[Browntrout]

Hello I was thinking how most of this talk on Audiocircle is rather technical, practical and dry so I would like to tell you about a period of about ten months when as a twenty three year old I had some really great times with a good friend which included some of the nicest listening times I've ever had. Hopefully you will feel like writing something about the good times you have had?
  When I joined a local SCUBA club I met a nice chap called Keith who was very freindly and encouraging with my endevours. Being twice my age and sadly devorced only seeing his two sons once in a while and me having missed a father we formed one of those surogate father son relationships.
  When others in the club could not go diving he was always keen and would pick me up with the boat for a great day out on and under the water. Almost every time we ended in a country pub with good beer and lots of it and sometimes live muisc and a happy group of people to dance with.
  A pair of bachelors indeed his flat was owned by British Gas his employer and was built like a fort looking out over a river and flood plains. His stereo consisted of a record player and Quad 303 monoblocks with speakers he had made himself.
  After long summer days on the water and more than likely sloshed from the pub we would end up at his and he would play Sca and other music he had developed a taste for when he was my age. Drinking Krug mixed with fine brandy I would fall into a stupour and sleep on the couch with the tunes still playing. I was allowed to be a light weight.
  Sitting talking about the days exploits under water or cars (he had a Jag Mk2 mothballed in a garage) the music flowed with a wonderful uncomplicated nature from a stereo a man had built in his youth and listened to all his life. Talking of valves brought the response 'I'm not that rich' from a very sensible man whom I really appreciated taking the time to know and to know me. Some of the best listening times I've known, only bettered by my late teenage years spent on the bedroom floor of my best friend talking about philosophy physics religion and girls, then though life was wonderous so everything was better for sure.

[Mike Nomad]

In the late-80s, I was the Music Director and Assistant Program Director for a 3kW university radio station in East Texas. Our programming day started at 7AM with Classical, moved to New Age, Traditional and Contemporary Jazz, Classic Rock, and what was then referred to as College/Alternative music taking us to sign off at 2 AM.

And that's not counting the Rap/Hip Hop, Reggae, Blues, Metal, and specialty programming on the weekends. My tastes where broader than most when I got there. Then, I found out how much I didn't know.

When I wasn't listening to stuff at the station, my personal audio equipment was going pretty much non-stop. Total Music Saturation Bombing.

There was nothing like having to do a 12 hour shift (Summer time, when students are scarce) and asking over the air, "If anybody is listening, could you bring a couple of chili dogs and something to drink to the station? Grab something for yourself and I'll pick up the tab." It was way cool how many different people made the run for me.

It's been all down hill ever since...

[thunderbrick]

Laying on the floor in the dark, listening to the soaring notes of Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.  Sounded like the sound track of an eagle soaring.

Or watching the musical truth wash over the face of a young know-it-all electrical engineering student when we shattered the myth of digital.  He quickly bought a TT and some vintage speakers and has been a human being ever since.
 

Or as a 13-year old, curled up under a window listening to Jan and Dean from an old mono console radio.  Or listening late at night to my dad's mono "hi-fi" system through a University 6201 Cox next to my bed, and the shimmering riffs from early Credence Clearwater Revival on that growing fad, FM radio.

[Wayner]

I had bought a Kenwood reciever with my lawn mowing money and had just gotten my AR-XA turntable. They were on my dresser in my bedroom. My speaker system consisted of a couple of car speakers without boxes sitting in the two corners of my room.

One day I bought a new album by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young called Deja Vu. My dad walked by my room, sat down next to me on my bed and listened to "Our House" for the whole song and then left, saying that was a good song.

That was the first and last time that ever happened.

Wayner

[Scottdazzle]

When my older son Tim was 2 he came into the music room while I was listening to some symphonic music.  He stood in front of me between the speakers and began to wave his arms up and down saying, "A duck, a duck."  Of course that was his version of conduct.  He was conducting the orchestra.  That is also one of my sweetest memories of fatherhood, too.

[S Clark]

My daughter on stage singing "Adelaide's Lament" from the musical Guys and Dolls in her senior year of high school...another...  I was in my late 40's and my daughter was 17.  We were laying a tile floor- I troweled the mud, she laid the tile.  I had an antique mono Eico HF-12 playing Eva Cassidy's "Woodstock" through a thrown together DIY full range speaker.  The way it echoed in that big empty room while we worked was magical.....

[16hz lover]

Most all of them were back when I was younger....I often contemplate how much has my hearing really changed   The stereo's seemed to sound more ethereal back then.  I have since heard some really high end systems....I still fondly remember the EPI 100 speakers in the dorm room accross the hall that were magical sounding.

[chosenhandle]

age of 13 and saved up for a used Marantz 2220B receiver and Pioneer Pl-12D turntable w/shure M91ED cart. I already owned a pair of Utah speakers.  I had enough money left over to buy Aerosmith's first LP (I think Dream On was just hitting the charts) and Lynyrd Skynyrds first LP. Nothing very audiophile about it, but I have been chasing that feeling ever since.

[Browntrout]

Thanks for the replies.

[jimdgoulding]

Saw Segovia in a hall in San Francisco when I was 20.  Left an indelible impression on me in several ways.  It was my first exposure to really good acoustics for one.  The Jazz Workshop usually booked groups for a week or two at a time in those days.  The headliners were given Mondays off.  Mondays were for unannounced groups that were just passing thru or that could be scrounged up.  Saw the Albert Mangelsdorf Quintet on one of those nights.  Wow and speechless.  Saw Albert Collins at a little joint one night in Fort Worth, Texas.  He killed everybody in the joint.

Listening to The Cat's Caravan on WRR-FM in Dallas growing up on Saturday nights.  An event for a 12 year old and my mom's best friend's (she with an FM radio) 14 year old daughter .   

[bummrush]

listening to a very nice stereo at a guys house when i was 17,and 18,nice set up ,big JBL'S,and a very wide selection of music,set up in a good size room,outstanding sound and times,first exposure to high end,although at that time it was un heard of to go ga ga ,over something lke,my god the bass goes so deep,or freaking out about the highs,what a concept we just listened.

[orthobiz]

My cousin's Vietnam era stereo he got at the PX for cheap. Sansui everything, giant speakers with wooden grilles. He lived in the front room of the house my grandfather built: faced the street and was really wide and narrow. Speaker in each corner.

He BLASTS "Sing a Mean Tune Kid" from Chicago III with the trombone going from one speaker to the other. Blew me away!

Paul

[moserw]

As a very young kid with my Aiwa Boombox playing on, me lying in bed at night with all the lights turned off and listening to some really good music (that I cannot remember).  There was peace, serenity, satisfaction and a great feeling lying on the bed that everything was just perfect.  I have been chasing that kind of feeling, satisfaction, serenity ever since...

These days its all digital and/or audiophile!

[Browntrout]

Cool, alot of it is the power of imagination I think and as kids our imagination was so much more vivid.