How did U get into this expensive hobby?

Just who decided that this hobby is expensive? Value for money, it is dirt cheap! The only thing to compare would be a 12 cylinder Ferrari F1 engine at full revs. in my living room...actually 2 of them would give a fine stereo effect. And THAT would be much more expensive!

In 1971, my sister's boyfriend went to "Nam. I was the caretaker of his stereo. If I remember right, it was a Pioneer receiver and a Garrard turntable and some JBL speakers. In 1974, my brother-in-law (not the same as above)came back from Germany with a Pioneer Quadrophonic system. I still have about 6 SQ albums, including Dark Side of the Moon. If you have never heard quad Pink Floyd, you are missing out, even if it was not on a not very good system. During my college days, I was dumpster diving w/a 14 watt/channel Kenwood system. It was better than nothing. I had a trick set-up "three" channel sound. I hooked up a pair of speakers to the 1st connection and a single speaker to the second set of speaker jacks. By setting this up in a circular layout, it gave a very spacial sound. Moving on. When I graduated from college, I immediately started saving my money for a good stereo. Ended up w/Dahlquist DQ-10's and SAE electronics. A year or two later, I heard a Threshold, WOW!! I though. So over the last 20+ years I've upgraded equipment as I could find money (wife and kids put a big bite in the stereo funds) to where I'm pretty happy with my system. The best part is my daughter is a confirmed audiofile having grown up with good equipment. I've willed the stereo to her.

The Navy Exchange! Brings back nice memories.

This is a cool story:

I was stationed in Japan on the USS Midway in the mid 1980s. My best friend at the time was a guy who was REALLY into audio gear. The navy exchange in yokosuka had a superb high-end audio department - Accuphase, Nakamichi, Denon, etc. Anyway, He had purchased quite alot of stuff already that was sitting in a storage unit on the base. I caught the bug from him and was planning on buying some gear at some point before my hitch ended. We were out to sea and someone in our division got a cassette tape in the mail that had some preacher telling about the evils of rock and roll and all the backwards messages that were in these songs. We all listened to the tape and it was interesting because he would play the section of the song forward and then backward and then we'd all get a good laugh. My buddy the audiophile really got freaked out by this. That night he pitched his 300+ cassettes over the side, came and woke me up and said, "you wanna buy all my audio gear?". To make a long story short, I ended up buying all of it from him for a bit less than what he paid at the exchange, which I later found out was more than HALF of what these items were retailing for in the states. All top of the line stuff that he hadn't ever even opened - including a Nakamichi Dragon, Denon Hi end seperates, a Teac X1000R open reel deck, Audio Technica ATH8 electrect headphones (2 sets), a Denon DP62L turntable and and 3 very nice moving-coil cartridges and a DBX 3BX dynamic range expander. It sat in the storage unit for about a year until I shipped back to the states - I shipped it all back with me and that's how I got into this hobby.

I still have the Teac, the headphones and the DBX unit. I sold the seperates, the Dragon and the turntable & cartridges many years later and actually MADE money on them! Pretty sweet!

without music,there would be no hobby,however,the hobby can be half the fun!(that was for leaf)cough...cough...jerk...cough,man,excuse me!now then!it began for me at age 13.at my neighbors.his system wasnt that great,pretty much the best of the chain store goods,but at the time that was the best id heard,my parents just had the worst stereos.so to hear this was wonderfull to me.i had no idea recorede music could sound so good.(keep in mind i was 13)and it took off from there.my mom worked at a library,i saw all the back issues of stereophile and audio,and looked in aww!!!at 14-16 i dreamed of having the equipment i have now.but now its not good enough!i love this hobby,and i love music!!!(you can love both right)lol

My brother-in-law had a Garrard TT and some Fraiser midgets which were given to me. I loved music and was working at the AV department at the university while working on an EE degree. I needed an amp so my boss gave me the amp out of a motion picture projector and a Bogen pa amp. I don't remember for an RIAA pre but it played music.

