These posts caused me to reflect on my audiophile journey. I think my most exciting purchase was my first (you never forget your first) receiver, the Concord CR-400 AM/FM "Quadrophonic" receiver from the late 70s. I loved the blue and green display on the front and all the different settings - loudness, synthetic, etc. and the great weighting of the tuning knob. At the time, I thought it sounded great paired with a set of Marantz speakers.
I recently re-read my baby book that my mother kept and found a comment where she said that "he loves to play with the knobs on the hi-fi set." I guess our love of gadgets and audio equipment is coded in us at birth.
I remember taking all of my audio gear to and from college every year. I had floor standing speakers on wheels and a home built rack for all the equipment - Hafler pre and power amp (kits that I assembed), Dual turntable, Soundcraftsmen equalizer. Seems crazy in retrospect that I lugged all that stuff around with me and took up half the dorm room with the equipment and empty boxes. My roommates never complained.