How old were you when you first started getting into hi fi stereos, speakers, amps - Page 2

About 15, my friend was into it so I joined, between the 2 of us we convinced his Dad to buy the first Quadraphonic Sansui reciever. We ran out of budget, so we told his Dad that we would build the speakers ourselves. Did it once, never again Heard Rocket Man on all its Quadraphonic glory and hooked to surround since.

When I was 20, I bought a Realistic STA-2000 receiver, Realistic Mach-One speakers, and a Lab400 (I think that is the model) turntable. A couple of years later I upgraded the speakers for AR12's, and kept those for 20 years before giving them to friends. Fond memories. That was my first payment plan, also.

From the best of my recollection, I got into it when Dad bought Jesus Christ Superstar on reel-to-reel, circa 1970. I remember clearly, I really got into it. He was also into Burt Bacharach, and Herb Alpert (superb) and listening to this music solidified my interest into HiFi gear itself. Subsequently, in an effort to create a better experience, I began reading everything I could on the subject, pouring through material and catalogs day and night.

My Dad had all the electronics stuff laying around, so soldering, Simpson meters, etc were commonplace. I just would dig into all sorts of stuff.

By early high school, I was the dude everyone came to to de-mystify audio myths, purchasing decisions, and began repairing of gear and making DIY loudspeakers. Dad and I traveled across the country, filming and making high quality stereo recordings of trains,...primarily steam locomotives on special excursions. This got me into direct to two track recording, which is something I ended up pursuing my entire life.

I had, by a wide margin, the greatest car stereo in a large high school,... in a 1973 Plymouth Fury III sedan (land yacht). For my next vehicle, I had a '76 Chevette, Alpine head end (back when that meant something) with an actively crossed over, four way system with a 10" dual-coil high excursion Speaker-Lab sub, all Alpine drivers all the way up to ribbon tweeters. I had both Linear Power amplifiers (US made!), and Alpine Even today, it would be outstanding. Back then, at that particular time, it was extraordinary.

Eventually, I got into sound reinforcment, and FOH engineering.

Good times.

Too funny. I was 4 in 1954 and was given a red tt with a Mighty Mouse record. I've been hooked since. built my own crystal radio at age 7. Was fixing other people's record players by 14. And when 1967-1971 came along...we were hopelessly addicted due to the sheer volume of incredible music.

16

First setup was Crown DC300A/DC 150A/IC150A/ Crown OC150A. Speakers were AR7 and some Eminence 12" bass bins. Thanks to Denny for the guidance all those years ago. He benched everything for me and didn't charge a dime.

I didn't have a car at the time so my buddy Bill drove me out. Funny, with that setup for parties I didn't need a car for the next three years. I got taken pretty much where ever I needed to go

I was 14 or 15 and ended up with a sweet H.H.Scott receiver. The dial was scratched as were a couple of knobs. On a whim, I wrote them and asked if they had any remaining inventory of these parts, as the model was long discontinued. Imagine my shock when I came home one day to find exactly what I asked for sent completely free of charge! I remember the receiever had Nuvistors in the front end. I replaced them, and the dial alignment changed significantly. I did not care though. I asked my Dad if I could install an outside FM antenna. He gave me the green light, but wasn't happy when he saw the hole I drilled in the ceiling was just about in the center of my room. What the he!!, he asked? Good times man.

In the 50s my dad was instrumental in setting up TV stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Wichita,Kansas and Washington, DC. He was the station manager and film director. I went with him to show the brand new crew of cable handlers how to coil camera cable. (figure 8)

As he moved into the brand new field of professional audio visual presentation, I started retrieving radios and record players and from the apartment trash and would take them apart and learn what did what. Most everything was tube and the few transistor devices were all point to point design- no printed circuit boards were used for a few more years.

In the 6th grade I repaired the Dukane all-call paging system in school and in the 7th grade I repaired the state of the art simultaneous interpretation system in the language lab. It had a matrix select system and used Tandberg RtR recorders. Stage crew, AV crew and working with my dad on the weekends and school vacations gave me a LOT of variety with audio equipment and I just kept up into the full time pro world.

Twenty-three years ago - I was only 12. My first AV receiver was a Pioneer SX-2300. It was great, aside from lacking remote control capability.

I was ten years old when I started to be well aware of some audio gear.