I became an audiophile the day I walked into a teachers dorm room and he was playing musin on a Thorens TD125 / McIntosh C28 / Citation 12 / Klipsch K-horns. Tull's "Locamotive Breath" is STILL in my memory even today!
That day changed my life completly..... Chris

had a JVC receiver and CD player with Cerwin Vega speakers, which imaged well they don't. I saw the cover of high fidelity magazine with plexiglass speakers, had to check them out. started reading audio magazines. Read Polk ad about stereo dimensional array speakers and why there imaging is better than conventional speakers. Went to absolute audio in Orange CA to audition them and was totally blown away, had no idea a stereo could sound that good. Purchased Polk speakers a few weeks later. I wouldn't listen to a Polk speaker today, have learned to hear in the past 15 years or so. what I thought was good then is terrible now.

I started paying way too much for my stereo equipment, and shazam! I was in. ;-)

I started out with a Yamaha integrated; I was looking to fix my brother's car stereo when I ended up in a used hifi shop. A short time later I got a set of McIntosh gear which promptly shook my listening room into life. That was the begining, I didn't think about it for some time, I just did not like the sound I had. Next came speakers, still not happy. On a whim I got a MSB Link, which changed my perception of my home system it was a taste of purity in sound that sang thru the deficiencies in my system, I wanted more and I wanted it bad. I got a new amp and pre amp, new cd transport, cables, everything, its not enough, its never enough. Well soon I will at least be semi-satisfied, enough to sleep normally.
Hehe, as I tweak over getting a Rel Storm III to give me, that low end that makes music engaging. hmmm, how long will take me to save for it, and then I need those Kharmas. And maybe a new dac, ohh the DIP is on the way...oh yeah, I think those power cables need to be replaced, my ears are happy and my wallet is empty, and my next paycheck is on the way ;)

I got hooked on the emotional response of listening to music. As time goes by from the late 60's to now it has been an on going evolution of listening and equipment. One of my first jobs was selling high-end audio and have never gotten tired of the feeling the comes with the music and of very fine repoduction.

Also read High Fidelity and Stereo Review in college, as a way to procrastinate on writing philosophy papers. Same in graduate school. I did not get that master's degree, but I have spent the last four years and over $30,000 spending and tweaking, listening, buying and selling, and being generally obsessed. It's led to some spectacular sonic results from time to time, but I'd say it is somewhat unhealthy for me, like it is a substitute for something else (I don't know what yet).

I like to say "Rock and Roll saved my soul" as a teen ager in the early 70's. Word and feelings I could not express found expression in the Stones, Santana, Dylan, Mitchell, and the Dead. Concerts became "church" for me and the records relieved me of my adolescent anxieties and took me to a joyful place. Consequently, the better the music reproduction, the better I was able to re-experience that "magic" over and over again.

What began with my father's laughable table stereo with a built-in 8 Track player and Garrard turn table in 1969 has become a search to recreate and reexperience that musical magic. Today I can appreciate the beauty and grandour of being human through jazz, classical, and folk as well as my beloved "rock classics". I'm now leaving the mass market of mid-fi for the new world of hi fi and I'm having a good time seeing what this new strata of technology and excellence has to offer. Oh, I hope you old time audiophiles remember how much fun it was to "fall in love" with sound and equipment, to learn the names of the different manufacturers, to learn the "inside" jokes and secrets of the audiophile culture/cult because that's where I'm at. For a lot of us, it was always about the music, and about expressing what it was to be human. We just found a more expressive and expensive tool to search with than most folks.

Well I did'nt really GET INTO IT until I could afford too. That was the really frustrating thing about my 25 year love affair with sound reproduction; that early on I was disappointed with what technology could deliver and then as advances were made and evident to me, I was unable to afford them. Now the current state of techology is pretty awesome AND I can afford to get the better stuff. Which frankly IMHO is whats needed to really enjoy this hobby. Perhaps others could be happy with a lesser system, but I feel that it still takes some real change to get a killer system. Yet big bucks is NOT the key: Intelligence, sensitivity, diligence and faith are more important. FAITH, that the ugly duckling you see before you today COULD become something so much more beautiful. MikE

In the late 70s I was shopping at Pacific stereo (I think that was the name) looking for a TT. I met a man and his wife that introduced me to the hi end equipment and some hi end dealers. To make a long story short this man put togeather a modest system for me. He went out of his way to make sure that I got the best I could for the money. He even gave me his Dynaco pre amp. He told me that when I start to update that I should give the pre amp to someone else who is starting out and not to sell it. I will never forget this mans kindness and generosity. He helped make my world a bit better and not just the world of audio. I see a bit of him in many of Audiogons members.

