What started you on your audiophile journey .

when i was in high school in late '70s/early '80s I wandered into a store called Nantucket Sound in the Boston area and saw a beautiful but simple pair of Snell J II's oak cabinets. The sales rep asked if I wanted to hear them and tabled Aja. First song was Black Cow and I was hooked. Of course I could not afford the Snells but started with Boston Acoustic BA 40's and then tried a pair of (if I recall correctly) the Allison D6's (square black box with top firing woofer and those things imaged amazingly with a basic Onkyo Integra receiver. BTW anybody know where I can pick up a pair of those vintage Allison's (where they A6's or D 6's?) thanks

Lots of interesting stories , it's very enlightening to see how it all began for other members , thanks for the responses .

Won a stereo in 1984 at Hudsons Audio in Albuquerque N.M. I am still a customer and am grateful for the journey. I was 18 years old when I became an audiophile. Thanks again Hudsons!!

Hard to pin it on one cause. Some early memories that are possibly relevant:
*My mom teaching me how to play yellow 45s on this portable record player with a mechanical arm. Kind of scary to a pre-school kid, as I recall.
*A couple of different "crystal" radios
*A transistor radio, WABC out of NYC and the Beatles happening in the '60s.
*An H.H. Scott receiver, Superex headphones and "Underground" FM radio in the late '60s/early '70s.

Around 1959 or so I remember my parents having one of those big pieces of furniture that had a roll out turntable and one big speaker. My father had a rather good sized fishtank sitting on top. One morning, we woke up to an empty tank and the record player ruined. It had sprung a leak and everything was wet. That Christmas, I think it was 1959 or sixty, my father bought my mother a Webcor stereo. It looked like a suitcase. You unlatched it and the top opened. Then you could unlatch the speakers and swing them out on hinges or take them off and put them further apart or in another room. I remember that it came with a set-up record that would tell you how to balance the speakers. You would hear a ping pong ball rolling from one speaker to the other. That was the beginning.