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Memories........What made you catch the Audio Bug?

I remember back in high school, my ''industrial arts'' teacher was an avid audiophile and music lover. We are going back to '73 now. I remember one day being very different from any other. Upon entering class for our usual 40 minutes of the usual wood-cutting and bird-cage building routine,(some of us were luckier, getting ,'design' classes instead) we found our teacher,Ed, busy at setting up an LP on a Thorens turntable. Alongside, some strange, industrial-looking brown and orange boxes (QUAD) and a cloth-wrapped box with the initals B&W on them. He informed us that, today, we would discover something new, ''high-Fidelity'' as he called it.

We all sat in awe as our teacher put the SGT Peppers Lonely Hearts on full blast, to the amazement of everyone in the room. Wow! What was THAT? The equipment, the sound, the MUSIC was unlike anything most of us had ever seen or heard. I remember thinking to myself, now this is how the Beatles really sound like? I just could not beleive it.

I remember that we had no quality music equipement in our home back then, as with most other kids.

It was just amazing. Word got around that 'something special was happening, in industrial art's class. Turned out the topic of the week was 'high-fidelity' discovery I guess, as every other class in turn got the same treatment all week long.

The Following year, our teacher somehow managed to get the school board to approve a special ''equipement'' expenditure, officially probably a vacuum system, or new circular saw, or band saw, whatever. The class built a special wooden closet complete with locks, to accept the new ''equipement''. When it finally arrived, holy smokes, a McIntosh amplifier and preamp, with Thorens turntable !

We ended up ''founding'' an audiophile club at school, and would have students spend their lunch hour seating in a closed room in complete darkness, listening to a complete album...against a 10 cent fee that we would keep to buy records !

If you are reading this ED, these 30 years old memories are as fresh in my mind as yesterday. Thank you so very much for sharing your passion with us, and opening our eyes to so many horizons, music being just one of them.

Just wondering how others in this forum got the audio bug also?
sonicbeauty
64 responses Add your response
rwbadley's avatar
rwbadley
143 posts
 
Nrchy-

Funny, funny; lol, you da man...
battlebrat
4 posts
 
I was in 5-6th grade, I was on the internet, which was pretty young at that time (97-98) (relatively) anyway I saw a pair of MDR-CD3000 headphones, priced at 700$ I said "I don't know how, I don't know when, But SOMEDAY I will get those phones. In 2003 I finally did, I also picked up a headphone amp/equalizer for 20$ (it was used most likely cost 150 new) After that I was sold, and am currently, after a few years of screwing with midrange speakers, building a TRUE hi fi system, a friend of mine is selling me his Talon Khorus speakers for 2k his friend is selling me his VPI TNT6 turn table for 2k a friend of mine GAVE ME his Audio Research 300.2 amp, which he could have easily gotten 2,000 for here on audiogon, and I'm looking in to a ARC LS-3 Preamp and PH3 phono preamp. All this started with the headphones....
sonicbeauty OP
324 posts
 
Ok, so my thread is 9 years young now, how about giving it another spin?
My initial story hasn't changed, but would enjoy reading more from fellow 'Agoners ! (and thanks to Audiogon for keeping those older threads alive)
singleendedsingle
664 posts
 
@Sonicbeauty, nice thread going it deserves a BUMP.

I started on the early 90's with portable audio, and some vintage headphones. I wanted to get the most of them, and my pursuit to the perfect sound began..
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
In the 70's, a good friend of mine had a Marantz 1060 with a set of Advents and hundreds upon hundreds of LP's. A little to smoke and the groove was on.

Another friend had a Kenwood amp paired up with JBL L100's that sounded great. Once he set the speakers in the open window and blasted rock n roll while we played baseball in the park across the street. We had a keg set up at second base, so if you got to second, you scored a drink. Refills were allowed at any time.

Excellent memories!
joekapahulu
246 posts
 
At 14 I was an aspiring musician and music junkie. Got a pt job at a new record store in my nbhood. Did anything from a to z all to buy music at discount. The owner liked good audio and nice cameras introduced me to both including McIntosh, Marantz,ESS,Thorens,Rogers etc. I was their first employee and like family.I fell in love with good sound. When I graduated high school they gave me a system of McIntosh ma5100, dual belt TT and Bose 301s...waY better than the Zenith console at home. It was heaven to my ears.worked for them 7 years til bad cash mgt took them down. I ended up then working for an audio distribution company 3 years til I got my BA. That started me down the road thru JBL,SAE,BIC,Teac,Sansui,ADS etc. Wanting to understand business better it also led me to an MBA.Fell out of the buying process for 25 years then back in 5 years ago when I was told I needed some hobbies.the last 5years have been loads of fun. With other priorities I can only lust after some (most) of the rigs I read about but I never get tired of the music,info and trying to get my sound just a bit better every time I can swing the $$.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,602 posts
 
