What got you started into "hi-fi ? [Archive]

cargar

22-01-2016, 20:07

Just interested in how you first got bitten by the Bug ? Was it through your parents system perhaps , or a friend;s kit ? A hifi shop or.....?

Mine was when i went to buy a pair of speaker's (can't remember what they were, squat ugly things tho) from an elderly chap through the local paper, (£25)as i had a cheap amp , TT and no speaker's. He plonked them on the floor and hooked them up to 2 gunmetal grey boxes with the word Mission on them. Never seen anything like them before and i was intrigued.
Think it was around 1990 and i took along a Kate Bush album as he said bring something you know.
30 secs later and i was stunned. I was hearing this holographic sound all around me from these two ugly boxes sitting on the floor with me stood between them. It was actually a bit disconcerting- like my brain was having trouble processing what my ears were hearing.
I have never forgotten that experience , nor have i yet replicated it:( And that was my start into hifi , still trying to get that same sound now, what - 25 years later. I will not give up nor daresay be totally happy until i do. Some days i wish i had never heard it.
BTW - i have never seen those Mission monoblocks anywhere since either.

dantheman91

22-01-2016, 20:16

Michael loves music

22-01-2016, 21:10

My inspiration - My Father

As a kid listening to music like Adamski , Talk Talk , OMD , Pet Shop Boys , You Name it he's had a lot of High end gear although not so much now :steam:

Thats my part said...:) Though he still has a collection of 3000 + Records OMD I play there CDs every week absaultly fantastic messages enola day Joan of arc etc etc Pandora's box is amazing !!

daytona600

22-01-2016, 21:24

15 by chance walked into a shop & a linn/naim active isobariks system was playing paul simon

just a bit better than my music centre , by 16 i bought a LP12

struth

22-01-2016, 21:33

15 by chance walked into a shop & a linn/naim active isobariks system was playing paul simon

just a bit better than my music centre , by 16 i bought a LP12

Musta had some paper round ;)

walpurgis

22-01-2016, 21:42

I'd always had an interest in record players, as the old man used to build his own, but didn't hear Hi-Fi until a mate bought a system around 1969/1970. it was a Garrard AP76 with a Shure cartridge, Sansui AU-101 amp and Goodmans Magister K2 speakers. I thought it sounded incredible and was hooked.

I made a few bad choices starting off. First setup was a Garrard SP25 Mk. III with a Sonotone ceramic cartridge and an Amstrad 8000 amp driving EMI 450 elliptical speakers in home made boxes. It was a cheap system and total crap.

My first proper Hi-Fi was this:

http://i63.tinypic.com/x40pj5.jpg

Recognise any of it?

struth

22-01-2016, 21:47

Never been into HiFi since I was young, as can be seen by my gear :D I guess starting to work in a repair shop at 13 started me off, enjoying ITT & Hacker radios and aspiring to a B&O system that an engineer had later on. never got one, though a set of their speakers passed through my hands briefly.

RichB

22-01-2016, 22:17

Cannabis and falling in with a funny crowd at an impressionable age I expect.

I quit that but the music and hifi bug stuck.

trio leo

22-01-2016, 22:57

I had a windup gramaphone as a kid, and listened to dad's dansette later, at 17 (1969) I bought a Fidelity UA5 "music centre", t/t. radio, cassette, amplifier, microphone and 2!! SPEAKERS!!.£179 was a lot to me back then.

Sitting in the middle and have a guitar on one side, drum kit on the other and a singer in the middle was absolutely superb to me, so that set me off on a lovely journey I still enjoy.

cheers Al

southall-1998

22-01-2016, 23:54

Simple-From my Dad!

S.

Roy S

23-01-2016, 00:26

'What got you started into "hi-fi ?'

Well, needing something decent to play me music on?

Started with a Sharp portable cassette recorder recording from Alan Freeman's Saturday afternoon show. Graduated to this when I was 15

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss68/Lodger56/IMG_01691_zpsyehxdzhi.jpg

Started work at Nat West in 1975 and, after a brief flirtation with a dodgy quadraphonic set up from Laskys, I ended up with this (about 1979?, two Amstrad tape decks?? Didn't learn the first time did I?)

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss68/Lodger56/70shifis_zps679c3b8a.jpg

(Dynatron Transpower 90 amp & speakers, Akai AP003 turntable)

StuN

23-01-2016, 04:51

I used to play in a schools orchestra as a teenager. It was the start of the slippery slope to audio nirvana.

Tom-Brown

23-01-2016, 09:21

I've always enjoyed music since the late 90's and have played vinyl on various bit's and bob's over the years - but I suppose it was my best mates dad who encouraged me. He was always playing Sinatra, Martin and Cole along with other various soul R&B artists... 2 yrs ago when I retired I found my old vinyl collection whilst having an attempt to "downsize" Got a basic NAD 533 TT to play through my system and everything was fine :) :)

BUT my biggest and most expensive mistake was joining this bloody forum :cool: :cool: Opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities and via the great help and advice on here I'm happy at the moment :cool: :cool:

Barry

23-01-2016, 11:03

Barry

23-01-2016, 11:32

I first got started in "hi-fi" after hearing the system belonging to the father of a school chum of mine. This was at prep school, so I was about 10 at the time.

He had a Garrard SP25 Mk.I (?) fitted with a Shure M44 (can't remember what the stylus was, probably a spherical tip) feeding a Leak Stereo 20 pre and power combination and the whole emptied into a pair of Wharfedale SFB3s (three-way speakers using an upward firing 3" tweeter and 10" and 12" forward firing units mounted on a sand-filled open baffle). I thought it sounded magnificent playing classical music (which was the owner's sole musical interest) - in fact I though that such systems were only supposed to be used to play classical music! It wasn't until a couple of years later when I walked into a shop selling hi-fi gear, when I head the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' being played through a system using a Radford valve amplifier (not sure which model) into, I think Tannoy speakers. That was an epihany as I realised then and there that you could play any kind of music on a hi-fi system and it would sound good - bloody good.

