[spinner]

We told of our very first record/album on a previous thread  but I was wondering what would you consider the single event that made you pursue a life of hi-fi in the first place? 

[john1970]

It started when I was a child listening to music over my father's Bozak Concert Grand B-410 speakers.  Each speaker had 4, 12-inch woofers in an infinite baffle design that produced a very natural sounding bass.

Best,
John

[Mag]

I not sure where to begin.

Okay, I will try to make this brief:

I would say around age 10. At that time you could watch the one or two channels on TV, go outside and play hockey on the driveway, play baseball or football, or listen to the stereo. I did all those things but also spent plenty of time listening to music mainly because I was learning to play drums and would drum to the music.

I drove taxi for many years so I listened to music while I worked so I had my fill with no desire for more after work. But eventually I got tired of commercials and even got tired of hearing my own collection for the hundredth time. So I shut the damn thing off and just drove in silence, which I still do.

Then I got out of the taxi business around 2001 and that's when I began the investment in home stereo. It's was a progressive upgrade since I got into it. My goal was a stereo/home theater which I've achieved.

I don't need to upgrade anymore, but someday when the funds allow I will probably purchase the Model T speakers and another SST2 amp to go with it.

[Laundrew]

Interesting topic, my pursuit and enjoyment of music started simply enough with old radios. Frequent visits to our local landfill site resulted in an ever growing collection of unwanted and obsolete radios and chassis scavenged from console stereos - I am sure you remember the type as they were furniture pieces unto themselves.  When I was really lucky, I would find a discarded reel to reel tape deck or multi-band shortwave receiver. Once in the seclusion of my room, countless hours would pass to slowly bring these vacuum tube relics back to life.

I would listen to music from our local AM stations for a little while and then tune in some classical music from countries on the other side of the world on shortwave. It was truly a magical vista in my room as none of my equipment had cabinets and all of the tubes were in plain view, the pastel orange glow of the "heaters," the green "cats eye" tuners and the odd purple glow from the voltage regulators. As everything was jury rigged together, an errant bump to a chassis would sometime result in a flash of light followed by a plume of smoke. I had a tattered Radio Shack catalogue in my room that would open to the page of the Realistic DX 160 multi-band receiver if you dropped it, but at almost $200.00, ownership was only a dream.



A few years ago, I finally picked up my DX 160 



To this very day, I still relish the sweet seclusion of my room, nurture my passion for music and if I wish to close my eyes and briefly revisit simpler times of decades past, turn on my DX 160 

Be well...

[brucek]

I remember the very second where it began.

In the mid to late 1950's I remember being at a big city fair/exhibition where my Mom took me to this pavilion that had a demonstration of the newest thing in audio, called stereo sound.

They had a bunch of headphones that you would put on and listen to hi-fi stereo music. It was claimed to be the future of audio sound.

I wish I had a picture of my face when I lowered those bulky headphones onto my head.

I never heard anything so wonderful in my life.

That's where it began.

brucek

[rmurray]

   Summer of 1969 a close friend and I were at the home of a member of our church choir. He was/is  an early  hi fi buff (mono). He played a tape (Crown recorder) of our church organ. We knew the live sound of this formidable  machine. Upon playing it the bass was so deep and and focused it was able to rattle the hardwood oak flooring (as well as our ribs). He ran Wharfdales with 12 in woofers. That day began my quest for better sound .All else has followed in the usual progression of improvements............

[Chicago]

For me it was more a journey than a single event.  My parents had a modest hi-fi system and I would listen in while my Dad played his jazz and big band collection.  My sister was next with one of those single box record players that you could play 78, 33 or 45's on.  I started to get my own 45's and 33's and I would borrow her record player.  There was a company at the time that would sell you gear to assemble yourself and I kept the issue in my bedroom but never had even close to the money needed to purchase it.   I never got my own system until I was in Viet Nam in 1969 and I purchased a set up at the PX in China Beach a little at a time as they got gear in.  The first time I heard a great system was in 1970 at a show in Chicago and it blew me away.   Over the years I purchased better gear but I never wanted to spend the money for a top notch system until much later in life.

[brucek]

And today, the first experience of music for a young person is a low res MP3 through a set of cheap ear-buds off their I-phone. Nice.

What a shame.

brucek

[redbook]

  Played 78s on grandma's windup portable gramophone . This was 1959-60. Nothing really happened until six years later when visiting a local hifi  shop and hearing some Simon and Garfunkel through a Dual table plus Fisher speakers and a Scott receiver. Wow, that was an ear opener that never stopped opening....

[bjski]

For me late 60's.....my brother bought a Fisher 500 receiver,Rectilinear 3 speaker's, Garrard TT with a Shure cartridge and a Teac reel to reel.

In high school I was lucky to have a group of friends who were audio gear heads. We were all in competition to see who would get the first 100 watt receiver or JBL Century 100 speakers. I didn't know high end until a friend  purchased Kennwood L-07 amps. I bought my first Bryston in 1984 a 3B and traded it in on a 4B in1985 and then the race was on.