Great stories All,
I was 16 and on one fine Saturday afternoon found myself walking into our local shopping mall's hifi store. It was Summer of 1986, I was into cassettes and the occasional LP.
I had read about the compact disc (CD) but until that glorious day, did not have a demo of the then 'new' medium.
I was intimately familiar w/ Hot Rocks, but only the cassette.
Anyway, I could hear the selections being played from the rear of the store's floor plan (big screen TVs and VCRs/Laserdiscs covered the storefront). Their stereo gear room was a dedicated space, had its own door and was darkened.
To my amazement, a new Yamaha stack (cd player, pre, power amp was on display) was playing those wonderful tunes.
Instantly, I was hooked on that higher fidelity 'sound'.
rockadanny
1,224 posts
 
I’ve had a music bug since the age of 10, but it took 40 more years after that to catch the audio bug.
I’d not been exposed to any hi-fi gear in my life so never knew what I was missing. That is, until in 2005 when my low/mid-fi CD player died so began searching the ‘net for a replacement when I stumbled upon the world of higher-fi gear. So out I went to audition some gear at Playhouse Audio in Atlanta. I was immediately hooked on the vast improvement over my old system (HK CD player, Kenwood receiver, RTR III speakers) and immediately purchased an Opera Audio Consonance Hybrid integrated amp from Steve Harris (a sweetheart of a guy, BTW). Days later I auditioned a pair of Eggleston Works Fontaine speakers which really blew my mind and got me totally obsessed with high end gear. I’ve been afflicted ever since.
jult52
155 posts
 
It's a multistage process. I'm an ex-musician, very interested in listening to music and used to go to 2-3x concerts per week. I spent about two decades listening to my mid-fi system, which I gradually improved in my 30s (Rotel/lower price B&W) then I told my wife in 2008 that I wanted new speakers and a poster on AA told me that Magnepan MMGs were an incredible value. At the time, spending $600 on speakers seemed irresponsible, but I did it anyway. The first few seconds of listening to those speakers are something I doubt I'll ever forget.

Another non-musical factor is that I'm a big-time NFL fan (of a certain New York franchise with two recent rings to their name) and the news about concussions has really disturbed me. It's caused me to shift my free-time focus to something that doesn't involve frequent injuries to participants.
jadem6's avatar
jadem6
1,074 posts
 
It was my grandpa who got me interested. I idolized the man, and he had a very nice system for the day. A pair of Scott tube amps, a Scott stereo pre-amp, Amprex real to reel, duel arm stereo and mono turntable and Jensen speakers. He was always playing with wires and connectors.

He was also a musician with an organ with Leslie speakers, two handmade electric guitars, acoustical guitars, mandolin and a cello. He had a spectacular dedicated music room, about 30’x40’ with a vaulted ceiling and balcony. A grand fireplace centered the vault with speakers on each side of the fireplace.

I remember being so excited when I got my first system with Marantz amp, preamp and tuner (still have the tuner) Empire turntable and Jensen speakers. I had him come into my bedroom to hear my system I was so proud of. He listened for a couple seconds and said, “you have a 60 cycle hum” I was devastated, he was not impressed. I wish he could hear my system now, but he’d be 130 years old and was already hard of hearing when he died at 101.

I have some of his paintings from his music room in my music room. I think of him every time I listen.
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
Great story J.D.
douger
104 posts
 
My Dad was an audiophile in the early days... He built Heath,
Dynaco and EV equipment back in the fifties and sixties.
I didn't appreciate it until I went into the Air Force in '66
and then the bug bit hard. It's been a long road and I am very happy with my system now, but my Dad is 93 and quite deaf, can't hear it! But thanks Dad!
skoczylas's avatar
skoczylas
240 posts
 
My dads system was my gateway drug. He purchased it from the px while stationed in Germany in the early 1970s - jbl century l100s and a Yamaha cr 800 amp. It wasn't completely hi fi, but it was much better than the average home system. I recall the power of the bass speaker shaking inaudibly during the intro to bob marleys coming in from the cold song, then the bass-drum riff. It was forward, clear and powerful, did surprisingly good on symphonic music as well. Wish he kept it, I treasure those memories.
jtcf's avatar
jtcf
1,617 posts
 
I always loved music,we had a lowfi receiver,speakers(hidden behind furniture at Mom's insistence), and turntable on which I played albums daily.Then after seeing Jethro Tull live on the Aqualung tour I played the album at home and it sounded so terrible in comparison that I began my quest to capture that dynamic live sound.It's taken 40 years and I think I've finally got it:>Whoever was responsible for setting up Tull's sound system is to blame!Warm,clean,clear,loud,perfectly balanced sound in the old civic center.Whoever he/she/them did that is a genius.
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