Of course I couldn't hope to emulate any of this, but by about 16 I was starting off with a Garrard SP25 Mk.II fitted with a Shure M3D cartridge, feeding a home-built Mullard 5-10 (10W) amplifier and a speaker I built to a Wharfedale design, consisting of an RS-8/DD 8" drive unit in 1.2 cu ft distributed port enclosure (large bookshelf size!). Only mono to begin with, but I soon built a second 5-10 and a second matching speaker.

Happy days!

walpurgis

23-01-2016, 11:36

Looks like a Ferrograph 307 amp (can't tell if it's a Mk.I or a Mk.II), a Connoiseur BD1 turntable with what might be a Neat G30 tonearm (can't identify the cartridge) and the speakers look like Tannoy III LZs. The headphones are Sennheiser (HD414?)

Almost. It is a 307. Even I can't remember if it's a Mk.I or II (I think it was a Mk.II). Yes, a BD1 (still got one), with an Audio Developments arm (rebranded Jap import). I think the cartridge would have been a Shure M75/6. The speakers are IIILZs (my first ready made new Hi-Fi speakers) and that is a pair of HD414s. Much of my stuff came from Lasky's or Henry's, up the Edgware Road.

Barry

23-01-2016, 12:06

So close - but no cigar! :D

hifi_dave

23-01-2016, 12:32

Music got me into Hi-Fi. I wanted to hear my music better.

I used my first pay packet to make a start on my system. This was similar to Barry's first but I couldn't afford an SP25, so opted for a Garrard AT6 with Shure M3DM cartridge. The amplifier was the Mullard 510 I built from a kit and the speaker (yes mono) was a large home made coffin from a Wharfedale design, using their 10 RSDD driver. This kept me happy for a while until I discovered the joys of stereo and moved onto an Armstrong receiver.

cargar

23-01-2016, 22:19

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss68/Lodger56/70shifis_zps679c3b8a.jpg

WoW :eek: Roy, that was some curtain/wallpaper combo. !!! Very trrriiiiipppy:lol:

(Dynatron Transpower 90 amp & speakers, Akai AP003 turntable)[/QUOTE]

Roy S

23-01-2016, 22:48

WoW :eek: Roy, that was some curtain/wallpaper combo. !!! Very trrriiiiipppy:lol:

Twas the seventies Gary, what can I say...

daytona600

24-01-2016, 11:04

Musta had some paper round ;)

worked 3 part time jobs for a year grant , mind you a full LP12 was £ 275 back then

jollyfix

24-01-2016, 11:46

Music got me into Hi-Fi. I wanted to hear my music better.

Same here.
I remember going to the bank to ask for a loan of £400.00. Told the manager it was for a van for work ( i couldn't even drive at that time), he kept saying " can you get a van for £400.00", etc. After what seemed like hours of questions, i was given the money. Jumped on the bus down to Cardiff, straight into Laskys. Bought a technics turntable and amp, and some Mission speakers. Then realised i had to carry all my new bits back to the bus stop, and then carry them home.
A while later would pop back to Cardiff to one of those rarely seen shops these days, Pro audio and instruments back of shop, second hand HI FI at front. Bought some mission amps, passed on the speakers which looked like oil heaters ( 57's) for £25.00. Kept going back for years.

RichB

24-01-2016, 11:53

Anyone remember Bill Hutcinsons hifi shop in Newcastle?

Bought my first separates in there. Mission speakers (still got them and modified them), a pioneer pds -701 and a400 amp.

My sister was given the aiwa stack system I'd bought only 12 months before.

Working in Newcastle town centre I was a regular lunchtime visitor to Bill Hutcinsons and soon upgraded to ruarks after hearing them in the shop. They also used to stock Royd speakers which I still have a soft spot for but the ruarks looked posher and I got them instead.

Pete The Cat

24-01-2016, 12:29

It was music that did it for me (not trying to be clever here). I just wanted to hear it better and louder.

We had a family friend with a quadrophonic B&O system in the late 70s which was pretty impressive to a young lad.

In 1982 I had a revelation at a hi-fi show. Walking down the hotel's corridor passing rooms with equipment playing inside each, I thought it was a great idea that one room at the end had a female vocalist singing live in it. Except when I walked through its door there wasn't - it was a LP12 + NAD 3020 + Mission 700 rig.

However I preferred to spend my cash on records rather than kit and settled for a modest system for the next 25 years until the bug really got hold of me to try to experience that thrill again.

Pete

Floyddroid

24-01-2016, 12:43

When I was about thirteen I used to call at my friends house to make models and stuff. He had an older brother who was also an excellent model maker and to cut a long story short I ended up going to visit him more because he played great music. He had a Pioneer SA500a amplifier an Ariston turntable and a pair of omni directional Bose speakers. He played a lot of early Elton John, Allman Brothers, James Gang, Genesis and Pink Floyd. I even ended up going to see Pink Floyd with him at Newcastle Odeon in 1973. I plagued my mum and dad for a record player and they bought me a Bush Arena with matching speakers which i soon got rid of replacing them with a pair of Wharfdale Linton 3XP's. This lasted me until started my apprenticeship and i could start saving up for a real hi-fi separates system. This was the start of my addiction for which there is no councilling.

Macca

24-01-2016, 13:17

I was into music but only had my mother's crappy Saisho music centre, which wasn't too bad if you set the speakers up properly.

But I sort of knew there was better but hadn't heard it until I was at a school friend's one Saturday. We were milling about and I went into a living room that had a JVC set up with JBL loudspeakers. I asked my mate if we could play a record but he was reluctant saying his dad would kill him.

Well I had met his dad before who was a college lecturer and a very friendly. mild-mannered bloke so I figured he was shitting me and so bugged him until he said okay play one track. Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms' had just come out and was sitting right there next to the TT so I stuck that on and compared to the Saisho it was all kinds of wonderful. After that all my spare money went on stereo gear, a problem that continues to this day.

sumday

24-01-2016, 15:26

although a fully paid up punk in the mid 70s with a particular love of the clash, what set me down the road was a copy of OUT OF THE BLUE by ELO.
at the time, this sort of music was "the enemy".
but someone left a copy in the school common room and I took it home for a quick listen.....I HATED it and swiftly returned it.
at the time, my impressions were the music was overblown, over produced and worst of all...boring.