My father owned an old Blaupunkt all in one stereo console just like this one:

I remember that the turntable was a Garrard, and I thin k the keyboard was made out of ivory.

My first real system I bought in the early 80's. Source was a Walker (?) turntable with Mission tonearm and Grado cartridge, a Meridian Zebra amp (the Zebra's design was so cool), and Epicure 1 bookshelf speakers. It was really sweet sounding combo.

Kept the Epi's for over 10 years, when I discovered a taste for LF and swapped them for two TDL Studio 1 monitor. Same source, but powered by Sugden AU51 Pre and a couple of Magnum A50 monoblocks.

Half of those brands are not even in business anymore, not a good sign.

Built a Heathkit AM/FM tuner in about '62, I'd convinced my dad that if I could save up for the tuner, build it and if it worked he'd buy the matching amp- he never thought I'd be able to save the +/- $60 for the tuner, or that it'd work. When I did save enough and it did work he was good to his word and we had a nice little system after I'd found some unfinished speakers in the back of shop somewhere in Hollywood.

To this day I remember not knowing what "NS" and "S" meant after each instruction when I first started- a lot of extra solder went of those first few connections.

Fifteen. My first real girlfriends father was very into home audio and got me hooked.

I was probably around 10 or 11 when I got my first piece of audio gear.......a "boombox" from Sears. I don't remember much about it other than it was dual cassette and had a lot of switches. I also got a set of headphones....I can still remember the boombox had a 1/4" headphone plug, and the only set Sears had to fit was a set of Koss I believe....my dad fussed about how much they cost.

I won a "system" when I was in 9th grade. Made by SoundDesign.....it sure wasn't much either, but a big step up from the boombox, this was in 1988 and CDs still hadn't come to Northeast Arkansas.

After that came the car audio days.........then, as another poster mentioned, my then girlfriend's dad was into HiFi and later the beginnings of HT. He had a really nice old Marantz receiver that sounded amazing. Later he picked up one of the neatest, but not very high quality items I ever saw. It was a turntable that was also a CD carousel changer. He handed it down to me later, and it finally quit working.

No one in my family was ever into HiFi or HT at all.

34, now I´m 35

I had a little Panasonic cd boombox from my 12th birthday as my only stereo for many years. My dad didnt like music nor see a point in it, so never had a radio in the house prior to that.

Was big into car audio, especially pre-18 as it was all I had. Sound quality, not copius bass. My final setup was using a Pioneer Premier with the dot matrix animated full face (boring now, but $800 at the time) 6.5" Infinity Reference seperates w/external xo's in front and rear doors. 6" coaxials in rear deck 2 infinity kappa perfect 12"s and 3 pheonix gold amps in a beautiful built out trunk in a euro model 1987 BMW M535i.

The first time I spent money on a home stereo I was about 21. Bought a Pioneer Elite VSX41 reciever from a pawn shop along with a pair of RCA sp4100t floorstanding speakers, fairly nice being that brand (cant find any info on them now, but still have them laying around, each having 2 8" woofers, 4" mid, and 1" silk dome, hefty on price at $1400/pair msrp)

Had that setup for many a year, until I was about 27 and swapped to a Mirage UNItheater array and Infinty SP12 sub. Got me more into theater, and began building from there, which then led into higher end 2 channel gear for my living room when the theater became a dedicated room about 3 yrs ago.

Anybody remember the show Doby Gillis his best friend Maynard G Krebs was into Hi-fi all be it mono because that was the mainstay and most of it was home-brew.

Real honest to goodness Hi Fi happened for me when I was 21. Sony ES CDP (the first of the 1 bit DACs), NAD 1020B preamp, Hafler XL600 amp, Technics TT, TEAC 3 head tape deck to make tapes for the killer tape based system in my Toyota Supra, Acoustic Research TSW 610 w/ the Nitrogen fired Titanium dome tweets, and Audioquest cabling all around.

Besides the music, original Nintendo and The Simpsons in stereo through my gear made my house a popular place to be for my friends. Installed a lot of 12V systems for many years after that, now I am strictly home audio.

In the Early 60's, I was working with my dad in the very early stages of television and then professional AV. In 6th grade I was repairing the school PA systems and all cal intercoms. From then I moved into early pro audio when Altec Voice of the Theaters and Altec tube mono amps ruled. Then we paired up the mono amps, added balance controls and used Ampex stereo tube RtR recorders. Then got into servicing HK, McI, Yamaha, Fisher, Advent, Tandberg, Marantz, etc. home stereos in DC. From then until now it has been professional audio video.

