What got you into this hobby?

[little wing]

Sweet man! Great hearing from ya! I had forgotten you travel a lot. I’ll be upgrading to Yammies A3080 this coming October! Plus speakers, be 6 years since I’ve had a really nice system. Just now getting back on my feet from the last divorce from that hookah wife I had. Lol. Anyways nice ya doing well my friend!

Mike

You are going to love the A3080 I'm sure. I hear you on the divorce thing. Better to correct the mistake than to live with it (her)
Earl

 

[everettT]

74' not even gonna mention the genres. I will say a lot of blues and jazz influenced

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

One very specific event. Me stating in small local home appliances store back in the late 90s.
Watching "Water World" playing from the laserdisc, the plane flyover scene on Philips TV with Dolby surround speakers. Standing in a very tiny sweet spot. I was blown away by that surround sound effect.

 

[TechHDS]

You are going to love the A3080 I'm sure. I hear you on the divorce thing. Better to correct the mistake than to live with it (her)
Earl

Yep brother, #3 and 4 still try to get me to pay their bills every now and than. Lol. I go what? the lover boys didn’t pay ya light bill? Told ya all they wanted was to bang ya! I go bet ya working overtime on ya back now uhu? Lol they go ya bastard and hang up the phone on me. thanks for the kind words little wing!!

Mike

 

[speakerman39]

I remember back in like the 3rd or 4th grade I had a cassette player. It had only a single speaker, but the darn thing could get loud. Even took it with me and played it on the school bus in the mid 70's. My Sister had a record player at home. Use to play 45's on it all of the time.

From there on it was, and still is, all about music. In the 6th grade I played the trumpet in band. Later, in middle school I switched to the baritone. We also had a junior high marching band that did mainly parades and such. In high school I was in the symphonic, concert, and wind ensemble. Marched baritone and played tuba my senior year. By this time I was elbow deep into "car audio".

My older brother was getting into home audio quite a bit when I was in high school. He had a Pioneer receiver. One day I messed around with it and it stopped playing. It turns out I hooked up some speakers to it that literally fried the amp. Needless to say, my older bro was NOT too happy about that.

Continuing with the car audio craze I hung out at one of my local shops. Learned a lot during that time. Eventually, working in the industry and being later promoted to store manager. In my spare time I started hanging out at a local HT shop where I was introduced to the likes of Paradigm, Polk, and B&W. This shop also was big into Yamaha at the time. Literally spent hours upon hours there learning as much as I could about home audio.

Over time I became very familiar with Paradigm's offerings. Was able to compare them directly to Polk. That is why I pretty much was all Paradigm then. Only got exposed to some of the lower end B&W product lines, but I remember the 602 S3's and boy was I ever impressed. But, nothing compared (to me at least) to the Studio 20's and the Studio 40's. Eventually, I owned the Studio 20's.

Was able to acquire some really nice car audio setups all throughout college and afterwards. Just never got into the SPL thing as I gravitated towards SQ. My gear could also get rather loud, but I was much more concerned with how it sounded. That is how I got my start in audio. In short, it really is all about the music to me. Thanks!


Cheers,

Phil

 

[killdozzer]

I grew up with tons of records and tapes at my disposal, a great stereo (for the time/budget). I was a kid and took it for granted. My parents use to tell me stories about when we would visit other peoples home and I would go; but where's your stereo? I thought that was the way people lived. Then my parents got divorced and it started to slip. All of a sudden I couldn't imagine not having a loud sound anymore. I started saving money, always asking for music related gifts for all occasions, asking my mom to step in for the first CD-player. Then it was boarding school, army, university, work, PhD, work, work... and all those years I was without anything decent, but I always knew, sooner or later, I will have this massive, powerful, no compromise sound that would thrill me and make my life better for a small degree... (and, as a rule, when my life gets better, I get better)

 

[JohnBooty]

For me, I always loved music.

The audio hobby came from my love of listening to music on headphones in bed at night as a kid. It was just me and the music. And with headphones (even cheap 80s headphones) you could hear a LOT of things in the music that you wouldn't hear through the sorts of car stereos and cheap boomboxes that most people had in the 1980s.