"oh...you should hear it on a decent system", suggested a friend.
went round his gaff later that week to hear his copy on his dads setup.
I cannot remember the model numbers for sure but I recall a HUGE pioneer receiver lit up like the las vagas strip fed by a DD turntable with almost as many bulbs!!!
the speakers were of course also huge and guess what....ELO still sounded shit...but better definded!!

luckily I took some music of my own to demo and was was hooked. "sound of the suburbs" by THE MEMBERS never sounded so nice.

NIGE.

Audio Advent

24-01-2016, 16:26

and that is a pair of HD414s

My parents had/have a pair of those - strongest memories of them are enduring subtle pain because by the time I'd got around to using them, the foam had gone and some plastic was broken so it basically had spikes digging into your ear lobes!

Audio Advent

24-01-2016, 16:43

For me the seeds were planted by both memories of the clunky, ergonomics of the family 70s era hifi (Aiwa 6500 tape deck, Yamaha 620 receiver - didn't pay attention to the record player back then, a Connoisseur with SME 3009) and a school friend's dad being a car boot fanatic with lots of strange hifi gear turning up. There is also memories of a primary school's parents having first a Lecson system complete with FM tuner (wonder if the mother still has it?? - the father was a designer) then NAD (which was kind of 80s designer in the designer circles, oddly enough! ) .

So after university living I suddenly wanted some vintage hifi because it was so cheap and looked good - back when Celestion 44s would be about £30 in Loot. Ended up with Celestion 332s because of the hessian speaker covers - much better looking than the 44s.

Then I lived in a post-uni house shared with a couple of people into vintage music equipment and defacto into old hifi too, which was also when I discovered ebay and things went wrong from there! At some point I got some bashed up B&W Matrix 805Hs for cheap on ebay and discovered how shit and boxy the previous speakers sounded in comparison.. I was kind of shocked. That started me off on a search for the best sound as well as just being into the older gear.

struth

24-01-2016, 17:01

I had a nice quadraphonic amp speakers and if memory serves a turntable that played quad records I think; it was when they came out so memory is weak. Is that possible. Sure I got a quad record with it. Might have been Sharpbutcant really remember now. ..anyways prettysure i thought it the dogs doodas at the time

Macca

24-01-2016, 17:25

Then I lived in a post-uni house shared with a couple of people into vintage music equipment and defacto into old hifi too, which was also when I discovered ebay and things went wrong from there! At some point I got some bashed up B&W Matrix 805Hs for cheap on ebay and discovered how shit and boxy the previous speakers sounded in comparison.. I was kind of shocked. That started me off on a search for the best sound as well as just being into the older gear.

Post college was the worst time as there was no money. And my system of the time (Kenwood direct drive, Prinzsound amp, Studio Power MC2000 speakers) was not a patch on my mate's LP12/A&R A60 and Wharfedale Diamond IV. Although in hindsight those Studio Power speakers have defined my taste in speakers ever since. It was a few years until I caught up with him, but that 'competition' spurred me on a bit.

Audio Advent

24-01-2016, 17:50

No money is what got me into looking at old stuff which was very cheap back then, if not throw-away..

cargar

24-01-2016, 18:52

Same here.
I remember going to the bank to ask for a loan of £400.00. Told the manager it was for a van for work ( i couldn't even drive at that time), he kept saying " can you get a van for £400.00", etc. After what seemed like hours of questions, i was given the money. Jumped on the bus down to Cardiff, straight into Laskys. Bought a technics turntable and amp, and some Mission speakers. Then realised i had to carry all my new bits back to the bus stop, and then carry them home.

Great stuff Dave :lol:

ff1d1l

25-01-2016, 00:39

My Dad bought a system in the early seventies, and my friend who was very into Tull, Focus, Zeppelin brought round a stack of LP's to try it. Then lent me the pile for a month or so. Result, I got very into Focus and Tull, but wasn't quite so sure about the other band with the screamy chap in. Fairly partial to them now, though.

Someone else I knew had a system which would still be fairly trendy today - Garrard, Mullard 5/10 and some ex cinema speakers, almost certainly Western Electric. Even back then I knew it had a magic which eluded my dad's setup.

Wind forward a few years and my Dad became kind of picky about my playing rock on his system - Wharfdale Lintons, Leak delta 70, Connoisseur BD1, so when my school woodwork teacher offered me his really professionally built Wharfdale Dovedale kits for £40 I took his hand off (everyone else thought it was the bandsaw...). I ran them off the ext speaker output of my radio cassette. Luckily they were fairly efficient and this worked ok.

I blew my first terms grant on a Technics SU7600 amp.

Gear became increasingly hardcore over the four years I was a student. Picked up a single quad electrostatic in the local auction for £4, and managed to get another cheaply through Exchange and Mart. Then another pair appeared from somewhere, and lo, I bolted em together and had stacked Quads. Had a Thorens/SME and a Crimson Elektrik kit I'd built driving them. Had the Quads hanging from the ceiling in one place, but they only sounded magical in a really big upstairs front room in what had once been a posh terrace.

And so it goes....there to here.

If I had all the money I've spent on Hi Fi.....I'd spend it on Hi Fi.

gadgie

25-01-2016, 08:56

Gee that's a hard one.

I remember being into music fairly early on. Used to listen to my uncle play Johnny Cash songs on his guitar (this got me into playing guitar to this day). He was a welder on the early gas pipelines and worked 'Down South' and would come home with what seemed a lot of money. It probably was as well.
Anyway with him having a bit of money, he bought into the B&O bandwagon. TV and hifi. So I remember him letting me hear Baby Driver by S&G Bridge Over Troubled Water (BOTW).
So, I reckon this was why my first two LP's were a 'Tribute to Johnny Cash' by a guy that names I can't remember. I could look it up in the collection as I still have it. Got it from a supermarket in Northampton when on school holidays at my sisters house. Yes, you guessed it the second was BOTW. I used to play these on my mums radiogram in the living room. It was the usual affair with a pull down shelf which contained the TT within. A glowing 'radio' on the front side above a horizontal speaker. The other speaker was the other side of the TT and that was vertical. Now it was hard to hear the end of Baby Driver's famous racing car bit on the radiogram.

