First Hi/Fi - Home Theater Experience

[Tom Andry]

Sorry if this has been covered in another thread.

So what got you into this hobby/occupation/obsession? I know, for some, it started with a family member or close friend. For me, my family could’ve care less about Hi/Fi. My parent’s last stereo system had an 8-track. I had a friend that was really into audio (at the time, he lived and died by reel-to-reel) but I never really understood his obsession.

Then one day, early in my college career, I found out that a guy from my high school had been living in my apartment complex just around the corner without me knowing. I was taking out the garbage when I ran into him. I told him that I had just purchased (and watched) Jurassic Park (at least I had enough sense to buy the letterbox edition) and he invited me over to watch it at his place. I politely informed him that I had just finished watching it not two minutes earlier but he insisted. So off I went vowing that I would excuse myself halfway through the movie because I had homework or some other excuse. Little did I know that all three of these guys (my high school classmate and his two roommates) worked at The GoodGuys and were home theater nuts! They plugged in the movie and WHOA!!!! I couldn’t tell you what set up they had and frankly it doesn’t really matter. All I know is that I heard sound coming out of their system that rivaled most (and bested many) of the theaters I had been to in the greater SF area! I was floored. Of course I stayed through the movie, and the next, and the next. I even bought movies specifically because I knew they’d invite me over to watch them if they knew I had it.

Needless to say, I’ve been hooked ever since. Between undergrad and grad school, I stayed with my parents for a few months. I hooked up my aging (and now soon to be replaced) system in their upstairs TV room. Before that point, my parents always eschewed my love of home theater and dismissed my insistence on only frequenting theaters with “good” sound. Six months after I moved out, I received a call from my father requesting a recommendation for a receiver, TV, DVD, and speakers for around $2k. Another convert!

 

[mustang_steve]

Very cool story!

Mine was I just grew up with it, my dad had a quad-sound setup that was pretty awesome, even when I grew up I still remebered how nice that system was.

Eventually I got a reciever and a pair of small speakers from that setup....and from there the rest was history. I started upgrading like mad, made tons of mistakes, and learned even more. Pretty soon I realized certain things, and those shaped my priorities on what to upgrade and what not to blow lots of cash on.

So now I finally have a place where a real hifi could be of use, so time to finally go and get the speakers I really want

...as far as my dad, he now asks me for advice on audio as well....my mom's boyfriend drives me nuts asking about stuff, he recently heard the Klipschorns (my reccomendation based on his tastes in music), and now is unfortunately on a losing battle with my mom over buying some (heh, the significant other acceptance factor again).

 

[sjdgpt]

Both of my first real pleasing experinces were with that dreaded brand.... Bose.

Seriously.


Back in high school, I had that basic $50 turntable. Spent some time at the public library talking to the audio nuts that were using the public reel to reel to copy albumns to tape. I could not understand the compulsion. Of course I was listening to their results over their Sansui receivers and some of those "highend" Techneac speakers.


In college, we all had those basic receivers and speakers in the dorm. Nothing special. Just sounds to drown out the noise from the basic receiver and speakers coming from the room next to yours. most of the time I was playing cassettes or FM radio. Ho Hum.


At Frat rush, I got to listen to "high end" system. The frat house was bragging how they had spent $10K on the system. Ok, it was a hell of lot better than what I had in my dorm room. But it really didnt not strike me as matching the sound quality of live music. Or even trying. It just played loud.

Then one day (this was twentyfive years ago), I was with a friend visiting one of his friends. Big Bose 901's cranking out some nice electronic jazz at a pleasing volume and with an ear catching sound. Not that Bose is great sounding, just that the sound caught my attention. And with electronic jazz with no vocals or acoutics instruments to judge the sound quality, it was easy for me to be impressed by the sound.

Next stop was to snoooty audio store to listen to Denon, MacIntosh and that new company called Boston Acoustics. Damn. Those little $300 speakers sounded better than the big buck Bose. And better than that mega buck system at the frat house. And for a few more dollars, I could get real speakers (B&W). Ok, for quite a few bucks more. But I found something that actually sounded goooood. Two years later, and I was actually buying my first real system.




