In many respects… the real high end stuff has always been primarily an old guy thing. As a young audiophile I used to drive up to Phoenix from Tucson to the Audio Research / high end audio store to look and listen. The only guys walking out with new Audio Research equipment we’re old guys. Us youngsters were there to dream…. Maybe buy a used budget piece of equipment. Like the shiny new corvettes… old guys! A small compensation for getting old.
How long ago did you catch the bug?
My first inkling was about 1972 when a friend mentioned such things as Dual, Thorens, AR, Scott, etc. By '74-'75 I knew about all the Japanese manufacturers (courtesy of a military PX catalog) and about McIntosh. By '76 was using a hand me down all in one Panasonic compact system. The compact system did not last long and very shortly after, '77, came a "proper" 1970's system with such names as Pioneer, Kenwood, Shure, AR, Teac.