So, reporting back again, I was a student at Gettysburg College in the late 60s/early 70s. The guy that lived next door in the dorm had a father who was a buyer for a major retailer. Well, one day, a Class 8 truck pulled up to the dorm and out comes some high end SONY electronics, compliments of Vito...not the stuff they sold at K-Mart-the stuff they were selling out of Japan. Turns out the guy took a bribe and the kid was on the receiving end of the payoff. That system really had some serious dynamic drive to it. So when I graduated in '73, I was determined to buy a "high end" receiver...resulting in the Marantz 2252 in 1975. I listened contently to the Marantz and the Advents for 20 years...because I loved the music. Then one day on a business trip, I had a few hours to kill and walked through the doors of Audio Emporium in Brown Deer, Wisconsin...and Dave introduced me to a Threshold T-200 amplifier. I remembered the kid that got the SONY stuff from Vito and decided it was time to play Vito for my own gratification. I mated the Threshold to a Modulus 3 with phono stage purchased from Audio Connection in Verona, N.J. This was hooked up to a rather modest pair of Monitor Audio MA700s...which were replaced by a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8s auditioned during a trip to Chicago. And then I discovered tubes....
What equipment or event thrust you into the hobby?
Many paths have led us into the pursuit of audio nirvana. Was there a single event or piece of equipment in the early years that started you down your path to audio bliss?
I used to sit in front of one of those little portable record players when I was a lad of 3 who loved listening to music...spinning records...and mostly at twilight...and I thought they sounded better in the evening. I moved from kiddie records to 33s, like the South Pacific album...graduating to Georgia Gibbs "Dance with me Henry" at 4, Sinatra, and anything else my parents decided to bring home. From there, the path led through the origins of rock in the 50s and the classic rock of the 60s and ultimately to jazz (still collecting records). My first credible system was built around a Marantz 2252B receiver, a Dual 1214 turntable, drving and feeding a pair of Advents. Saul Marantz must have known what he is doing because that receiver is still alive and kicking today, the only investment being a few cans of tuner spray.
I used to sit in front of one of those little portable record players when I was a lad of 3 who loved listening to music...spinning records...and mostly at twilight...and I thought they sounded better in the evening. I moved from kiddie records to 33s, like the South Pacific album...graduating to Georgia Gibbs "Dance with me Henry" at 4, Sinatra, and anything else my parents decided to bring home. From there, the path led through the origins of rock in the 50s and the classic rock of the 60s and ultimately to jazz (still collecting records). My first credible system was built around a Marantz 2252B receiver, a Dual 1214 turntable, drving and feeding a pair of Advents. Saul Marantz must have known what he is doing because that receiver is still alive and kicking today, the only investment being a few cans of tuner spray.