Move forward. First 5.1 experience. Again it was Bose. In Sam's Club of all places. I knew the speakers sucked. I couldnt understand the vocal tracks. But those wizzing bullets bouncing from speaker to speaker. Whoooooo baby. I gotta get one of those systems.


Sometimes it is the weirdest things that get us started.

 

[kaseaman]

I guess my obsession with HT started when I asked my dad if I could buy an Aiwa stereo system (you know those all in one systems with the detachable speakers). When I asked him he just smiled and said "why don't we get you components instead." I had no clue what a component was, but I said ok becuase I knew my dad knew what he was talking about.
I ended up getting a Yammy reciever along with Yamaha speakers. When I got home i set the system up and was fairly impressed. A few years passed, and i decided to get a dvd player. With this new dvd player, I had to upgrade to dolby digital. After that it was tower speakers, a new subwoofer, and that was it. My dad is now asking me for advice for what to buy for his new HT. I love this hobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

In the Beginning: My family was never 'into' Hi-Fi. TV speakers and mono portable radios were the rule of the day in my parents house back then (my dad recently got an XM tuner he plugs into a $30 stereo tabletop... a massive upgrade for him), my parents didn't even buy a CD until 1996! (It was the score to the musical of Phantom of the Opera). I remember because my mom had to buy a discman just to listen to it.

From highschool until my early 20's it was "Buy the shelf system with the most advertised watts". And I turned the bass all the way to the right. Yes, I was a Joe Sixpack audio heretic!

The advent of DVD: My family was never into Laserdisk. I had a friend in elementary school with a LD player, but there were no stores north of Syracuse (the nearest major city) that even sold LD's, so LD was never a viable format. I don't remember the LD PQ being any better than VHS back then, but you could skip forwards and backwards! But it was still TV speaker sound. I still remember the first DVD I saw, it was HEAT, and my brother's fiance' bought him an Aiwa 5.1 system and a DVD player after she got her settlement form a lawsuit. I remember my brother setting the subwoofer level by ear using the 18-wheeler crash from the beginning of the movie.

About a year or so later I finally bought my own system. A Kenwood HTiB I bought at SEARS for $499 and a Toshiba DVD player. The same day I bought BLADE on DVD (it was a new release). The system stayed the same for awhile while I began to read & post on the Home Theater Forum (where I got all my audio knowledge). Eventually the Lord of the Rings DVD came out and I broke the HTiB subwoofer on the "ring drop" scene. So I went to the local RadioShack and bought the biggest RCA subwoofer they had (my first upgrade!). At the time I wanted an SVS cylinder, but couldn't afford the scratch.

It was around this time that I finally got an SPL meter and the Sound&Vision home theater set-up DVD. Those two purchases did more for my system than anything I could possibly imagine. I can't imagine why DVD players and AV receivers dont come with set-up disks and SPL meters in the box.

back on track: talk of real speakers on the HTF lead me to the nearest city with an audio dealer to purchase a pair of Paradigm atoms (besting Yamaha, phase tech, and some other brands they had). Of course the Paradigms sounded way better than the HTiB center, so I had to go back and buy the CC-170 (Upgraditis rears its ugly head!) later that month.

A trip tot the newly opened furniture store (which also sold NAD/PSB) lead to the purchase of a new couch & a NAD/PSB "stereo system (finally replacing the holdover JVC shelf system). A tax return finally let me buy the SVS for my 5.1 system, and the RCA sub is now in my 2-channel system. Of course then I got an adopted daughter who moved into my stereo room and commendered my stereo to hook-up to her computer (at least I'm preventing another generation of shelf-system buyers).

 

[Beegowl]

Mine started when vinyl recordings began touting their HiFi Stereo properties. About 1960. I wanted to hear ALL the information on those records. My parents' Zenith console radio/record changer had two speakers, a left speaker and a right speaker, but I never could hear the hifi stereo enhancement. I wanted to hear James Brown in stereo!

