the gateway product that turned you into an audiophile

Great thread!

I took a class at Colorado State University in 1980 called something like "Audio Physics." It focused on teaching physics through the practical application of science through a stereo system. Shortly after the class ended I purchased my first stereo system which included a entry level Luxman 2040 integrated receiver, a Phillips 777 turntable, with a shibata type stylus, a Sony tape deck, and a pair of big speakers.

The speakers actually bugged me and I sold them and purchased a Three D Acoustics pair of satellites with a subwoofer. I knew something was up when a year later I had a local guy (Harms Labs in Fort Collings) build a custom sub for me. (I ran into Steve Harms a few years ago and he was still building and repairing speakers.)

Ten years later, I purchased a used pair of Acoustat 1+1 speakers for $350 from a friend who was disappointed with the bass. I added a Vandersteen sub and the friend couldn't believe how much better they sounded than his expensive new B&W speakers.

The original Three D satellites are part of my 7 point surround system in our small TV room, with a B&W center and four B&W surround and rear speakers built in, plus a small SVS sub. Great for TV.

The Acoustats are thirty plus years and I am researching completing a rebuild on them. They still sound better than almost anything out I have listened too. It helps to have good electronics sending the signal to them. It has been a fun journey.

I had a hand-me-down Onkyo rack system I got from my dad when I went to college. It was good but then my roomate and I discovered separates when visiting Second Sound in Boulder way back in the early 90s. I found a used Adcom GFA-2 amp and pre-amp there. I traded in the Onkyo system for that set-up. It was a "step up" for me in sound quality. Then I bought an affordable Sony 5-disc changer. My speakers were some Advents (can’t recall the model). I had a great sounding system for what it was back in my ramen-eating college days. My dad gave me one of his reel-to-reel decks, and I would make 3-hour-long mix tapes for our house parties as well. 

My brother had a HH Scott Stereomaster 342 AM/FM Stereo Receiver,  Acoustic Reasearch (AR2) speakers with a Garrard turntable in the early seventies. What a great sounding system.

For me, this proved to be a somewhat a tricky question.  I first asked myself when I first realized that I had fallen in love with music.  Then, I asked myself when I first started to really care about the sound quality of the equipment used to play the music I liked.

I started buying my own 45s when I was around 7 or 8, after using my aunt's portable tabletop 45 record player for a few years.  The first 45 that I bought was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton.  I was around 7 or 8 years old then and happened to be at my grandmother's house.  I must have played that 45 ten times in a row, if not more.  My grandmother never said a word; never asked me to give it rest!  God Bless her!  That kicked off my 45 record collection.  Wish I still had those things!

Sometime around 1960 or so, my parents bought a Grundig stereo console.  It had a turntable, AM and shortwave radio built into it, as well as speakers or maybe it was just a single large speaker.  That's when I began my LP collection.

Sometime in the mid 60s I became much more aware or concerned with the sound quality that the equipment I was using could deliver.  That's when I bought a stereo in a box type thing that came with 2 small bookshelf speakers and an amplifier with built-in 8-track tape player.  Can't remember the name of that thing.  However, my friends and I thought it sounded pretty good.  That kicked off my 8-track tape collection.  Soon thereafter, I bought a Craig reel-to-reel and started recording music from AM radio stations and, later, from FM when that became more popular.  I'd have to say that was the spark that started the audiophile fire.

In the late 60s, one of my high school musician friends wanted me to listen to a new stereo system that he had just purchased.  Can't remember the model numbers but it was a Sansui integrated amp, Thorens TT and a pair of bookshelf speakers.  I think the TT cart was a Shure.  He loved Chicago.  So, we played their new album and the sound from that system just blew me away!  I have to say that's when the audiophile bug started, for me.

In 1972, I had finally saved enough money to purchase what I consider to be my first entry-level audiophile quality two-channel stereo system.  This very same friend, much more knowledgeable about stereo equipment than I at the time, took me to Tech HiFi in Cambridge, MA.  That was a kid in the candy store moment for me!  After spending money that I really should have devoted to college expenses, I walked out with a Sansui 2000X receiver, Phillips 212 TT equipped with a Shure cart and a pair of Studiocraft speakers that I eventually upgraded to Ohm C a year later.  The rest, as they say, is more history.    

when i bought my first turntable as a teenager that came with a ceramic cartridge and spherical stylus, then upgraded to an empire moving magnet cartridge with shibata stylus after much research.   wow what a difference !