So I fell in love with all the hidden depth and detail that's right there in recorded music, just waiting to be heard, if you make just a little bit of an investment of your time, money, and attention. Very very cool.

I got in to the hobby for just one reason: I love the sound of music. I've stayed in the hobby all these years for basically the same reason: I really love the sound of music.

I can do things to tailor the sound at home to the point where I have better tunes in my little music room than just about anywhere else. I love what is achievable with some good toys, a little work, a little creativity, and the right musicians.

Well said! With some know-how, a person with modest income can have a very, very, very good system.

We're talking a modest dollar amount roughly in the neighborhood of what lots of people already spend on laptops, video games, TVs, etc. For a few hundred dollars you can have nearly perfect frequency response, and pretty decent bass extension that's good enough for most kinds of music. For perhaps a grand or two you can have all of that, plus bass extension and headroom to rival a movie theater.

I always think it's neat when a hobby progresses to the point where you can have something that's either identical, or darn close, to what the richest person in the world might have.

 

[sterling shoote]

Elvis Presley's Jail House Rock got me interested in acquiring recorded music. I was in the first, maybe 2nd grade, walking home from school and I heard the song being played from a record player in a home as I passed it. The experience stirred my senses and I wanted to hear it again. That was not to be, since I did not have a record player and my mother could not afford one, or even the record. A few years later I got a Magnavox Transistor Radio from my mother for my birthday and from there I was on my own, not being able to afford a record player, receiver, and speakers for a Hi-Fi experience until I finished college and had a decent job.

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

What got you into this hobby?

Pure and simple, music.

Someday we'll talk about how back in the old days I got duped into believing that incredibly expensive audiophile separates made your music sound better.

But they don't. That has been scientifically proven.

 

[sterling shoote]

For me, I always loved music.

The audio hobby came from my love of listening to music on headphones in bed at night as a kid. It was just me and the music. And with headphones (even cheap 80s headphones) you could hear a LOT of things in the music that you wouldn't hear through the sorts of car stereos and cheap boomboxes that most people had in the 1980s.

So I fell in love with all the hidden depth and detail that's right there in recorded music, just waiting to be heard, if you make just a little bit of an investment of your time, money, and attention. Very very cool.



Well said! With some know-how, a person with modest income can have a very, very, very good system.

We're talking a modest dollar amount roughly in the neighborhood of what lots of people already spend on laptops, video games, TVs, etc. For a few hundred dollars you can have nearly perfect frequency response, and pretty decent bass extension that's good enough for most kinds of music. For perhaps a grand or two you can have all of that, plus bass extension and headroom to rival a movie theater.

I always think it's neat when a hobby progresses to the point where you can have something that's either identical, or darn close, to what the richest person in the world might have.

iTunes on a computer or phone and Bluetooth active speakers get you a real nice music experience today.

 

[lovinthehd]

I don't consider it a hobby.

 

[sholling]

Like the rest of you I've always loved music and when I was about 20 or 21 (1976-77) a friend with good taste introduced me to much better than I could afford electronics and speakers and what we now call new age music when he upgraded to a 125wpc Sansui 9090DB receiver. That's when I leaned what a decent system could sound like. I bought his old but decent for the time receiver 50wpc stereo receiver and headed out with a $700 speaker budget to audition speaker after speaker. A few years later I bought my own 9090DB for $100 at a garage sale, had the volume pots cleaned, and used it for at least 5-6 years.

 

[Alex2507]

I don't consider it a hobby.

It's more of a quest.



PSA: photobucket is working

 

[lovinthehd]

LOL since I'm retired probably distorts the meaning somewhat. It's mostly leisure time.

 

[Alex2507]

iTunes on a computer or phone and Bluetooth active speakers get you a real nice music experience today.

Until you become one of us, runnin' around, measuring stuff, cursing the 60 Hz peak, re-arranging couch pillows to measure again ...