In 1971, my first component system was Radio Shack separates, and I bought a pair of Sennheiser 414 headphones. The RS components were about $225 combined and the headphones $25. My first two wives never really appreciated the time and money I spent on audio components. My son inherited the hobby, only he combined it with gaming, and now I enjoy video games, too. My girlfriend hates it. Hey, women come and women go, but the music is always there. In multi-channel, now. And, I can hear ALL the information. I think.

 

[JJMP50]

It was about my second day at Kessler AFB, Biloxi, MS when it happened. The year was 1969. I was walking down the hallway of my barracks and all of a sudden I heard this sound. It was the Beatles White Album and it sounded like they were playing live right there! I walked right into the guy's room and introduced myself and asked "What the hell is that?". If I remember correctly it was a Sansui receiver with some Pioneer speakers and a Dual turntable. This was state of the art stuff then. If been a HiFi nut ever since.

 

[Cygnus]

Mine started when my mom had the good ol' Pioneer system. I Was (and still am! ) I was obsessed with buttons and spectrum anylyzers! Mom had a really nice 6-Disc pioneer with the try that goes in cars back in the day, that you put in the player, it was great.

Then, we moved into my dads place and he had a Sony receiver with at least 25 DSP modes, I loved the "theatre" mode (which I back then pronnounced "teathre"). He also had speakers all over the main floor and outside. I dont mean in-wall, i mean real speakers, all somehow hooked up to that beast of a receiver! One day though, we were trying to get the speakers going, and dad turned the receiver up all the way, and "PROTCECT" when on the receiver and we could never fix it, and were to lazy to send it to a repair shop..ah..that was a great receiver.

Then, for a while, nothing happened.


My grandpa had a very nice Sony receiver that he wasnt using anymore, and he one day gave it to me. I thought this was the best thing ever! I hooked up dads cassette player to it and a discman (via a Y-cable), and it was /i] great with Pioneer speakers (which I - being a kid - pushed the bubbles in on the speakers !)

I was going for surgeries on my legs (i have cerebral palsy, not severly bad, but still annoying.) We moved my audio system down to where my mom has her office. It worked fine untill one day the receiver started acting weird.

Threw that one out.

Then, again, for a while, nothing happened.


Until dad came home with a Sony STR-DE345 receiver, and we built in the basement and had a 5 channel surround system (no sub). Then, I got the receiver because...well...i forgot....

I ruined it, though...

...Now i'm using an Aiwa NSX-D22 with those nice Pioneer speakers, and they work quite well!


...now i have an Aiwa NSX-D22 All in one system, and im using the Pioneer speakers (yes, the same ones my mom had). They work great, I hope to upgrade to a nice Yamaha receiver and a nice DVD player, I allready have a TV and CD player (which my 6 year old brother is using right now because his CD player doesnt) and VCR so im set with that.

This is my current setup (I also have the stereo hooked up to my computer) :

I am glad that I can share my questions and hobby, with you guys!

 

[cornelius]

Being a musician and wanting to always hear music got me interested in Hi-Fi.

My dad's old Fischer tube integrated/tube tuner probably had something to do with it too.

 

[MarieonCape]

Interesting question... For me it started with music. Music was in my family. My grandfather was a orchestra conductor. I played in high school band and sung in high school chorus. I always loved to listen to music and later loved movies. I also have a "quality" bug built into me somehow* so I've never been happy with poor quality sound or video reproduction and was never tempted by garbage stuff I saw people buy because it sounded and looked so bad.

When I was in high school I didn't have anywhere near the money to afford my tastes in sound, but a local dealer talked me into buying good quality used components over junky new "stereos" for the same money. It wasn't great, but was still sounded better than that of my friends and in my college dorm.

