department where I was once again confronted with the impressive array of towers offered by Polk Audio. As we figured out how to switch the components in the sound-room, I made it over to the big towers called the RT2000P. Oh man!!! I was taken back by how different, and how much better they sounded than the rest of the Polk’s in formation next to them. I just had to have them! That is, until I looked at their price tag. $2000 a pair. Ouch! With shoulders to the ground, I started walking out until I noticed something by the sound-room doors. It looked like the same speakers yet they were unplugged. After closer inspection I found it was the same pair I was just listening to. I looked at a tag that said “OPEN BOX” with a price of $500 each. My heart jumped for joy! I was practically jumping in the store!! Then reality set in.  I didn’t have that kind of money on me at the moment! My nearest bank was over an hour away and the store was going to close in a half hour.. not to mention, the nearest ATM had a limit of a $200 withdrawl. To make matters worse, there were two other gentlemen debating on snatching up the speakers! NOOO! 

Seeing my range of emotions from pure excitement to panic and disappointment, my neighbor reached into his wallet and pulled out his Circuit City credit card. He went up to the salesmen who already informed us we were second in line to the other gentlemen, to wrap em’ up as he flexed the plastic. The philosophy of “money walks” applied here and much to my advantage. My neighbor backed his truck into the loading dock as my new 95lb speakers were loaded in. We came home and put them in the living room floor. I didn’t have a receiver, but that’s ok.. I had the speakers! As I thought “a boy cant be any luckier than this”.  That night, my neighbor became a hero.

The one important thing I’ve left out of this story is the fact that my parents were away for a few days. Now I was a good kid, so they expected to come home to a clean house with everything the way it was when they left. Well, it was, for the most part. When they walked through the door, my mother let out an “oh my God..what the?SEAN!!!!”. My father just busted out laughing. The story ended well; they ended up paying the neighbors debt and called them a graduation present. Works for me!

For years I enjoyed those Polk RT2000p’s. I loved them, my friends loved them, even girls that came over loved them. I didn’t become an audiophile then, but it sure kick-started the whole thing. It wasn’t until many years later when I heard the Polk Audio Lsi-9’s in a treated room, that forever converted me towards hi-fi.

Don’t get me wrong, hi-fi is great and all. Enjoying your music at ‘the next level’ is a very rewarding experience, and one that is difficult to get away from once you’ve had a taste. Still, in the beginning, for me at least, is when things were more pure.. a time before I even had the concept of a critical ear. A time where it was just some real cool toys, the music, and nothing more.

[zapper7]

My father was a keyboard player in a local band, and I play the trumpet. The ability to be exposed to live sound from such an early age is priceless.
I now of course have better more modern equipment than he does, but always ask for a second opinion  from him when I can.

[mjosef]

I credit my High school buddy with influencing my deep interest in HiFi and electronics in general. He was a natural technician, self taught, and following his lead I built my first tube amp... mines hummed, his didn't. He was also associated with a DJ, and responsible for all the electronics, his was the first system I heard with Bi-amplification. His system was the cleanest, tightest sound amongst all the DJs of that era, he surely had the touch for the hobby.
Sadly he got killed in Chicago back in the 80's.

[TheChairGuy]

I don't think anyone in particular mentored me  A bunch certainly had a hand in it over the years.

I've always been a voracious reader so my money is on the now departed mags Audio and Stereo Review as my primary mentors, mostly.

[S Clark]

Learning to play classical piano, learning to play on a Steinway, shopping for Hi Fi in the early 70's, and then meeting Danny Richie about 4 years ago and learning what I had been missing for past couple of decades. Although my old Design Acoustics D-12's still do a great job on orchestral, GR-Research speakers caon create an intimacy with the music that I didn't know existed.  That first listening session at Danny's-Wow!

[JimJ]

I got started on my own...

Joined a few forums, and was lucky enough to find one that had some really knowledgeable people local to me.

Still learning from anyone I can

[WEEZ]

Being trained in music; hanging out in the best record store in my hometown..which happened to be upstairs above a really neat hif-fi shop; spinning records on a tubed RCA record player; listening to dad's Magnavox; reading the mag's; stuff like that  . It got serious around 37 years ago for me...it's still serious stuff. What would life be without it?

WEEZ

[mcrespo71]

My father exposed me to audio ever since I was a young child.  He was an audiophile and then became a dealer for about 4 years as well.

[SET Man]

Hey!

   Well, music comes first. So, it is all started with my father and mother who made me in to music lover.

    Than it was my late uncle who really got me into audio and also DIY thing when I was in my early teens It wasn't hi-end stuff but I remembered watching him put together an amp from old parts and chassis late at night and hooking things up together

   Wish he could see my system... I think he will say that I'm crazy!

Take care,
Buddy

[Early B.]

I didn't really have a mentor. I started buying equipment for my home theater system (HTIB junk, etc.), then a friend introduce me to the audiophile world about 8 years ago, but after the introduction was made, I learned on my own. Like anything else, I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I think, however, the most important lesson was to use common sense and not get swept away by the latest gadget or tweak. I also firmly believe that if you do your homework, you can pull together an awesome system that will sound just as good or better than any system costing several thousands more. 

[Thelonious Monk]

no one; i'm just a boy whose ibuds crapped out in the left channel. it was all downhill after that...

[dorokusai]

I grew up predominately in Hagerstown, MD, and the only High End shop I knew was Hunt Audio & Associates. Most of their gear was out of my teenage range. That was back in the day of A/D/S & Boston Acoustics being BIG in Car Audio, B&O being ultra modern(no change) and Klipsch ruled the day.