I started in the wood products industry about 25 years ago. The equipment used produces high noise levels and while I am religous about hearing protection, I started to crave beautiful music after being exposed to this sound. Over the years, my craving turned into a great hobby. I even wrote and published a book educating the budding audiophiles.

I used to race cars and motorcycles - and needed a safer, cheaper hobby. So far it is only safer.

S-E-X. Mucho-macho stereo systems attracted the chicks like flies to honey! They say "Music hath charms..."
It certainly does.
Why does the middle-aged balding guy get the red Porshe? Because he likes the color?? COME ON guys! Stop the b.s.; fess up!

If you want to accuse people who got into this hobby through a magazine of being shallow, then you don't quite understand that people don't pick a magazine off the shelf if they aren't already attracted to the material being offered. Magazines are a great way for people to look beyond Bose - if one is both open minded and cares about music. Many of us have learnt that there is a whole world beyond Best Buy stuff out there because of these magazines and websites etc. Of course any intelligent person will sooner or later realize that they opinion on component selection that counts is one's own. So there's no need to put anyone down or get worried that people who read magazines are misguided. Anyhow we should be helping those who are open minded enough to see beyond the norm and help people realize the potential of a good audio systems whatever their original motives were.

my son burned out one channel of the Dynaco amp I'd had since the early 60's ( the last time I'd paid much attention to gear). NY Times had an article about Rotel that I'd read earlier so i went to a local dealer to replace the dyna. the salesman spotted a fish and hooked up a used ARC SP 9 they just got in. i went home w/ the rotel( now also ARC), the SP 9, AQ cable & interconnect and a bad habit. otoh, i'm having fun and love the music.

My brother gave me his Linn Intek Amp, CDP and Linn Helix speakers back in 1994 when he upgraded...the rest is history.

Skip Weshnner, Barbara Keith and Tracy Nelson. Skip (whose wife, Ronnie Gilbert was one of the Weavers)had a radio at midnight on KFAC, LA classical station in the old days. Skip didnt play classical music much unless it was an audiophile recording. He played a lot of folk music. I'll never forget hearing Barbara Keith for the first time. He would always say she made the best album by a "distaff' singer in the last 10 years (her first eponymous lp on Verve, which I have, but you cant get), and then she made a better one. The song he played was The Road I Took to You from her second eponymous albums (on Warner, reissued recently as a Japanese cd, you can get it from Amazon, but I think its out of phase).

Skip's show was sponsored by LA high-end dealers, including one that was near me, Dimensions in Stereo in Torrance. I lived in that store, even though I couldnt afford to buy anything from them when I was in college. After I moved back to LA from Texas in my late 20s, I bought a Connoisseur turntable from them and they repaired my wife's KLH Model 5 speakers.

Tracy Nelson comes in because for many many years, my goal for my audio system was to have her "appear" in my room (or, even better now that I'm more knowledgeable, transport me to wherever she was when she made the recording). I share my love for Trixie with a close friend who would always remind me that her records just didnt sound like she did in person. We get pretty close now.

My grandfather was a nut, back in 1960 he bought a fisher tube amp and pre?i think on the pre,anyways i rememmber growing up listening to the music being played all the time and he thought it was swo great| awhile probaly 25 yrs. my father told me that when my grandmother finally found out how much it cost,she nearlly died. I dont rememmber the amount but quite expensive for the time.
Anyways since being a child i have been exposed to good quality music,i dont know if i should than k my grandfather or not since this hobby has we all know is #$@%^*& expensive.
Ten years ago at the age of 29 i got my first system, cary slm 70s,denon 3560 mod. by stan warren and after several years of research and 5 prototypes i had a pair of speakers and have been hooked.

