Where did it all start for you? The music and hi-fi thing I mean.

I was born in 1988.

For me, it started in 2003. My uncle knew that I was into finding vintage TV sets at the curb and playing around with them. He asked me if I had any interest in stereo equipment... He had found, on the curb, a 1960's valve Fisher stereophonic receiver with matching speakers.... I grabbed it and never looked back.

Many happy hours playing FM and CD's through the auxiliary/tape input...bands like the Eagles, Jethro Tull, Steve Miller, Kansas, ZZ Top....

Years later, my system has evolved, I'm into LPs in a big way, and I am still basking in the warm glow of valves ( Rogue Audio Cronus integrated amp/KT77's pushing Vandersteen 2C's with a Pro-Ject TT and Ortofon OM-40 up front)

and I have my uncle to thank.

For me, the defining sequence was being dumped when I was 15! Had spent the day with "her" listening to "love will tear us apart" on what seemed the most fantastic system...she was rich and we were poor,but we listened to that song probably 50 times that summer day... think she had an LP12 and other fab stuff...the notes floated in the air... we had a Goodmans. Got dumped soon after! Anyhow that sound/experience stuck and forever I've been chasing it.

My (not very interesting) story.

The only music at home whilst I was young (other than the radio) was a Bush record player (all in one jobbie, padded black vinyl finish outside, 4-speed autochanger inside). The records were all K-Tel style cheapies from Woolworths.

One Christmas (think it was 1975), we visited my auntie and uncle's. My cousin was into music and hi-fi and I spent the whole evening going through his extensive record collection - Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Queen, Led Zep all got played. I was hooked. His system was a Garrard SP25 (MkIII), home-made amps and KEF speakers (can't remember which ones).

All my available pocket money was now spent at the record shop in Marple. It was there the guy working in the shop played me Phaedra by Tangerine Dream. I'd never heard anything like it! They were to become my favourite band.

My cousin very kindly gave me his Garrard SP25 MkIII with Goldring G800. (He had upgraded to a Connoisseur BD1). My parents chipped in with an Amstrad EX220 amp and a bit of saving enabled me to buy a pair of Solavox (Comet's own brand) SP25 speakers (they were badged Wharfdale Denton XP2s). Later on an NEC cassette deck was added.

After university, my first pay packet was spent at Richer Sounds on a Dual CS505 Deluxe, Ortofon OM10, Rotel RA820BX and KEF Coda IIIs. Soon after a Fisher AD800 CD player was added. That was the first system that I owned that could really be called hi-fi (with the possible exception of the CD player!) and the obsession continues to this day.:eyebrows:

My mother turned me on to The Beatles in 1963, we in the St. Louis metropolitan area had the privledge of hearing the early singles probably months prior to the rest of the country due to George Harrison's sister living in Southern Illinois (Benton) and having George visit sometime before the others made it over originally. Louise Harrison saw to it that DJ's at various St. Louis radio stations (KXOK, WIL) had copies. The entire neighborhood was at my house during the Ed Sullivan TV debut because we were the only home with a colored TV in the entire neighborhood. After that my neighbors came home from Germany with cheap Kenwoods and Sansuis and Pioneers, by then I was surely hooked.

My first hi-fi encounter was back in 1971. The chap I worked for wanted a babysitter every weekend so him and the wife could go for nights out. He lived in a very old cottage with low ceilings, exposed beams and creaking floorboards. He said I could raid his drinks cabinet if I wanted to and he said I could watch TV or listen to music, but first he had to show me how to operate the hi-fi.

It was a Braun music centre and from what I discovered later it only had around 8 - 10 watts per channel running into very small B&O bookshelf speakers, but because it was a small pokey cottage it was more than enough power to make some very nice noises. Never bothered with the TV, just went through his entire record collection week after week, with Neil Diamond, Elvis, Jose Feliciano and plenty of Jazz music. Not my musical tastes at all back then but great to listen to for sound quality

Well the world was blessed by my presence midway through 1968. Always been music in our family, mother was in the Beatles fan club. My fasination with progressive rock started with an ELP 'Brain Salad Surgery' flexidisc hanging about in dads 45's which was put out to promote the album. dad got the disc free with a music magazine. this was to be the music style i chose for my long term listerning pleasures.I did start very early with quality hifi a good few years before leaving school, i was doing at least 4 part time paid jobs before leaving school hence nothing was stopping a rich school boys audio adventures.. There's not enough room to list all the specialist hi-fi equipment i've ploughed through over the years honestly but it's been an hell of a lot.I'm not one for following hifi trends, i've always gone backwards & forwards with things i buy & i certainly never buy new anymore.Music is my life & always will be, take that away & i'm finished.