My first memorable foray into audio was when I walked into Sunrise Electronics(Bankrupt), Hagerstown, MD in ....like 1988 or something. Blah blah, I ended up talking(conned) my Mom into co-signing for a whole new system. Hey, don't throw rocks at the fat kid I'm not sure of the exact model numbers but it was basically a Kenwood RCV, Denon double-cassette(555?), Sony CDC and Polk Monitor 10B. I was in audio heaven but still looked down upon by some of my psuedo high end "friends". Screw them.

Eventually I chose my own route and my experience with gear from an actual Hi-Fi shop was a pair of KEF C15 bookends. The shop was in Arlington, VA...off of Washington Blvd near the newly constructed FDIC building.....anyone? I loved my Polk, but the little KEF's replaced them for awhile, as they made me want to listen to everything I had again...and again. Its still one of the only loudspeakers that does an Al dome right IMO.

Since then I've been thru Anthem, Cary Audio, CTC, Parasound, Lexicon, Manley, ASL, Sonic Frontiers, NAD, Wadia, Dodd Audio and a host of others....based on a singular experience, in a hole in the wall store, with gear that wasn't all together special.....except to me.

Its funny but I ended up full circle, at Polk Audio and Club Polk(User Forum) and my current computer rig has a pair of KEF C15 staring right at me. Audio is weird but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mark

[Scott F.]

Like Buddy, for me it was music first but after that, I guess I have to blame being broke and my cousin Bruce. Bruce was one of the speaker designers back at the now defunct SpeakerLab out of Spokane Washington. Back in the early and mid 70's (when I had no money), our city would have large item trash pickup days. In turn there were always the huge old (tubed) console TV's and stereo's sitting out on the curb waiting to go to the dump. In turn, I'd go around with a set of tools and gut these things of speakers, amps, tubes, turntables, basically anything I thought was good salvage for an audio system.

I'd get these things home and sometimes I'd remount them in a proper case, sometimes the metal chassis were good enough. At the time I didn't have a clue what the heck I was doing when I'd work on them. Most I blew up but some survived and actually worked. Same went for the speakers. Cousin Bruce would come back in town for major holidays and vacations and when he did, I was there waiting (not so) patiently so I could pick his brain for a little more knowledge on speaker design.

Most of the stuff I cobbled together were the old horns and 12" or 15" drivers. Even back then I seemed to gravitate towards the HiEff stuff. I did build a few 3 ways though. None of them sounded very good but it was fun using the saw and making something.

With all the crap I drug home, this is how I found out about bi-amping, quite by mistake BTW. I knew that I couldn't run a horn or a tweeter full range without cooking it so I got the bright idea to use a pair of equalizers to cut off the drivers at the frequencies that sounded the best. Little did I know that Pioneer, Sony and AR were making active crossovers at that time. I just knew the EQ's worked. I got tons more dynamics, clarity and drive out of my systems (6bq5's mainly) than my buddies did with their solid state stuff and standard monkey coffins.

Pretty much, the rest is history. I gave up my science projects for some early 80's solid state gear (Spectro Acoustics) and didn't look back until the mid to late 90's when I found the internet and saw the resurgence of tubes. Since then, I've rediscovered bi and tri amping and completely fallen off the tube and HiEff wagon.

[Affordable$$Audio]

I blame my brother-in-law.  One time we drove him back to Flagstaff where he went to college.  In his dorm room was a pair of ADS L810's, a BIC Lux receiver, and an HK 1500 cassette deck.  My brother and I were blown away with the setup.  Soon after we were trying to make decent cassettes recordings by using a portable recorder, two lousy speakers, and the legroom area of a desk padded with pillows for a "sound room".  Needless to say, we quickly discovered we needed to upgrade. I've been transfixed with knobs, dials, meters, etc. ever since.

[James Romeyn]

Laura Weber (guitar instructor, KQED-TV, early '60s) same time as Don Ho & the Mills Bros LPs on the parent's console, brother's huge Danelectro international-band table radio (not table saw), three co-members of St. Gabriel rock band, home studio w/ a neighborhood pianist/songwriter (wish I kept the Sony TC-640-7" R-R), synthesizer instruction w/ Patrick Gleason of Different Fur Studios (Hancock's Headhunters), Tom Scott who hired me at the Record Plant Sausalito, staff at Blue Bear Waltzes, etc.

[OTL]

To be honest...my mentor was early to mid 1970's FM radio!  With CSN&Y, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, John Lennon, McCartney, Ohio Players, The Isley Brothers, War, Issac Hayes, Barry White, et al, et al always available at a turn of the dial, how could one not develop an appreciation of audio reproduction?  WE HAD JAMS!  And it was good.

Dad had a tubed Magnavox stereo console in the house that oozed music.  Sunday's were full of everything from Cash to Julie London, to the Mills Brothers.  Wonderful stuff.  When my folks weren't around I had my Koss Pro AAA's wired to the speaker outs on the Magnavox.  Believe it or not, this combo was absolutely magic.

I still have a juvie record for "appropriating" a pair of full range RCA PA wall cabinets from a shutdown veterans hospital.  My Muntz 8 track played some wonderful tunes through these speakers.  Janis, The Doors, Black Oak Arkansas, Uriah Heep...Wish I had those speakers today.

So, no mentor except long, lost, killer FM radio, the music and the pursuit of having in reproduced in my home.