5 1/2 years of delivering the Washington Post in grades 7-12 gave me the means to purchase my first stereo (Advents, Sansui 2000x, Dual 1215S, M91E). I spent months in stereo shops listening first. Reading the very first edition of The Absolute Sound gave me the idea to purchase a second set of used Advents- double Advents. My first Audio show, where I met Saul Marantz, Jon Dahlquist, and James Bongiorno at the Dahlquist/GAS booth from reading an article in Popular Electronics about building the Ampzilla and another in High Fidelity by Bascom King about the amp, led to my purchase of the Ampzilla kit and building it (I still have it) and my first piece of high end gear. That booth led me to corresponding with Saul Marantz about modifying my Marantz Model 7 pre and purchase of used Dahlquist DQ10’s and adding two Dahlquist subwoofers.
latest purchase was preceded by reading lots of comments here and happy experiences with my N100H. I just installed an Aurender N200, purchased intentionally new from a terrific store that I wanted to support- Comman Performance AV in Falls Church, VA. Sorry about the lengthy post but my purchases come from lots of homework and from others being generous with their knowledge with me. Thanks, Jeff!