As a six year old, my father gave me an old broken down Philco radio for my bedroom. It sounded crummy, but played. After saving for months, I ran to the local electronics supply store and bought a fancy new "whizzer cone" speaker with a big fat magnet for (if I can still remember) $3.95. Tore the Philco apart, learned how to solder on it (with a little help from Dad), and upgraded the speaker. Cleaned the scratchy volume pot. Even put in new, thicker speaker wires from an old lamp (long before Ray Kimber was around). Ran a goofy looking wire antenna out the window and down the side of the house. Thought it was the cat's meow. Learned to enjoy music and the artistry of the human voice for the first time on that old box. Never turned back on the love of high fidelity audio, music, radio theory, and the value of thoughtful mods.

Grateful Dead productions about 2 years ago began to release live recordings that have been stored in an air conditioned state of the art vault in San Rafael, CA. Being a long time groover of the Grateful Dead and a collector of tapes this was significant to me. My old system, a Marantz receiver (that was my Dad's)an entry level Nakamichi cassette deck, and a pair of some Radioshack bookshelf speakers had finally worn out their welcome. I was in need of a new system which would get the most out of these release's that would become famously known as "Dick's Pick's" For those of you who don't know Dick Latvala was the archivist responsible for all of the recordings kept in the vault. Unfortunately Dick passed away about a year ago, but his spirit lives on in each and every release. Dick's Pick's volume 20 was just released this week. Most of the selections (known as "pick's" by vol#) are 3 cd's. GD productions sells direct at aprox 18.50 a pick. This blows away all the comercial labels. Each pick is lovingly choosen from amongst hundreds of live show's. Oh yea, back to why I got into this hobby. If you havn't guessed, it was to get the absolute most out of each and every release. I can say that I have done that. I could have a system with more bass and a CD player with HDCD. All picks since vol 13 or 14 are HDCD encoded. But this will be addressed down the road when I upgrade my CD player. If you have ever been interested in learning about the GD, check out the website www.dead.net. Click on the icon "Dick's Pick's" This is probably the only and the greatest collection of live concerts brought to distribution by in band in the history of the world. I urge you to investigate. Cheers

1964, She Loves You, came out. I was ten years old and sat there with my record player and 45. I played that record over and over. Life hasn't been the same

Hi Hififile, I would like to know what kind of profit margin like in selling "Hi-Fi". Cheers! Happy New Year!!!

Hififile, what do you think hifi stands for? I am currious to hear your side since you've been on both side of the playing field. Please share with us some of the industry's secrets, especially the onces that the marketing dept. have locked away deep in their top secret safe. Thanks..

Love yer Gruvglide!! Can I have a free can?? :)

I started in the late 60's, or "the golden age & birth of high end stereo". My father was an electrical engineer in L.A. and I was in High School. Both of us frequented what were then Stereo Shops. I was enamored with meters, buttons, lights and size often neglecting sound. I remember one of dads systems; ar 3a speakers, H&K citation amp&pre, dual table w/shure cartridge. A great sound in it's day. I loved hifi so much I went to work for various hifi stores in the L.A. area. To my suprise hifi was about selling, and money, and NOT about loving hifi and music. My dad and I opened our own very successfull hifi stores in Las Vegas & Phoenix. I began falling out of love with hifi, because it became labor and marketing.(we were the largest Bose & Klipsch dealers in the western U.S). The fact was, I began to hate hifi and what it stood for. We sold the stores and began making a hifi product which I still manufacture and sell today(Gruvglide). The message here is that there is a "BIG DIFFERENCE" in marketing & the business of hifi, and the love of hifi and music! I love to read the often sound advice from the likes of Garfish, Carl eber, redkiwi and others. I've gone full circle and now I'm back enjoying hifi again!

When I was a kid back in the 70's I was fortunate to get to hear a stereo based around a couple of Klipsh Cornerhorns (very popular in Arkansas where I grew up). This showed me that a lot was possible with stereo. I have always enjoyed listening to music but never bought a stereo of my own until a couple of years ago. I have found this to be a great site to buy used gear from. Right now I am limited due to the fact that I live in an apartment. Hope to move to a house in 2001. Meanwhile I will keep listening albeit at somewhat low levels.