Much pestering of my mum, plus the arrival of a new gentleman in her life that was keen to 'fit in' resulted in a new radiogram. This one was top loaded. With a small 13" x 13" box on one aide for the LP's to sit in. However more importantly...the speakers could be removed from the 'gram' and set apart. Ta-ra...stereo. These were then fixed to the wall about 6 feet up and 8 feet apart. Mum liked that as the wires were run down in the inside of the wall. Cool.
Started by some more music to listen on the stereo. I didn't care for the 'Boothy Ballads' that my new step dad had.

By then I had a job delivering milk in the early mornings and I used the money to buy several singles by Slade, Sweet, and I remember buying 'Blinded by the Light' and still like it to this day. However, by now I has also bought 'Tubular Bells' and couldn't stop playing it....much to mum's annoyance. Around about this time I left school and and went to the merchant navy. First boat I got from the pool was the ferry from Aberdeen to Shetland twice a week. Wow! Seafaring guy eh! Anyway, this allowed me to look at getting my own 'system' So down the the Co-Op and bought a Bush Arena music center for my bedroom. Records started coming thick and fast. Status Quo and then Deep Purple etc.
A few years later I got married and had a house of my own. This was late 70's, maybe early 80's. My friend also into music worked in an electrical shop selling everything from washing machines, TV's and ...hi-fi. He had some Sony stuff. Sadly I can't remember the model but I bought an cassette and matching amp. The amp had a big volume control flanked by big VU meters. COOL!!!. Got a DD TT by Sony as well. Speakers were my old Bush ones. Had this for a while and then saved up for those cool KEP Concorde speakers. No problem listening to Baby Driver now :)

I seemed to somehow blow the tweeter in the Kefs. So bought Super Diamonds (501's I think). Then came my cyrus 1 and a EB 101 TT and sold that for a AR Legend (wish I still had it). Then a got a Rega 2 and MA r 352's.

Still got the TT and the 352's are still going around somewhere. Cyrus 1 started acting up. So I started looking for a replacement which I then got on here.

Sadly I'm starting to get the hi-fi bug again which I can see will cause grief on the GF front. Oh well.

Brigadoon

26-01-2016, 22:31

Hmmmm....I had a musical family...kinda! My mom played the violin, piano and organ, and sang in a local operatic society - without being able to read music...

My brother and sister played guitar and sang in musicals....neither could read music.

I sing, play drums and a bit of guitar....can't read music...

So I guess it's in the genes.... My folks had a proper old school Radiogram - valve amp, tuner and turntable (Garrard methinks), all in a lovely shiny lacquered veneer cabinet....

I could never get my head around how "Abacab" by Genisis sounded soooo much better on this scratchy (when changing volume) ancient old 'piece o' shite' than my mate's Blaupunkt 'music centre'... Along the way I resurrected my brother's discarded Philips portable cassette player, which was replaced by a new Blaupunkt compact version which simply sounded crap by comparison...

Then I got a job in high school, saved up and bought a Telefunken Heidelberg Music Centre. Hey, it had a BD TT, twin VU meters on the tape deck, variable recording levels, and the speakers used Pioneer drivers.
Living in South Africa meant the good stuff on vinyl was only available as 'Import', which cost twice the price, but far superior pressings. Being the 80s, I was a hard core New Romatic, so music was Visage, Fad Gadget, Spandau, Duran, Yazoo, Depeche, China Crisis, Culture Club, etc. But my older brother ensured I also had a taste for Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Rocky Horror, etc. And my Mom kept me in the loop with Stravinsky, Rogers & Hammerstein, Strauss, etc...

FFWD to post uni, and doing my law articles, I bought my first 'Real hi fi'. A Creek Audio CAS 4040 amp, Mordaunt Short MS10 speakers, and a no-name band CD player which was actually very good. Matsui...??? Tracy Chapman, Enya and Beethoven's Third never sounded so good.

Ahhh, the slippery slope....

.

struth

26-01-2016, 22:43

Hmmmm....I had a musical family...kinda! My mom played the violin, piano and organ, and sang in a local operatic society - without being able to read music...

My brother and sister played guitar and sang in musicals....neither could read music.

I sing, play drums and a bit of guitar....can't read music...

So I guess it's in the genes.... My folks had a proper old school Gramophone - valve amp, tuner and turntable (Garrard methinks). I could never get my head around how "Abacab" by Genisis sounded soooo much better on this scratchy (when changing volume) ancient old 'piece o' shite' than my mate's Blaupunkt 'music centre'... Along the way I resurrected my brother's discarded Philips portable cassette player, which was replaced by a new Telefunken compact version which simply sounded crap by comparison...

Then I got a job in high school, saved up and bought a Telefunken Heidelberg Music Centre. Hey, it had a BD TT, twin VU meters on the tape deck, variable recording levels, and the speakers used Pioneer drivers.
Living in South Africa meant the good stuff on vinyl was only available as 'Import', which cost twice the price, but far superior pressings. Being the 80s, I was a hard core New Romatic, so music was Visage, Fad Gadget, Spandau, Duran, Yazoo, Depeche, China Crisis, Culture Club, etc. But my older brother ensured I also had a taste for Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Rocky Horror, etc.

FFWD to post uni, and doing my law articles, I bought my first 'Real hi fi'. A Creek Audio CAS 4040 amp Mordaunt Short MS10 speakers, and a no-name band CD player which was actually very good. Matsui...???

Ahhh, the slippery slope....

