What started you on the merry go round?


Forgive me if this is an old thread, but can you look back and say a particular event, experience, got you started? For some it may be your Dad, perhaps attending a show, or a friend.
For me it was sometime in the Autumn of 1977. I had just started in my first residency job in the National Health Service in Devon. Ian a fellow serf in the hospital trenches had a pretty good system for the time and his salary, Linn LP12/SME 309/Shure, Monitor Audio speakers, I can'nt remember the rest. I was getting into Opera then and he played the Beecham version of Puccini's La Boheme, I bought the set about this time and it is still the first record I would rescue in a fire. It was the entry of Mimi in Act 1, scene 1. Victoria De Los Angeles was perfect on that record and it was as if an angel had come into the room. Well that was it for me and I started the long, hesitant road to where I am now, with a long gap when the kids were young.
Did any of you guys have a similar "epithany"
david12
Right after I graduated from high school I went over to my boss' house to listen to some music. He had a relatively inexpensive Lafayette Radio receiver and speakers, a Roberts reel-to-reel tape deck, and a Gerrard turntable, but I was hooked once I heard it. It has been downhill ever since.
Large Advents---It's all their fault. They blew away everything in the store except for the most expensive stuff. Got them home but the magic wasn't there. Added a McIntosh 6100 and it was a lot better but still a far cry from what I heard in the audio store.

I realized my old turntable was off kilter. The heavy platter did not seem warped when I removed it and checked it, but every revolution the tonearm would do a roller coaster ride. I replaced it with a Dual 601 and Sure V-15 Type III (I think) cartridge. I stood there dumbfounded, literally jaw open, at the first track played--"Diamonds and Rust".

It was downhill from there. Hooked and craving more. Stacked Advents then DQ-10s and, and, and.............

By the way, has anyone seen my DQ10s? They were stolen in 1992 and I would like them back. My name is on the rear and I signed the custom walnut bases I made.
The first time I heard it.
You all know what "it" is, music from a real system.

The sound - dark or dimmed room, extreme quiet (thermostat to off) - sound that puts us in a trance - the silent exclamation - WOW.

Like a drug, we keep wanting more.
It's not to understand why we're on the "merry go round", it's hard to understand those who aren't.

I could go on but I need to relax on a beautiful cloud of Cat Stevens playing through custom DAC, CJ Tube amps and some maggies
Late 70's with a SX-1250 my brother had. Lots of fun and things I don't quite remember.

Tim
At 8 years old I was taken by my aunt to hear Leonard Bernstien and the NY Philharmonic in NYC playing Shubert symphonies and was transported. Began to search for closer approximations at home - while is is great to hear the power and dance of rock, I am still transported by the beauty of classical music.