Back in 1972, to graduate with my EE degree I was assigned the design of an audio power amp as my senior project. It did not take long to find out I was not Gods gift to audio design. I designed and built a 50 watt, no fidelity amp. After graduation (by the grace of God) I began to research why my design was so poor and began to get hooked after listening to some well designed amps. My first purchase was a GAS Son of Ampzilla and Thalia preamp coupled to some Advent speakers and a Thorens Turntable. To this day I have been playing with 1's and 0's (forget that analog stuff) and enjoying the music. Happy New Year to all!

Thanks for clearing that up. I competely agree, this is a great site to hear real people talking honestly about there experiences. Love the site, and reading these threads.

Leave him alone,whats you point??

Shut up Leafs, anything you say will only dig you deeper.

In regards to Leaf's comments about buying gears with his ears without ever reading into a magazine. I believe most us end up buying with our ears. Reading or researching using what ever media that's easily available to us at the time, allows us to narrow number of gears to a manageable process. It would be almost impossible, thought I wouldn't mind if I had the time and the resources, to go audition all dealers around my area. Infact, this web forum is just an extention of the magazine media. By reading the magazine and knowing what to ask in this forum makes the buying process a more educated one. Using a magazine media alone to make a purchasing descision on is pure foolishness. I don't trust Stereophile or magazines like it simply because they have something at stake even though they say their editorial dept. operates independently from their advertising dept; who really knows right? This is why I come to this forum hoping to get a second/third/fourth unbias feedbacks. But this forum only works if the user knows specifically what to ask. Although I was introduced to this hobby by a magazine, it doesn't make me less of a music lover. Infact, I lover of music so much that my music room is the only room in the house my wife cannot and will never decorate. Just so you don't think I am just B.S.'ing I've spent 10 years of short life playing music through my youth and into my early 20's. I only stop because I couldn't make enough money at it to live comfortably. I will enventually get back into it when I retire.

Craig, there is no doubt about it. Look at all the threads. If you went through them all I would bet at a minimum 90% are related to gear. Not a bad thing. I am less here for the music than input on the gear that makes the music come alive. It wouldn't take too much effort to confirm this casual observation. Does it mean that people here are gearheads? I think not. This forum is as you say more related to buying selling and exchanging information about gear and how it affects the music we listen to.

Jadem6; wasn't really responding to you-- more to Leafs, but I do agree that to the end user, ie you and me, that it really is "about the music". But, IMO, Audiogon is much more narrowly focused on "gear" that makes recorded music great, ie that's what drives this site-- without the gear, no Audiogon. I will admit that the music threads here are some of my favorites, and I usually participate in them. Yes, this hobby is expensive because of the gear, but Audiogon has helped me increase music quality, while keeping gear costs down-- this is a really valuable service. I'll stand by my above post. Cheers. Craig.

In the early 70s, a buddy and I used to hitchhike about 3 miles down the road to Atlanta's only real hifi store (HI FIDELTY SS I think). Had no business being there (i.e. way out of the summer highschool job budget). Just drooling over the gear. A seed was sown. Saved all summer and bought a Harmon Kardon receiver and no-name speakers. Found a Philips 212 at a second hand store. My first stereo. Went to concerts and collected vinyl. Really enjoyed the music. 25 years go by with an upgrade every 5 years or so to another mass produced stereo. Keep up with the Jones. Last year as I listened to my "decent?" Denon/JBL stereo I noticed I heard the music, but somehow it just wasn't right. Call it midlife crisis if you want. I just wanted a way to find the music again. Well, after saving all year, I'm close to putting together my first audiophile (for lack of a better word) system. Looking for speakers now. I knew I could do better than I had but I AM TOTALLY AMAZED at the music contained in those little CDs. Thanks for the thread, JEFF.

