Hi there.
I'm new to this forum. The addiction to sound got me very young (like quite a few people here, I guess). My 'trauma' was: dad recording on a Revox Tape machine live radio transmissions of symphonic orchestras and playing these back over several days.
I'm now somewhere between 50 and 60 now and I've been through the usual stages: in the young ages: lots of time and energy available for HIFI and music but no Money (so I visited local hifi fairs and was reading magazines I could aford - mostly with DIY focus - and loudspeaker catalogues I got for free in electronic shops), with the first jobs the first gear was brought in (average or low quality, often with some DIY investment), then when getting professionally stable there was no more time for HIFI, then there was the family and other responsbilities etc.; then at some stage and for some reasons windows of opportunity open again etc etc
There were a few big moments in my life:
- the first rock-pop concerts: I decided that's the sound I want at home, with all its qualities and....ahem... little defaults
- the first close experience with a high level equipment (great vinyls played back on a high sensitivity 3 way speaker and an 8W class A transistor amp): I decided that's the type of system for the sound I want at home when I grow up and have enough money
- a movie in the cinema where the inteligibility of dialogues was unheard of to me, thanks probably to large horns used in the mid band: I decided that's the type of speakers I want for my system for the vocals' range, if ever I manage to get to that pro stuff
- more recently: a tiny amplifier beast with a couple of small pentodes on each channel, which I bought second hand to fulfill an earlier dream, and that blew away all my remaining prejudices regarding amplification in a home system: I decided I had found the last piece of the puzzle. I mean: probably one of the last pieces.
And:
Yes: I do listen to more than 12 records at home and I do have less than 12 HIFI system - the equipment serves the music, not the contrary;
No: I'm not (yet) into streaming - I love to read the jackets and librettos, with the lyrics, the anecdots from the artists (too seldom available) and what the sound engineer was using and drinking during the recording session(s).