.

nice to have some musical ability. Ive none really bar air guitar ;) ... my brother is the musician in family; sang in choirs etc and had main roles in G & S operettas etc; sang all over Europe at one time. He was a folk guitarist etc (12 string mostly) and tried to teach me. Alas I have short fingers and stubby big hands; not ideal lol. In his retirement he has taught himself keyboards and is quite good...they say it never leaves you, and yes he can read music as well... Bas***d ;)

topoxforddoc

26-01-2016, 23:18

Started listening to music in the mid 70s on my parents' Dynatron Radiogram. A couple of years later, I started a saturday job at Canterbury Hi-Fi. A certain Ken Kessler was the manager and my boss. Not surprisingly, my taste in gear veered towards Decca cartridges, valves and turntables. £5 a day in cash or £10 a day in kit. Guess what i chose!

struth

26-01-2016, 23:26

£5 a day!! I was lucky to get that a week :D Lucky you that you got the double in kit, and had a mentor... I'd have done the same:)

topoxforddoc

27-01-2016, 07:41

£5 a day!! I was lucky to get that a week :D Lucky you that you got the double in kit, and had a mentor... I'd have done the same:)

Yup, but I got no commission. My sales (and I made a fair few) all went down to Ken and Bob (the other permanent guy), so they got my commission :)

Brigadoon

27-01-2016, 13:31

nice to have some musical ability. Ive none really bar air guitar ;) ... my brother is the musician in family; sang in choirs etc and had main roles in G & S operettas etc; sang all over Europe at one time. He was a folk guitarist etc (12 string mostly) and tried to teach me. Alas I have short fingers and stubby big hands; not ideal lol. In his retirement he has taught himself keyboards and is quite good...they say it never leaves you, and yes he can read music as well... Bas***d ;)

Wow, that's pretty cool....

I have a niece that has actually released two albums and had a No 1 in SA, but my carer peaked at playing a role in a production of the musical "Working" by the Windsor Musical Theatre Company...

Us lesser talented mortals must be satisfied by using our hi-fi's to make music... :D

ReggieB

27-01-2016, 15:35

Macca

27-01-2016, 16:14

For me, it was trying to overcome the annoying resonance that was emitted from my Wharfedale Delta 30s. "

The worst speaker ever made by Wharfedale (that I have heard). My brother has a set and I had to fix one of them when it went shonky. Nothing in them except a single piece of wadding folded over and a cheapo cap on the cheapo tweeter. Push on tags, no soldering. I think in the day they were about £20 cheaper than Diamonds. It was really worth finding that extra £20!

Audio Advent

27-01-2016, 16:18

For me, it was trying to overcome the annoying resonance that was emitted from my Wharfedale Delta 30s. It started me on the upgrade bug. The Heybrook Solos that replaced them were so much better, have left me with a soft spot for Heybooks (My office system is graced with a pair of HB1s), and started me in a eternal "what will my system sound like if I ...."

I think my favourites are the Trios over the HB1s.. although one of the hifi housemates I spoke of before lent me some HB1s for a while. I think my tastes have changed to a softer presentation these days!

icehockeyboy

27-01-2016, 18:15

ReggieB

27-01-2016, 19:09

I think my favourites are the Trios over the HB1s

I bought the HB1s on a whim. They were for sale locally for a fiver. I fitted new drivers and was blown away with how much better they sounded to the TDL RTL2s I had at the time. It was that started my love in with stand mounted speakers, which has thus far sent me to a pair of lovely Spendor S3/5R². Before I'd thought you had to have towers for good hi-fi.

ReggieB

27-01-2016, 19:11

The worst speaker ever made by Wharfedale

First new Speakers I ever bought. Replaced some hand-me-down Realistic speakers. I had so much to learn :rolleyes:

Zoidburg

29-01-2016, 16:12

I think from a really young age I was interested in music, I can remember as a kid I used to listen to my dads stereo and try to record his albums on to cassette by holding the cassette player against the speaker!
I suppose the thing I look back on most as kick starting my interest in hi-fi was when as a teen (I might have been 13 14 or 15 maybe, it was mid 80s -ish) we went to visit one of my dad’s work mates. Essentially it was for them to discuss golf as they were part of a works golf society however when we arrived my dad’s mate had his hifi on in the living room.
I think what he had was a Quad pre & power amp ( I’m not sure what but I think it was a 34 and 306 probably) and a very large pair of speakers (no idea what but they had large woofers which impressed me a lot).
The only music I remember him playing as Time by Floyd from DSOTM and it absolutely blew me away…..id never heard anything like it and the need / want to get something similar to that started then.

struth

29-01-2016, 16:24

Back when i was a bairn i aparently loved a song called suco suco which was done by i think the polka dots... Not heard it for decades tbh but apparently i liked to swing to it..
..So i suppose thats my origins as far back as i can go

cargar

29-01-2016, 19:53

Didn't realise gramophones had been invented back then Grant :eyebrows::lol:

dowser

29-01-2016, 20:00

My old man was a service technician for Currys, so we had a fairly decent (Sanyo from memory!) stereo in front room, and I started recording tapes from main system (records and radio - home taping is killing music!) and playing it on a mono tape player in my bedroom, loved it. One day I got a stereo radio cassette thingy (un-PC: wogbox:)) - wow, first stereo. I showed so much interest my old man got me my own shite Alba/bush type music Centre...but...with big fuck-off Amstrad speakers. Low fi for sure, but I had the speakers on tables either side of my bed, pointed at my head like massive headphone.

No joke, the sound from a badly recorded tape on this system had me floating around the house in an out of body experience - stunning! I have much better SQ nowadays, but still miss the ease with which I could leave the world behind without drugs or alcohol!

Around same time I heard Bowie comp tapes on road trips to Wales for school mountain climbing trips. The journey continues to this day :)

struth

29-01-2016, 20:31

Didn't realise gramophones had been invented back then Grant :eyebrows::lol:

Saucy bark ;)

Aligauld

31-01-2016, 15:44

Hi There,
I've got really strong memories of dark, winter nights in Dingwall. The glow of the coal fire and my Dad's music playing on his radiogram. I'm can't remember for the life of me the make but I know he bought it in Aberdeen when he was demobbed in 1946. The smell of the interior as you opened the doors is something that still sticks with me.
I was not allowed to touch it, of course but memory of music and him sitting by the fire is still strong.

So, fast forward to 1980. I'm at college in Edinburgh and one of the other guys in our digs introduces me to his LP12 and played some George Benson. That may not have been the start but it was the realisation how good things could sound.
Student Grants didn't stretch to decent Hifi those days, well not when you've just discovered women and alcohol. :o. So back in Dingwall in 1982. No job (Thatchers Britain) and the dad of one of my school friends offers me a temporary job as a Signalman as he couldn't get the vacancy filled. Even if you're only there for six months it'll be fine says he. Ye Gods I had money to spend. Now, There wasn't much in the ways of specialist shops in the area so it was off to Comet in Inverness and out I came with a Pioneer PL120, an amp, and a pair of Goodmans Quartet Q30's. Took those home set thing s up and even my dad had to admit it sounded pretty good.

