How long ago did you catch the bug?

Junior high - probably 1976 - my friend Dan had his dad’s stereo. It wasn’t much but is was separates rather than the ubiquitous all-in-one systems everyone had at that time. He played The Who, Live at Leeds and I couldn’t believe how much more there was to the music. 
 

The next year my grandmother decided to give all of her 28(?) grandkids their inheritance - $1000. I caught a lot of crap for going straight out and blowing all of the $s on a stereo. Kenwood KA-701, Pioneer PL-17 ( w/ Audio Technica cart), and AR-14 speakers. The Kenwood is still going strong with my oldest son at grad school and my ARs are with my younger son in undergrad (the TT died). Funny part is that none of my siblings or cousins has any idea what they did with their inheritance but mine is still making beautiful music all these years later. 

Highschool, I got my grandmas mono Magnavox tube amplifier.

It was about 1973 my friend got a Harman Karon integrated amp and a pair of AR speakers (don't remember the model) but loved the sound and discovered I need that in my life

Father was a vocalist, his grandfather a fiddler. Mother played piano despite being tone-deaf and hostile to rock, while her mother, the fun one, reminded people of Mae West and Lillian Russell, was a huge fan of Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Liberace, Elvis, anyone flamboyant really, plus early rock from Bill Halley forward. Bought me Platters, Drifters, British Invasion and much else. So I wasn't going off to college without an all-in-one record player. Then, soph year, I had a roommate with sophisticated tastes and as good a component system as you could find in a dorm suite: my introduction to audiophilia. Then another who would play Wagner at top volume through his Klipsches. Ever since I have always owned component systems within the limitations of space and budget. Finally, now in retirement in the streaming age, I have time to learn, to experiment, and to tweak pretty much indefinitely. This remains enjoyable even though my poor old badly abused ears are pretty well shot by now. 

13 years old, it's been a fun ride...I pretty much have all I ever wanted In a system which includes a Sugden A21 class A integrated, Tannoy Legacy Eaton, Avid Ingenium, Tavish Design Classic phono preamp, Rothwell & Jensen SUT's, Cyrus Cdt, Marantz hd Cd-1 cd player, Border Patrol Dac, Musical Fidelity V90 Dac, Aiwa AD F770 3 head deck, Cambridge/Creek t500/t43 tuner, mini disc player/recorder, even a panasonic 8 track player/recorder...countless phono cartridges both moving magnet/moving coil, several headphone amps, who knows how many headphones (12?), and a host of power conditioners, interconnects, power cords, etc....plus in reserve, I have a Marantz pm14s1 integrated, a Naim 5si integrated, several pair of speakers (wharfedale/martin logan), 2 alternate cassette decks, 5 alternate turntables....I could go on and on....lots of money spent over the many years, but to me worth it.