As a young lad growing up in the 1960’s I vividly remember listening to the radio, wondering how did all those people with their instruments fit inside that neat little box? We had a GE (tube) radio in the kitchen that was on for the better part of the day. Since nothing was on the FM band it was always tuned into one of two AM radio stations.
Music by the Turtles, the Monkey’s, the Beach Boy’s, and the Mama’s and the Papa’s was common and current. Back then Brian Jones was still a member of the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton was still a Yardbird – he had yet to form Cream. Yes, those were the days before Led Zeplin, Altamont and Woodstock! I still can remember the watching the Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan. My sisters, like all girls at that time were enamored with the Beatles, but I preferred the Rolling Stones.
My parents realizing my love for music bought me my first transistor radio when I was 5. It wasn’t till I was 12 that I had my first stereo, a Sony SQP-400A Quadraphonic! A year later from that time forward until I was 18, I progressively went through a never ending stream of different components. A love for audio was beginning to overshadow my love of music.
This really became apparent by the time I turned 18. I was living at home with my parents and having a union job with good pay gave me a lot of “disposable” income. I thought about buying a Porsche 924 turbo but plunged into the deep end of audio instead. Then I started to buy expensive “audiophile” records, not because I liked the music – far from it. These records entered my collection out of audiophile protocol. Worse yet I eventually started to weed out records from my collection for no other reason than they were poorly recorded. As my little nephew at the time would say, "dumb stupid, dumb stupid!"
I look back at those years in amazement. Perhaps I should have smoked more pot and bought the Porsche instead? A few years prior Fleetwood Mac released “Tusk” and at about the same time Pink Floyd released “The Wall.” I like both albums for different reasons but “Tusk” was rather peculiar, not only for it’s musical style, but also it was the first digitally recorded album and it sounded different.
Digital and the compact disc were inevitable and I had a huge investment in analogue. I felt jilted by the industry and made some significant lifestyle changes and bailed out of audio in the mid 80’s. After I sold all my gear, I recovered less than 20% of my initial investment.
Love for music led me back into audio at different times over the years, but never to the same degree as far as the amount of money I originally spent. Today when I hear a song I like, I enjoy it. I don’t care if it comes out of a turntable, CD player or even the AM radio. I enjoy music because I love music. Audio has nothing to do with it anymore.
What I find so amusing is the diehard analogue fanatic’s who really think anyone who finds contentment with digital is missing out. What a load of bullocks! For every vinyl recording that gets released now, there are at least 100 X more on CD. So who’s missing out?
Audiophile vs Music Lover – Which Are You?
