What wake up your love for Hi-Fi audio ??

DVjorge

Active Member
I was inactive for some years but my passion for Hi-Fi has never ended. I don't know if this is something that happens to all us. I mean I have periods where I am more "connected" to the hobby and other times, I am more indifferent, but the passion is always there.

Anyway, before I go to bed, I am leaving this post to know what sparked your interest in the Hi-Fi world.

I was born in Cuba, a very poor country with a dictatorship regime governing since 1959. However, before it, when Cuba was open to the world and America, we had (or my parents) access to records and gear of that time. My parents had a Garrard turntable, a Fisher stereo tube preamp (1957 or 1958 I believe) and two Fisher 25 watts mono tube amps. The speakers they had were two Altec 602 Duplex 15". I was born in 1964 when all the good was already gone, but my parents told me Havana (Cuban capital) had many record stores where you could buy classic music, and all the music of their time. As an additional information, later I new people in Cuba who owned Tannoy, Whaferdale, Goodman, Celestion, McIntosch, etc (all of them made before 1960)

Anyway, the audio system I described was part of my childhood and I grew up listening to it until it last. That old audio system created my endless love for Hi-Fi. And to be honest, it sounded so good that sometimes I think it is the best I have listened to during all my years in this world. If you are curious to know what kind of music we listened to during the 60, 70, 80 and so on, most of them rock, pop, heavy metal, disco, etc. Since Cuba is only 90 miles far from Key West, many american radio stations were what we listened to. Young guys of my time loved Eagle, Fleetwood Mac, Kansas, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Foreigner, Styx, Billy Joel, Rod Steward, Dire Straight, etc, and that was the music we listened to every time we had a party.

Now, I want to hear what waked up your love for it.

Thanks and good night to everyone.!
 
My Dad had a great HiFi... I never cared for his taste in music as a kid or teenager since it was all classical and I wasnt into it back then. But I learned from him that gear mattered. He also had a soft top MG sports car.

I got my love of cars and audio gear from him and I thank him for both. Awesome hobbies
 
Neglect and embarrassment.

A friend was visiting from Tucson, and the DIY speakers I'd kept for years wouldn't play right because of bad connections. I've since fixed them, but not before ordering a pair of MMGs, and starting down the path...

:)
 
Working on Thursday evenings and some Saturdays in my neighbours hifi store when I was a student. Seemed a great improvement to the stuff dad had at home.
Diring that time my own system got a jump start when I brought back some duty free kit from Fiji.
 
It was definitely the music first and foremost, and the two somewhat older brothers who introduced me to good rock music and good gear to play it on. I have had almost passionate interests about certain things in my life, motorcycles, guns, building boats etc, but most of that my interest has waned to some degree over the years. Music even lost some of its pizazz over many years when always working away from home when I left my best gear with my oldest brother to care for and enjoy.

It really wasn't until a few years ago when I got my old audio gear (amp and speakers) back that all the excitement came rushing back from my youth like it had never left! Now I am once again hooked on music and making the playback and enjoyment of it be the best I can make it be..
 
My love of Music was sparked by the music my older brother played on my Dad's Sansui 5000/Dual 1019/SP1500(?) system. As far as gear the journey took many twists and turns and continues to this day. However I have returned to the scene of the crime because as I type this post I am listening to the CD version of "Deja Vu" by CSN&Y on another Sansui 5000 while the very same Dual 1019 that belonged to my Dad sits waiting to take a spin.
 
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Loved music from the get go and just wanted to hear it better. We never had anything notable to listen on, (Mom's portable record player with tubes inside, and a cheap 8 track/turntable/AM-FM combo with plastic speakers) but I always messed around with speakers and radios. I got a Proton clock radio one year and hooked it up to a Goodman's Twinaxiom that an uncle gave me. Added a Hitachi 6" with a cap to make it a tweeter and then I had some big sound! Built a pair of bookshelf speakers with Vifa drivers and crossover elements from Solen, ran them off a Harman Kardon Hk385i. I miss that setup, it's all long gone. I still build my own speakers.
 
Love to hear all your histories.! Sure, there is something common to all us that a portable radio isn't enough to be happy.
 