Still not proper stuff though, so a few years later I'm working in Edinburgh and there was a trip to HiFi Corner in Rose Street. I ended up carrying out A Planar 2, an AT95e, a Nad 3020 and some Celestion 3's.
These were a marvel as far as I was concerned and lasted in the same setup for about 25 years.
Then my laddie is off to Uni and is enviously looking at the setup and realising the importance of a decent sound system when you're away from home decided it was time to upgrade.

The nad and Planar 2 are still doing good service with him.
The temporary job, well, I'm still doing it. The inspiration for listening to music that's all yours Dad and Thanks.

Cheers,
Alistair

Macca

31-01-2016, 15:54

Still not proper stuff though, so a few years later I'm working in Edinburgh and there was a trip to HiFi Corner in Rose Street. I ended up carrying out A Planar 2, an AT95e, a Nad 3020 and some Celestion 3's.
These were a marvel as far as I was concerned and lasted in the same setup for about 25 years.
Then my laddie is off to Uni and is enviously looking at the setup and realising the importance of a decent sound system when you're away from home decided it was time to upgrade.

The nad and Planar 2 are still doing good service with him.
The temporary job, well, I'm still doing it. The inspiration for listening to music that's all yours Dad and Thanks.

Cheers,
Alistair

Just shows what great value the budget kit was back then. 25 years and still doing its job. Hopefully your son will get a few converts to good sound with that kit whilst he is away at college.

doodoos

01-02-2016, 20:53

Went to a friend of my dad when I was about 12 who had a stereo with home made speakers fronted by a
Leak amp and a Thorens deck with Shure / SME. Played some junk in Phase 4 stereo but it blew me away....

dougmon

02-02-2016, 00:37

I don't exactly know what got me started; I'm half sorry it did. Sometimes I'd like to be like "regular" people, who are happy with inexpensive mass market stuff. On the other hand, I would have never heard Harbeths. :)

I think it might have been reading Listener magazine that got me into the crazy expensive stuff. I do know that it made me aware of a lot of great British hi-fi, like Rega, Spendor, etc.

mbic

03-02-2016, 15:56

Speakers look like Tannoy Chevenings.

Jimbo

03-02-2016, 16:09

I listened to a mates dads system which had separate TT, speakers and amp. Only thing I can remember was the amp was a Prinzsound.

It was a bog standard system but to me it sounded amazing coming from a Bush all in one box record player!

User211

03-02-2016, 16:20

Home made valve amps, record player and some wall mounts in my brother's purple painted bedroom from the age of 5 up.

struth

03-02-2016, 16:37

Home made valve amps, record player and some wall mounts in my brother's purple painted bedroom from the age of 5 up.

Lol... I had a purple bedroom...it was hideous tbf, and took about 5 coats to get back to white...

Thought it to be super cool at time though:D

Jimbo

03-02-2016, 16:45

Lol... I had a purple bedroom...it was hideous tbf, and took about 5 coats to get back to white...

Thought it to be super cool at time though:D

I painted my bedroom black! It was like a fookin cave. :)

jollyfix

03-02-2016, 17:01

I painted my bedroom black! It was like a fookin cave. :)
Mine was black for a short while. Then being into Rodney Matthews art work, just painted copies of his posters on every wall and the ceiling, my own stuff on doors etc. Plus side off all that made money from painting jackets and motorcycle tanks etc for a while. Paid for a fair few HiFi bits with the cash i earned.

icehockeyboy

09-02-2016, 13:27

I'd played around with trying to simulate the sound that I'd heard in a soul club in Nottingham in the mid 60's, removed the perforated panel off the inner part of the radiogram, connected some bell wire to the speaker terminals, dry wired it onto a jack plug, bungled if into a Steepletone 'convertible ' amp, and into a 12" Fane speaker which I'd had a cabinet made With a screw on back! ��

A year or two later, my mum stored some hifi for a friend of hers, Thorens TD150, Leak Stereo 30 plus amp, and some rather nice Lowther speakers, possibly using the PM6 drive units, not sure, but it was that set up that set me on the road to ruination, and whilst working at Dixons, I bought the same TT and amp, but with some rather more modest Wharfedale Super Linton's.

I went for a Goldring G800 cart, but stupidly bought the 'E'stylus when I needed a new one, and waited for that to wear out before buying the 'Super E'
Stupidity personified, and why I didn't just go straight for the top stylus I don't know!

Yomanze

21-03-2016, 10:16

Borrowing a friend's Kenwood amp, Marantz CD player and Mission speakers for the summer. After that I was hooked.

Simon_Nottingham

22-03-2016, 17:19

Just interested in how you first got bitten by the Bug ?

My dad was always quite into music (mainly Gilbert & Sullivan!) and he had a Dynatron 'radiogram' - a Queen Anne style sideboard with a damped lid and built in speakers. I remember when he bought a second pair for the full quadraphonic effect.

For me though it started when I dropped out half way through A levels in 1987 and started on a YTS (for the youngsters, sort of an apprenticeship scheme that paid £28.50 a week!) at a now closed down department store in Nottingham - Pearsons. They had a pretty good hi-fi department, and whilst I didn't work in it I was friends with a lad who did and we'd get in early and play music - really loud - on the B&O Beolab Penta speakers (I'd still love a pair of those!).

When the store closed down I went to work for Laskys. They were a mid-range brown goods electrical retailer (an up-market Dixons I suppose) who had exclusive rights to quite a lot of stuff, including quite a range of Kef and Bose speakers and a good range of turntables.

I bought a lot of stuff from there! First proper kit I think was a Marantz system - CD Player, Amp and some rather good speakers. I also had an AR Legend turntable, various CD players (including a Technics SLP 990), an Aiwa XK 007 cassette deck that was the absolute nuts!

I sort of outgrew what they sold though and while I still worked there I bought a Linn Axis and a Mission Cyrus One (mk II) amp - that and a pair of grey Mission 770 Freedom speakers really impressed me at the time.

