the gateway product that turned you into an audiophile

Back in the late 60's I came across a pair of voice of the theatre Altec Lansing speakers. They were originally made for movie theatres. You'd see them in the old movie houses built in the 1930-1940's off to the sides of the room which was tiered down towards the screen every few rows.Had Sony seperates at the time about 60 wpc but it was enough to make them talk pretty good. They did not have quite as much bass as I like for rock music but the mid's and high's were superb and I was hooked.

This is an excellent thread. 

The first hint for me was in the 60s, playing records on the family Magnavox console. Glenn Miller, Pete Fountain, etc. Then with my first earnings as a teenager I bought a Dual turntable and a small Marantz receiver. The first speakers were also Marantz, but were soon traded in for a pair of Epicure 100s. That might be the gateway right there. The Epicures had an interesting tweeter.

Thinking about it, the next fully confirming gateway hardware was the next change of speakers to Infinity Kappa 8, with an EMIT tweeter. I tried stacking the Epicures on top of Advent 6003s, but that didn't work so well. 

My dad sold Advent as one of his lines for a while. I still have a pair of Maestros, as back speakers for an AV system that I am not at all passionate about.

I forgot what amp I was using, but it as a pair of Proac Studio 1 monitors I picked up that really did it for me. I fed them with an average turntable and McIntosh C20 preamp, which prior to that I had not been able to fully appreciate. I was in my mid-20s at the time (in the mid-90s), and this was my first real experience with a 'sound stage'.

I started in my teen years. Being middle class folks, my first taste of good audio was a hand built HH SCOTT tube amp, then a Dynakit.ST-xx(i forgot and all this are surplus gear). This was all driven because my college degree was EE and Amp projects is where my interest was.

some of my family friends owned Pioneers, Sansui and Marantz. they all sounded so good, that my homebuilt HH Scott was no match. 

Since i have very limited budgets, i modified the HH SCOTT changing caps, re-bias and even doing my own transformers. finally i got it to sound as good as the modern Marantz..

Growing older and in my working life, i settled with DECWARE gear (amps and Pre) with LOWTER Acousta for the longest time.. and now, all these are gone and i have settled for Pass Labs, Falcon and ATC / REL

Wish I could remember. I moved out of the house when I was 18. My roommate and I both had stereo’s. Receiver, turntable, speakers. I am guessing Radio Shack. 
I do not know the definition of “audiophile”. I might not truly qualify. I am more interested in being entertained by the music than chasing gear. Not that I do not revamp my system every so often every time trying to improve what I hear. 
Not so many years left at this point in time.