My entry into hi fi is really because of my Dad, he always had some kind of record player or radiogram about, also used to have the odd reel to reel tape deck around as well, which I always thought looked pretty impressive...

So, in my mid teens, I whined and moaned at him until he bought me secondhand hi fi separates, a Goldring GL75, with Amstrad (tuner/amp) and a pair of Wharfedale speakers (Dittons?), the first 45rpm single I ever bought was Paul Simons, Me and julio down at the Schoolyard, loved it, the first album was T Rex, Bolan Boogie.

I then moved onto a Trio deck (not the KD 1033, one or two above that, it was ivory coloured), Pioneer amp, Aiwa cassette deck (the wedged shaped one), Yamaha tuner, Acoustic Research bookshelf speakers, then moved onto an Ariston RD11s, SME/Ortofon VMS20E setup, then moved onto a Denon amp and B&W speakers, music tastes was rock/blues/female vocals.

This combination took me up to 1983, when I took the head staggers and sold my hi fi equipment and gave all my LPs away, mostly to my sisters. Hi fi was given a 20 year break until 2003 or so, when I bought a Cambridge Audio A5 amp, and Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers, playing MP3s from computer, connected an early Beresford DAC but didn't really do anything so sold that on, then upgraded to NAD C320BEE and Kef iQ1s, then bought SqueezeBox Classic (3), Marantz PM7001 and Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers, with firstly CA DACmagic, then ZeroDAC (Upgrade version), recently have moved onto SqueezeBox Touch, Roksan Kandy K2 (int amp), Audio-GB DAC-19MK3, PMC DB1S+ and some Mark Grant cables, FLACs and high VBR MP3s streamed from small file server...

That is everything to date I think...

It began with a deserted diner. A man too long without sleep. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy!..............

Oh no. That was "The Invaders" - a Quinn Martin production:)

For me, my hi fi odyssey began way back in 1970. My parents bought me an Alba autochanger record player which had two controls - Volume and tone!

Within a year or so I progressed to a Pye 'Black Box' stereo system with smiked glass lid and seperate bass and treble controls.

I had collected loads of records by then and somehow it led me into the disco business in the early seventies.

I had a mobile disco which I called "Hot Wax Sound System". I painted a hardboard logo with dayglow colours (I think it formed part of my GCE Art submission) and once illuminated by an ultraviolet tube it formed the centrepiece of my light show (+ bubble wheel, sound to light converter and strobe)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76...f/scan0028.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76...f/scan0009.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76...f/scan0008.jpg

I had twin BSR decks (an alternative to the ubiquitous Garrard SP25's of the time) 500 watts of amplification and some nice twin 15" speaker cabs!

I flogged it all in 1976 and purchased what I suppose was my first 'proper' hi fi - Technics Direct Drive tt, Technics SU3500 integrated amp and Tannoy Cheviot speakers. I also had a Technics cassette deck.

The long upgrade path had commenced and aural dissatisfaction gave way to the acquisition of a Linn Sondek LP12 with Grace/Supex, Meridian 101/103D amplification and a pair of Nightingale speakers.

In due course, the Meridan was upgraded to 105S and the speakers swapped for Linn Isobarik DMS.

Various arms/cartridges came and went on the LP12 including Mission 774, Syrinx PU2/3 until finally I arrived at the Ittok/Asak combo.

In 1981 I went active with the purchase of a Linn Isobarik PMS system from Subjective Audio (Howard Popeck). A collaboartion with Meridian that included 6 X 105S power amps with dedicated electronic x-overs for the Isobariks.

Apart from a change to an Oracle turntable, that system pretty much stayed stable until 1987 when I went back to Subjective Audio for an Oxford Acoustics Crystal reference turntable (recently the subject of a stimulating thread from Peter), SMEV/Koetsu Red. The Meridian 101 pre was exchanged for an Audio Research SP9 and the following year (1988) the Isobarik active system went and in came an Aragon 4004 american muscle amp (designed by Dan D'Agostino and dubbed "The poor man's Krell") with a pair of TDL Monitor transmission line speakers on the end.

I was pretty much content with that system until 2003 when in a mad flurry of expenditure, I started upgrading again until I arrived at my present system.

I hate to think what I have spent over the years but it is a lot!

Oh well. You can't take it with you I suppose!

Great pics days of real men eh Steve :)

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Originally Posted by Andre

Great pics days of real men eh Steve :)

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I can still hear the strains of Silver Machine by Hawkwind as I powered up the strobe light:)