Well it was a rainy day. I was at one of those "Snooty" high end stores picking up a new needle ($25.00) for my "BIC" turntable and I heard some music coming from one of the "High end" rooms. I mentioned to the salesman that the song that was playing was one of my favorites of Joni Mitchell. He asked if I wanted to sit in the room and listen. The room was all Mark Levinson gear and some huge Wilson speakers totalling over $100,000.00. The salesman turned up the volume and told me to sit and listen to the Joni CD for as long as I wanted. Well within 30 seconds I realized I was in sonic nirvana. I heard 3 dimensional sound, depth and separation like never before. Thank goodness that saleman took the opportunity to show me what high end was all about. I have saved and slowly purchased over the past 8 years and have now a system that is one that is very satisfying. Always buying one component at a time, spending as much as possible on it, and then the next year doing the same. Audio retailers must realize that the guy buying a $25.00 needly might one day with the right education and knowledge come back and buy a $2500.00 cartridge (from same salesman).

Oh by the way Leafs I find quite a few music lovers on the audioasylum.com site. Look at the music forum. There are some very serious collectors and music discussions going on there running the full gamut. I have gotten quite an education and have picked up several titles because of that site. Highly recommended.

Hey Garfish, I'm not sure who your talking to, but this and any audio site is first about the music and then about the "GEAR" used to reproduce it. It would be of little use to have the $35,000 I've invested if I wasn't going to enjoy music. I would guess that if I could find agreement on this site it would be that none of us bought our systems to listen to RF interferance. So don't attack me or anyone else for first caring about the music! The tread was how did I get into this expensive hobby. The music, the pure love of music!

It was around the mid 70's - my friend down the street had an older brother (Gary - we called him "Fritz") who had a nice system (for the time) - Dual TT, Yamaha separates and ESS speakers. We would always ask him to take us to what was then the mid-fi "Mecca" of Cincinnati - The Audio Warehouse. Pretty soon I had saved up enough for a BSR TT, a Pioneer receiver, and some god-awful speakers that, to me, sounded WONDERFUL. Since then my system has gone through innumerable permutations and continues to evolve (more slowly now, as I concentrate more on the music (primarily LPS) and less on the gear), but I still wonder from time to time what 'ol Fritz is up to. I'd like to thank him someday for getting me started. No nightmare here, just beautiful music. Now where's that MONO pressing of the White Album?..............-John

Me too cornfed that is "2001 a Space Odyssey" My very favorite film.

It's very clear to me that Audiogon is almost entirely a web site whose main goal is to enable and promote the buying and selling of high end audio GEAR-- and the discussion of same. Audiogon is not a music site, and in the "chat forum", there is not even a category titled "music". In the year or so that I have been visiting here, my stereo system has improved dramatically (new & improved gear), and thus my enjoyment of recorded music has also improved dramatically. And yes it's expensive-- that's part of the title of this thread. I would think there are web sites devoted strictly to music for those that are purely "music lovers"-- don't know what they play their music on though? Cheers. Craig

A little over 30 years ago, my best friend bought a big Macintosh amp and preamp with these big upside down cone like speakers (OHM) and after hearing that system a LOT I had the beginning of a reference to aim for. But even then, I noticed that certain systems could give as much pleasure, or more, even though not as high end. My Marantz receiver and Criterion speakers sounded great in the near field. What really got me in to the Audio-Video hobby was my experience recording and producing music. After hearing some of the world's best systems for 2 decades and having to oversee the mixing process, trying to make a mix sound good on all types of systems, I had developed a decent ear in the process and could not listen to junk at home. I still try to keep in mind that "the best" system may not be the most expensive, but the one most fitting your needs and tastes. Nice post. I promise to read all of the comments above a bit later today. Good to hear from so many regulars. Happy New Year to all! ( I also learned the danger of trying the next level, and then the next level, when I kept trying different Grado cartridges, and found that the more I spent, the better it sounded.)