The next big purchase was a pair of JPW AP2 speakers and Huygens stands from a chap who sold hi-fi from home, specialising in Audio Note gear. I think the speakers (which I still have and am listening to right now) have been rewired with Audio Note cables. The stands were designed for Snell speakers.

Laskys were taken over by Comet and I was eventually made redundant. I got another job fairly quickly and spent the money on a Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck (best purchase ever!) which I also still have and am listening to right now, I've upgraded the original arm to an Ace Space and have just today fitted a Grado Reference Platinum 2 - which I must say is bloody fantastic!

Really, I've not upgraded much for the last 25 years. I don't think I'll outgrow the Spacedeck and the speakers are pretty good.

Next is probably going to be one of the new Croft integrated amplifiers... once I've got £1,000 spare!

Bottom line - I bloody love listening to music!

cargar

22-03-2016, 19:07

Bottom line - I bloody love listening to music!

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: well said that man

Pieoftheday

22-03-2016, 20:34

My mum and dad had a Decca radiogram a with 4 buiilt in speakers,at least the TT was Decca, when I was 14 I bought a JVC midi system ont tick from empire stores, hair thin speaker cable and interconnects, I loved it, I think I've been trying to get back to that ever since

rigger67

22-03-2016, 22:49

All we had at home when I was a young kid was a crappy old one-box record player that we had to weigh down with an old 2p coin and some plasticine :wheniwasaboy:

Then, when I was about 9 or 10, my step-dad - who owned a portable Sony reel-to-reel that I used to muck around with - decided to buy us a new record player.
Again, it was one of those all in one jobbies, but this time it was quality : a Hacker unit, mid-70s, with a Garrard deck. It was really well made and sounded much better, with a proper stylus.
It came with three or four albums - I can remember going with him to pick it up and the lady selling it asked if I had any records and I told her I only had some Harry Secombe 7" singles and one scratchy old Beatles LP (which was true) so she gave me a handful, including Abba's Waterloo and Kate And Anna McGarrigle's Dancer With Bruised Knees.

They remain two albums I know inside out to this day despite neither being a fan of Abba nor folk music in general.

I aspired to have my own set-up, even though the Garrard was usually found in my room, and bought an Aiwa boombox when I was about 13 or 14. I chose it because it had the softest, smoothest door mechanism in Comet :lol:

Luckily, there was a great second-hand cassette shop I frequented in St.Mary's, Southampton that opened till about 7pm or so and I'd ride into town on my bike, usually passing one of those dodgy looking shops with musical instruments in one window and separates in another.

It was there that I bought my first "proper" hi-fi gear : a Pioneer PL-12D and a Technics receiver. Looking back, they were both surprisingly sound investments - I think the deck cost about £30-40 while the amp was £25, I think. This would've been around 1983, when I was 16 and had a Saturday job at Sainsbury's. All my wages went on music in one form or another. Or beer.
I was back in Comet to buy a pair of Solavox 40 speakers because I had some vague notion that speakers should be bought new but everything else was fine second-hand.

By the end of my first year at uni in London, I'd "upgraded" to an Ariston RD-60, an Onkyo amp and some Mission 70s.
All black, all super-cool and pretty good for a teenager.

A few years later I bought a powder blue Rega Planar 3, various amps including a QED, a NAD and a Musical Fidelity B1. I also had a few CD players, settling on a NAD after initially buying a cheeky little top-loading Toshiba model that looked the dogs' :eyebrows:

For years I kinda lost interest and nothing changed for well over a decade : a Panasonic surround amp with a phono input built-in, a Linn Sondek (Basik, Valhalla, afromosia), a Sony CDP and the Mission 780SEs that I'm only now discovering the quality of with my current set-up.

Having upgraded the LP12 with an Ittok and bitten the bullet with the glorious Meridian mono-blocks I have firmly got the bug back and am actively looking to improve the sound, which is why I'm here ...

It's been a fun journey.
Even now I cannot walk past a hifi shop without stopping to have a look.

Great thread, btw :interesting:

walpurgis

22-03-2016, 23:24

I bet your Toshiba CD player was one of these Paul.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2hre8vd.jpg

An XR-J9. I bought a new one in the earlyish eighties. It was my first CD player. I thought it sounded amazing.

If your NAD player was a 524.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2em1i4o.jpg

I had one too. Damn good little unit actually. Very decent sounding even by present standards.

I also had a pair of 780SE Missions. Outstanding little speakers that get overlooked by many.

rigger67

23-03-2016, 00:02

I bet your Toshiba CD player was one of these Paul.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2hre8vd.jpg

An XR-J9. I bought a new one in the earlyish eighties. It was my first CD player. I thought it sounded amazing.

:stalks:
That's the badger !!
I loved that machine .. it did sound good, but it looked even better, like something from the flight deck of the Liberator :lol:

Blake's 7 reference for the teenagers

The NAD CDP was an older model than that. One of these, actually :

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b282/robwilla/NAD%205420%20CD%20Player/IMG_4974Maincheck800.jpg

This was the exact model of Hacker that we had.
God, I loved that thing .. it sounded great to me - deep bass, good treble .. really lovely :

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTMxOFgxNjAw/z/U7UAAOSwB4NW0cKO/$_57.JPG
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTM4NVgxNjAw/z/~kkAAOSwuAVW0cK2/$_57.JPG

Of all the equipment I listed, it's actually the Ariston RD-60 that was the hardest to find any information on, which I found surprising given the history of the company and the celebration of some of its models.
I guess it was outshone by the Q-Deck (which I think replaced it ??) but I really liked the build quality, with a decent arm and a rock solid, really substantial platter for the price point. I auditioned the Revolver and something else at the time, but went for the Ariston because it sounded the best.

http://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/543818-vintage_ariston_rd_60_turntable_superb_look.jpg

Interestingly, looking at it now I can't help but feel it looks like a mini Sondek with those grooves cut round the plinth ...