The first defining event for me was one evening as a college freshman when a bunch of us gathered to listen to classical guitar played through a nice stereo in the dorm mother's apartment. I was completely taken away by the realism of the guitar and never forgot that experience. The nuiances of live quitar recordings are still a reference to evaluate audio equipment for me.

The next event was years later when I was invited to "movie night" at a friends house. She and I both had Beta HiFi VCRs and it was basically at the end of the Beta era and I felt I was being forced into VHS for lack of media. She and her boyfriend just bought a nice Pioneer LaserDisc player. I don't remember what we watched, but it was in letterbox and I knew I had to have one. I already had something of a HT setup with a Pioneer Dolby Surround receiver to go with the Beta HiFi tapes and a 27" flat tube "big screen" TV, so LaserDisc and letterbox was a perfect match. I think I got my LaserDisc player less than a week later! It felt like real HT then.

People just couldn't believe the difference between that and VHS. I used to demo a couple of movies to people switching back and forth and it just amazed people to see the detail they were missing on tape. And I beg to differ with the person who didn't think LaserDisc was better than tape. I can easily show the difference in both picture and sound! (Though I admit that last of good tapes were a lot better than the ones I had seen in the early days).

One day I happened upon a used $10,000 JVC 55" 16:9 TV for sale in the local want ads for "only" $2000 and knew it would be perfect for my letterboxed LaserDiscs. (This is a NTSC set, not an HD. HD at the time was about $20,000 for a set my size, $15,000 for a smaller one). And it was great for the LaserDiscs! So now I had a Dolby ProLogic receiver, a theater size TV, and widescreen movies on LaserDisc. Life was good!

When DVDs came out I was skeptical (LaserDisc fans all "knew" there'd be too much compression to get all the video information on a tiny little disc and DVDs would be basically VHS quality on disc). But then I heard some good things about DVDs and also that they were in anamorphic widescreen. My TV had a setting for that which would mean I could finally see widescreen movies in the full resolution of the TV! So I rented an early DVD player and I was completely blown away by the images! Literally sat with my mouth open!! I had no idea my TV was that good! I bought my first DVD player less than a week later! Next a Dolby Digital (ready, since the player had the decoder built into it) receiver to get the discrete 5.1 sound.

But it all goes back to the early events where I heard great sound, I had seen movies in theaters and wasn't happy with the typical movie on TV quality and wanted better.

Being "just a girl" I am not often taken seriously at stores, or seen as weird by others because I know about, and have decent equipment. But unlike some people for me it isn't about the equipment, it is all about the experience. I've had to learn about and appreciate the equipment to attain the home experience in music and movies I want.

Thanks for listening,

Marie

* P.S. this is consistent everywhere in my life. I want a quality AV experience, as much as I want quality furniture, kitchen workings, cars, shoes, and clothes. Some in this forum may be amazed to learn that I've spent more on on one Escada outfit than I have on my most expensive piece of HT equipment.

 

[JoeE SP9]

For me it started with music. I bought a Fisher KX90 kit amp in 1967. Combined with a Perpetum Ebner TT and some Lafayette speakers it helped keep me sane while I was in the service. In 1975 I purchased a Pioneer TVX9500. It was a tuner(mono only) that picked up only the audio from broadcast tv stations. It was part of my early attempt to integrate my audio with video. In 1977 I purchased a pair of Magnepan MG1's. A couple of years later I bought an ARC SP3. I have been beyond help since.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

I've always enjoyed music, my parents forcing me to learn piano and all. My dad had many jazz records that he played on an old grundig turntable hooked up to a mono "hi-fi" Grundig radio. Eventually they got me a turntable, something just a little fancier than a close'n'play and from that I moved on to a Realistic turntable/amp/speaker setup. Cheap, but that's where I first heard Black Sabbath and my world changed.

My first real stereo was a Yamaha receiver and a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 7s.

But as far as home theater, I have never experienced it. I don't know anyone who owns one and other than what I've heard at Best Buy or the Bose Store, I really don't know what the home theater experience is like.

But I want!