[StandardModel]

I'm dating myself but i started with Heathkit and then worked my way up through "Rat Shack" then on to Dynaco. I started with tubes and transitioned to transistors. I'm an EE so I've seen the transition over the last sixty years from tubes to transistors and back again. Now we have Gallium Nitride with quicker response times. What's best? I think it may be time to upgrade my ears!

[Monad]

I was 3ish.. my folks had a Marantz 2215, 8 track and some Ampex speakers.  We (sister and I) were allowed to use it..

I was fascinated by the lighted blue dial and the wheel i could spin, to bring in radio stations. Too young to read, I gave names to the 8track tapes.  There was one I called 'big nose' that had >> a close up of a big nose on the front pic.  Not sure what that was now, but I liked it, played it a lot.

Some time after, at 5, I heard a pair of Bose 901s in a well set up 'listening room'. (yeh i can hear folk groaning now) but at the time, compared to 2 smaller Ampex speakers, in a wood floored open area, these ceiling suspended marvels, blew my mind.  The sound seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Later on in life, chasing that dream/ vision, I would buy a Bose 125W, wood sided receiver and some 901s, but it wasn't the same.  Possibly my expectations had shifted.  I also used to really like orange soda, until I puked it up, with some hot dogs.

[nlitworld]

I also used to really like orange soda, until I puked it up, with some hot dogs.

Lol. Pretty sure we all have an orange soda story. Good times.

[Lemak91]

My passion stared around the age of 16 when I was starting to go see more and more live music and would appreciate a good sound system at an event.

[jwosu1994]

My moment was in college about 30 years ago when I bought an Onkyo integrated amplifier and some large Cerwin Vega floorstanders.
I thought I was buying a great system....as it turns out, the amp was ok but the CV's were awful.  I kept blowing drivers on them.
I knew at that point that there must be better products out there, and I started exploring.

[survey_sez]

9 years old when I garbage picked an old tube Westinghouse radio with a giant electrodynamic speaker. What bass!

[Letitroll98]

I was 9 or 10, the Beatles had hit the US shores so I asked for a record player and records for birthday or Christmas.  I got a little white GE portable record player and two albums.  No Beatles or Stones in our Eisenhower Republican house, I received Peter, Paul, and Mary, See What Tomorrow Brings, a pretty good album actually and began a lifelong love of folk music, and The Alamo, a dramatization that set off my interest in history.   I must have played those albums a thousand times, I still remember the lyrics to some of the songs.

[randall in sachse]

When I realized how much better my dad's Dynaco system sounded than my Soundesign all-in-one.

[rollo]

54 years ago.

charles

[audiobeck57]

1. Listening to classical music on my family's stereo console on Sunday afternoon's while my father and I read the Courier Journal. Circa early 60's.
2. Enhanced when my older brother brought home a reel to reel and played back Beatles recordings he had made last a friend's house.
3. As a teenager, making a set of speakers using old drivers from a non-functioning unit with cardboard boxes as enclosures.
4. Buying a Pioneer receiver for college and listening to the King Biscuit Flower Hour.
5. A renewed interest that really started the ball rolling years later when I found a pair of Ohm speakers going for a huge discount at a department store warehouse.

Hey, it's more than a moment. More like momentum.

[ianlenco]

When I was 16 my Dad bought me and my brother a joint Christmas present of an HMV record player with a built in receiver and an extension speaker producing stereo   We used to put the speakers as far apart as possible to get wide stereo, hole in the middle, probably, but we enjoyed it.  First proper system, now married, was a Dual 506, some Kef floorstanders and a NAD 3020.  Typical of the time, it was the 3rd biggest expenditure after house and car.
Years later, once our kids had grown up I started down the DIY route, first restoring/modifying Lencos then building speakers mainly using Jordan full range drivers.  I've dabbled with electronics and most worked but I still don't trust myself with things electronic.

Cheers, Ian

[Markos S]

I grew up listening to music, lots of Jazz and Blues and a lot of Baroque music too. I took over my parent's record collection when I was 15, and with it a fantastic Braun Hifi system designed by Dieter Rams, which my dad bought himself as a student in the early 70s. It consists of an amp, a record player, an upright tape deck and a pair of matching speakers. Still love this system to this day, and whenever I visit my parents, I play some music on it. It's probably due for a service...

[Coppedge43]

Hello,

I feel like it has been most of my life. I grew up with a family that always had car stereos, played music in bands, and always had something on in the house or the car. My Dad growing up had a pair of cornwalls in the living room for most of my childhood.

[KGC7217]

That is a question I've asked myself.  I can not remember a time that I was not interested in trying to make everyone's "Stereo" sound better.  Whenever I'd go to a friends after school and watch the Three Stooges I'd always tweak with the rabbit ears. I would hate to hear the sound of a fading television station while watching the Stooges. I'd miss one of Curly's signature noises he'd make. Then I turned 17, I had to rewire every speaker that would come with a "Stereo receiver". By the way I am 61. Thanks for asking.

[Boybees]

It runs in the family. Both my father and paternal grandfather loved music, and wanted great sound reproduction in their living rooms, and wanted to talk about and celebrate the equipment. I inherited the obsession in elementary school and it has persisted, for better or worse, into my 60th year on this earth.

[Rover]

Must have been in the late nineties, listening to Pink Floyd "High hopes" through NHT 2.5i speakers and Carver amp.

[Tatyrek]

The passion struck me when I was a teenager and had access to the Hi-Fi clubs on military installations overseas!!

[Steve.]

For me it was when I was 15.   Saved up some money and bought a Sansui AU9900.   A classic that I wish I still had. 

[h2oyo]

I remember it very well. I was in 6th grade and my Aunt Clara bought me a new to me cabinet stereo with built in speakers for my birthday. Oh how I loved that stereo. It had AM/FM tuner an 8 track tape player and the all mighty turntable. I enjoyed finding albums at the thrift stores and spending the hot Arizona summers building models and listening to my mighty record collection. 
Johan

[PeterJ]

Glad to be part of this community!
I spent my younger days obsessed with car audio, I was "the car stereo guy" at my high school. My dad had a Phase linear 400, Pioneer receiver and some Janszen electrostats. I loved em and they've been in storage for over 20 years. After many trials and fails trying to make new home theater equipment sing like I remembered, I dug out the old equipment. Started the process of repairing (much of which was extensive) and setting up my man cave. I am now totally obsessed with 2 channel stereo and have an entire rack of equipment, most in queue to be repaired. Enjoying the vintage reboot of my free time!