Macca

23-03-2016, 08:37

It was that step up from a boom box, midi system or Dansette clone to proper separates - even if they were the absolute budget stuff - the improvement was so big you couldn't fail to become hooked on improving it some more.

rigger67

23-03-2016, 10:39

Justjon

25-03-2016, 15:50

My father.
I’ll try and cut it short, but as a 9 year old kid my brother and me used to travel up to London to visit him once a month which was fairly exciting in itself.
We listened to music at home, but only via the radio or maybe a glimpse at TOTP’s.
There was a shared house up the road that was always belting out Bowie from the open windows, and rather than playing with my mates i’d happily sit on the pavement and absorb the music.
On the other hand my dad had a stereo that (to me) looked like something from the very far future. There were huge speakers and a stand where several magical looking boxes sat, and the crowning glory was a Technics TT with its hypnotic strobe light.
One weekend he dragged us to the local record store and bought "The Wall". I remember marvelling at Scarfes artwork on the tube journey home, and when we got back to base and the album was played…
Bingo!, that was it for me, Smitten forever with hi-fi.
Many a night i would creep out of bed at 3am and put on his Sennheiser headphones with the bright yellow ear foams and listen to “The thin ice” and also “the devils answer” by Atomic Rooster. Very happy days!
I’d trade everything i have just for 5 minutes of doing that again :D

mudds

26-03-2016, 15:14

mudds

26-03-2016, 15:20

I had a tape to tape bush boom box that my parents bought me for Christmas and following that I wanted my own separates so saved hard to buy some second hand Technics separates. Following that I started to upgrade with things like Musical Fidelity B1 amp and Ariston Q Deck. I've had a long break from HiFi but I've fallen hook, line and sinker for Vinyl again and Im loving the stories you are all sharing on here.

Edit: I just remembered buying my first CD player too off my friends dad; a Mission DAD7000 such a brick but what a piece of machinery!

Naimiac

29-03-2016, 10:32

Heard a friend of my parents system, Not sure now of the make but it sounded wonderful, i owned a pioneer stacker at the time, it sounded so bad after hearing this seperates set up, there was no turning back.

Audio Al

29-03-2016, 10:34

A motor bike accident got me started , confined 2 hospital then my home for 12 weeks :( anythings better than daytime TV :lol:

Gomers

12-04-2016, 11:49

Music got me into Hi-Fi. I wanted to hear my music better.

And me. My music during the 80's was played by a grey Sharp ghetto-blaster type thing which was fine until my mates started getting these new fangled midi-systems while CD was just starting to gather momentum. Around '87 my dad bought me a Technics midi (think it was a CDX-1) system and I couldn't believe the difference. I remember my mate took the mickey as it had these funny knobs for adjusting bass, middle and treble (tone controls I believe :)); next birthday I got the matching and essential graphic equaliser to further tailor the tone. That was me hooked.

After I started work in '89 and had my first credit card, I sold the Technics and bought one of those mix and match systems a certain place used to advertise in the HiFi mags, where you were able to choose a source, amp and speakers from a selection and ended up with a Dual 505-4 TT, Rotel RA820AX amp and JPW Sonata spkrs (anyone remember the name of that particular establishment ?), soon added a Marantz CD40, swiftly followed by an RCD-855 and I've been outta control ever since :doh:

Macca

12-04-2016, 11:56

one of those mix and match systems a certain place used to advertise in the HiFi mags, where you were able to choose a source, amp and speakers from a selection and ended up with a Dual 505-4 TT, Rotel RA820AX amp and JPW Sonata spkrs (anyone remember the name of that particular establishment ?),:

Sounds like Sevenoaks/Superfi. They used to have an ad with a big 'mix n match chart thing. It was all the UK budget gear that was reviewed in the magazines. Always out if my price range back then.

Richer Sounds, on the other hand, used to be the clearance house for all the big Japanese brands so were cheaper but you had no reviews to go on. Nor could you rely on their ads as what was in the ads usually bore no resemblance to what was in your nearest branch. That just made it more fun, though.

Gomers

13-04-2016, 07:16

Sounds like Sevenoaks/Superfi. They used to have an ad with a big 'mix n match chart thing. It was all the UK budget gear that was reviewed in the magazines. Always out if my price range back then.

Richer Sounds, on the other hand, used to be the clearance house for all the big Japanese brands so were cheaper but you had no reviews to go on. Nor could you rely on their ads as what was in the ads usually bore no resemblance to what was in your nearest branch. That just made it more fun, though.

Thanks Martin, think you're right with Superfi, one of my better uses of £500.

brucew268

15-05-2016, 10:54

I grew up singing in choirs and vocal groups, and listening to music on my dad's Hi-Fi, first a tube driven console speaker setup of unremembered name and then the receiver was replaced by the SS Heathkit that he built in the early 70’s.

In the early 1980's someone donated a system to the lounge of our uni's male residence hall, and we found ourselves in possession of a pair of Bose 901 loudspeakers driven not by a receiver (tuner-integrated) but by a McIntosh preamp, power amp and some turntable. With it were a small collection of albums including Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra's rendition of the 1812 Overture, fronted by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sounding all Russian and ending with a brass band. That was the first time I heard music on a home Hi-Fi where I said, "Wow! Is it possible to hear music sounding this good at home?" Plus, Ormandy’s 1812 with the choir and brass band was interpreted in such a powerfully emotional way that the piece took on a whole new meaning for me.

Otherwise I only heard music sounding this good in recording studios. Actually there was this Al Jarreau concert where the pre-concert music was so loud that it should have hurt, but was so clean and undistorted that it just sounded great. So I knew that there was something special in the amplifiers and maybe the speakers, way beyond what I was used to hearing from concert PA’s.

I bought a B-stock Japanese integrated amp, a basic turntable, and some speakers, totaling maybe $500, only to find that they gave me none of the magic or purity of these other experiences. I only knew that Hi-Fi stores might be identified by the fact that they carried Nakimichi cassette decks or separate pre/power amplifiers – a bit limited in experience was I. But in those stores the prices were beyond my imagining, so knew I had to wait until my budget could afford to look for something proper.

A few years later I decided to see what was out there and found a store that was happy for me to sit a while listening to music in their rooms and talk about music and sound. The more I listened, the more I found new music that I loved, and the more my ears decided what sort of music reproduction I might be satisfied with. The man in that store guided me in building my system, whose amps are still the core of what I use every day 25 years later.