 

[killdozzer]

I gave this some more thought and now I see this was a spark that my father ignited and made a wild fire out of it. He was always playing records. He made it a rule that during lunch time there’s some nice music in the background and now I realised I’m the same, I always play music during every meal. Lunch was a gathering (mostly pleasant) and there was always some music. He would accept our music wishes as there was some of his music we couldn’t stand.

Later he thought us how to use the equipment, what not to touch, how to hold a record without ever touching the playing area. Why not to flick the MM / MC switch, why not to touch TT needle... all those things you don’t really understand when you’re little.

Later he bought our first stereo, a Sanyo midi all in one; double deck so we can make our own mix tapes, tuner and a TT which he called a “record eater” and said if we want to play records we should use his equipment.

It’s his records I’m looking a TT for.

 

[lovinthehd]

The OP was referring to AV systems, which came along much later for me. Really wasn't an option at all when I got my first gear anyways. Probably all my dad's fault...he had a nice setup when I was a kid (less nice after I punched a hole in one of his diy speakers), he bought me my first basic system and handed me down his old Fisher receiver for my first good setup when I had enough money from a part time job when I was 16 to buy some speakers and a tt. Even though he loved primarily folk and classical music he turned me on to Janis Joplin (Cheap Thrills with Big Brother & The Holding Co specifically).

 

[sterling shoote]

Until you become one of us, runnin' around, measuring stuff, cursing the 60 Hz peak, re-arranging couch pillows to measure again ...

Interestingly enough, iTunes has become more palatable now that I have an OPPO UDP-205. I connected my laptop to the OPPOs usb DAC for output to my Sony TA-E9000es pre/pro. In application, from this connection, iTunes AAC files sound indistinguishable to high res files of same material. One thing though, some of my DOO WOP AAC files now reveal details suggesting poor mastering. In other words the detail now heard does not make the music sound better. At any rate, I'm no prophet; but, I do see that getting music pleasure from an iPhone is following in the steps of the transistor radio, the Sony Walkman Cassette Player, and the Apple iPod, with sound quality and convenience just getting better every day, making it appear that equipment between the source and speakers will soon be unneeded.

 

[KenM10759]

If I was to go back to the very roots of why I got into this, it would be at 12 years old. I had been struck by a car and was laid-up at home for two months in a full body cast. In-home tutoring filled much of my day, but TV sucked and my parents wanted me to at least have music. They let me choose from a catalog, so we got a "quadrophonic" system of 4 speakers, turntable and receiver with that special quadrophonic 8-track.

I played that thing constantly and to my ears it sounded great. Once on my feet again, it was about a year later that I attended my first concert. It was BB King playing one of the local colleges. I was 13 and smoked my first joint (of what would be many.) When I turned 16 motorcycles became my No.1 passion. It wasn't until I had been married a couple years and gave up bikes (temporarily) that I got back into it, buying my first true hif-fi setup of Hafler 200 speakers, Dual CS503 turntable w/Ortofon OM-5 cartridge, HK 440vxi receiver, and Onkyo CD-7400 CD player. That set up lasted 30 years, though gave up the TT and changed out the CD player a couple times.

 

[2channel lover]

A lot of these were great reads.

I was probably about 13 or so. Mid 70s...a neighbor's older brother has a nice Technics/Sansui sound system. I'd come over to play ping pong and the older brother would have the window up playing his speakers as our "audio entertainment".

Probably since I wasn't faring that well at ping-pong, at some point I became more interested in the music. Eventually I was over there several times a week and mostly for the music. On his suggestions of what to buy, I started buying LPs with my allowance and taking them over to play them. He would record my LPs and have a copy for himself so I became his little buddy....actually I was being used to expand his music collection, and I knew that, but it didn't bother me. In addition to the music, I had my 1st peeks at playboy, penthouse etc...he was the big brother I never had!!

That evolved into my folks getting me my own music system later that year...(a low end RadioShack system) even back then I could tell that my LPs sounded better on his system than mine. Fast forward some 10-12 yrs and I bought my very 1st hi-fi stereo system...A NAD stereo pre amp, a NAD CD player, HK 2 channel power amp, and a pair of Linn book shelf speakers.