i composed the last post while some of you were engaged in impolite colloquy. (i'm a slow typist-4 fingers at best.) hope you don't mind my getting back to the theme of the thread. ;>0

i bought my first "hi-fi" in 1957, an rca with blonde wood cabinet and metal legs in the "moderne" style. it was purchased with the $$ i got from selling a huge lionel model rr setup. (yeah, i know, the stuff would be worth a fortune now.) the first record i bought was the platters on a 45 rpm with the big hole, singing "the great pretender." my first lp was van cliburn's tchaikovsky's first, which won him the big prize in moscow and propelled him to stardom. my phonograph purchase was followed the next year with a gift from my folks of a viking 1/4" reel-to-reel that played pre-recorded stereo tapes. i used the tinny little speaker in the tape deck for one channel and the rca phono as the other. from this less-than-modest "system," i became better aquainted with the world of classical music, since there were more prerecorded tapes in that genre than any other. in college, starting in '61, i was introduced to much more classical work and better "stereos." then, a fraternity brother built a dynakit amp and pre-amp, which i heard first in '63, playing bob dylan's first album. it was that little system and that album that really hooked me; i remember the experience with great vividness even after 37 years (my god, can it really be that long ago?) i continued to buy records, playing them on my roomates' stuff until i was married in february of '67, during the semester break of my second year in lawschool. my wife and i purchased "our" first "real" stereo setup a couple of months after our marraige. i still have it. it was comprised of a fisher integrated, ar2 speakers and an ar turntable (cartridge came with). we moved that little system around from one rented house to another, iowa city to kansas city to denver, together with our slowly-growing collection of records. in around 1980-81, i heard "highend" for the first time at a basement "salon" in boulder. that setup included a stax amp and pre, b&w speaks and a thorens tt. i loved it but couldn't afford it. a year or so later, tho, i rationalized withdrawing the meagre savings i had accumulated in my "own" account ( perhaps this is why there aren't more women in the hobby-they're not nearly so self-dillusional or quite as sneaky!) to buy into the "highend." my first system was comprised of infinity rs 2.5 speakers an apt-holman pre, bryston amp, denon tt w/arm an an ortfon model 30(?) mc cartridge and accompanining stepup. i kept that groupo fairly intact until 1984-85, when i stumbled upon a tiny new shop in an old denver neighborhood that sold used highend gear. it was called "soundhounds." i got to know and become friends with soundhound's owner and saleman. by hangin' with them and other customers and hangerson, who'd gather many nights at closing time for a beer or 3 to listen, sans the great unwashed, to all the new stuff that came in almost daily, my audio horizons were expanded exponentially. we listened 3 or 4 times a week, over time, to hundreds of combinations of speakers and electronics, used and new, mostly playing cherished lps from our "members'" collections. i met many members of the loose-knit audiophile community in this era, including some well-known colo designers and manufacturers. in '87 or '88, through my expanding circle of audio buddies, i met the man who has now become my best friend. i'll identify him only as "j." j invited me to ces, let me party with his distributors and other friends and generally provided me in numerous ways with an entre into the "inner sanctum." audio and music is now at the center of my life, as it's never been before. i delight in listening to my now rapidly-expanding music collection that is fed in no small measure by my older son and his spouse, both of whom are in the radio/entertainment industry (read:promo copies!). j has open-houses 6 or 7 times a year that always end with a dinner with the reps or writers and hours of listening to the newest of the new and biggest of the big in j's wonderful main soundroom. my audio circle has become even wider on this site. tho there have been some wild any crazy dissagreements, the group of "regulars" has taught me much and entertained me more. here's hoping 2001 (my favorite all-time movie, BTW) is prosperous to all. let's all raise a cup to civility, good humor and fun on audiogon. the past is the past; let's let it melt away with the end of the last year of the twentieth century. CHEERS TO ALL!!!!- Kelly

Nicely put Leafs, concise and to the point. Have another one on me, you're not quite there yet. Yes, I love gears, all kinds of gears. That's all I love in my "pathetic life", and I sure am a jerk. I'm an ogre...that's what I am....Let it all out Leafs. You are magnificent, and I am utterly souless!

I just spent the last 4 hours in my basement cleaning LP's on a manual wet-vac machine.Fun? not really but I have 3000 LP's down there and someone has to do it.Its music not gear.If I were a gear head I sure as hell wouldnt be in my basement cleaning LP's!! I'd be up here where its nice and comfortable staring at my stereo!! I live in a rural are in western NY.I never even knew high-end shops exhisted till 4 years ago.My introduction to this hobby came from Stereophile.So what? Actually I dont even know why Im responding again.Its very apparent leafs is bitter and angry over something.Too bad he had to pollute this site with his latent issues.