I'm guessing I was 7 or 8 when I found my Aunts and Uncles 8 track and vinly stash at my Grandparents. For some reason they left some really good albums but the 8 tracks were kind of trashed. I dont remember exactly what brand of receiver, turntable etc.. but the first time I saw my aunts KISS albums and my Uncles Dark Side Of The Moon album I was like what is this! So at that time they (Grandparents) didnt live by anyone really close so I had to entertain myself and boy did I ever. I probably listened to their stuff more than they did. If I ever had a friend over I would play all this stuff for them and it would freak them out. Good memories for sure

I was about 8 years old and I started by listening to cassettes on a mono cassette player. My dad saw that I was seriously liking the Beatles and Beach Boys...So he made me a portable speaker system using car speakers and a little ingenuity. When I was 12 I was given my grandmothers giant Zenith console with 8 track, A/M, F/M and LP player. At 14 my dad upgraded to Technics separates and I received his Technics hand-me-downs...I had by far the best stereo of any kid in my neighborhood!!!

Since those simple days I have owned Carver, Proceed, Krell, YBA, Arcam, Bryston, PS Audio, Dynaudio, Infinity, Yamaha...etc., etc... I still very fondly remember those first systems, back then I was seriously into it for the music! I am trying to get back into audio for the music, that is what it is all about!

I was just about 5 when I used to listen to Big Band/ Swing music when my parents would put on some of their not so old 78's. It was at the age of 7 that I gave up cigarettes and started saving my allowance for something to play music on. Comic books won out till I was 11. My aunt gave me a well used Magnavox console. Had that for awhile then started working real jobs making enough to buy a car and an 8 track under the dash along with a reverb I picked up somewhere. Still trying to put together the ultimate kit.

At 16 (in 1975) when I heard my neighbors' Sony (compact) system for the first time. I had to have one.

At 17, I spent almost all my HS graduation money ($400!) on an entry-level (but genuine component) system.

At 32, I stopped upgrading for the sake of upgrading. My wallet has been much happier.
Edited by Hamilcar Barca - 8/29/12 at 8:53pm

I was six, almost seven when my father brought home a Voice of Music console with detached speakers. Strictly radio and LPs. He had some Jill London, Gilbert & Sullivan and some Miles Davis (that I remember). He was gone from home a lot and so he made me his apprentice so that the stereo could be played while he was gone. I had to learn about turning off and on the equipment, volume control, speaker damage, handling and cleaning of LPs, needle placement and cueing, etc. No one else was allowed to touch his stereo except him and me. So whenever my Mom or sisters wanted to hear something and my Dad was't home, I had to operate the stereo. Later on that year, I got serious mononucleosis and ended up in the hospital. My dad brought me a tiny crystal portable radio to keep me company. I remember listening to Fibber MaGee & Molly, Amos & Andy, the Lone Ranger, Hop Along Cassidy, and the music! Ray Charles, Marty Robbins, more Miles Davis... that was it, I was hooked.

Three years later, I bought my own first "stereo." It was a portable turntable with an amp and speakers built in. I remember my first "argument" about who was the biggest star, The Beach Boys or Connie Francis. (Guess which one I was arguing for 8^). I collected 45 RPM records and my family took a trip from France to New York on the USS United States the next year. Naturally, I brought my "stereo" and my three volumes of 45 RPM records (about 120 records). The Beatles had just come out with I Wanna Hold Your Hand and I had one of the first copies. I was the hit of the younger teen agers on the ship. They gave us our own room to play music in and dance (we did other things too but life was much simpler then...). (I remember one incident when I was dancing with a gorgeous girl who was fifteen - I was "almost 13" - and I apologized for stepping on her toe during a slow dance. She smiled at me and told me I was old enough to be a gentleman. I melted with (I'm sure) a silly grin on my face. Life was very good indeed!) For every spare moment on the entire voyage, every teen who could was in that room and was dancing to my "stereo." The Captain even came down to see what was going on at one point and I ended up explaining the "stereo" to him. He was amazed and told me that he was going to put up a plaque on the wall to commemorate this "happening." Don't know if he ever did that (I doubt it), but my life and music were inextricably intertwined from that point on.