Loved music from the get go and just wanted to hear it better. We never had anything notable to listen on, (Mom's portable record player with tubes inside, and a cheap 8 track/turntable/AM-FM combo with plastic speakers) but I always messed around with speakers and radios. I got a Proton clock radio one year and hooked it up to a Goodman's Twinaxiom that an uncle gave me. Added a Hitachi 6" with a cap to make it a tweeter and then I had some big sound! Built a pair of bookshelf speakers with Vifa drivers and crossover elements from Solen, ran them off a Harman Kardon Hk385i. I miss that setup, it's all long gone. I still build my own speakers.
By the way, I also built some speakers when young. Since I had many limitations, tweeters worked with a 2.2 micro Cap and woofer without coils, straight to the amp. Incredible, some of them sounded good. I love Vifa drivers, as well as Peerless, Dynaudio, etc
 
I've told this story before but what first made me realize that Some Gear Is Better Than Others was visiting my grandparents as a kid. They had a big Magnavox console in the living room and the kitchen was actually an addition all the way on the other side of the house (old farmhouse, built back when kitchens were outbuildings) we'd walk in the door and get hit by the sound of Angry German Guys (usually Beethoven) at a volume such that Grandma could listen comfortably in the kitchen. But what I really loved was the similar Pilot console she had in her office upstairs (this was a BIG house!) apparently procured for cheap at a church rummage sale because nobody wanted it but my grandfather had a truck and lots of space.

Sadly my grandmother passed suddenly at a ripe old age but with no warning so I never got that console. However I did buy a Pilot 654 receiver off of AK and I drag it out every now and then. Some day I will restore it to 100% but I'm going to do a few others first.

It was my current girlfriend who got me interested in actively improving my gear. I'd made some offhand comment about her HTIB and you'd have thought I'd kicked a puppy in front of her. So I had to rectify that, now we both have better sound. Sadly I was doing fine for years as my receiver was a HK 330c but I blew it up somehow deoxiting it and passed it on.
 
When i was a kid my dad had a hmv radiogram that to me sounded great.
I remember he had a big box in the cupboard full of tube's and every now an then he'd drag the box out and have a couple of hour swapping tubes out till he got it to sound the way he liked it again.
I used to go and play his record's or just listen to the radio when he and my mum were out.
If he would have found out he would have killed me.
But that is what got me in to music. After all its all about the music! My system is a means to an end. It allows me to enjoy my music the way it was intended. LOAD :rockon:
 
Heard good sound first at a friends house shooting pool when we were still in high school. McIntosh tube, h u u u u g e speakers, IIRC, Klipsch.
I was always mechanically inclined, loved to experiment, and started chasing that sound. That led to car stereo installs, a job at Radio Shack, layaway purchases at the local stereo shop, Meyer TV and Audio.
Still playing today, weaving proficiency in computers with old gear.
Currently, a Dell Optiplex 760 USFF, to a Schiit DAC, to Kenwood 8006, to Klipsch KG4.
A Maverick Audio DAC with matching op amps and upgraded tube is on the Christmas list. Hope I've been good, or at least good enough!
 
This forum. I had most of my gear stored, got it out, dusted it off, and never looked back. Not sure how long I've been a subscribing member, but the knowledge base here has made me realize I must of missed out on a lot of quality listening from the mid seventies until recently. VTF, Anti-skate, isolation, speakers off the floor, tweeters at ear level, etc., never gave it a thought pre AK.
 
A girlfriends dad had Klipschorns in the living room and a quad of AR3's in the family room.

Remember it was all powered by a big Marantz with a RTR and Thorens I think turntable? Might have been a Dual who knows it was a very long time ago.

My eyes were opened to a lot of things there but the hifidelity left its impression on me. He helped me build some speakers at the time since I showed an interest in stereo sound. Made the cabinets in wood shop based on his dimensions and he figured out the crossover network etc. They sounded pretty darn good to me but I gave them to my no good brother in law years ago who thrashed them.

Been hooked ever since.
 
My Dad caught the audio bug in the late 1950s. When I was a teen, he would allow me to go with him on the weekends to an audio store in Erie PA called the House of Records. They sold records of course, but the store was full of high end (for its time) audio equipment. I was hooked after that.
 
Was into hi end in my 20's. Bought a system that included an Audio Research D76A, Audio Research 3A preamp, Tympani Magneplanar 1C's, and Rabco ST7 turntable. Paid on it for 3 years. Got divorced and remarried in my early 40's. I was in a store in Marietta, Ga a few years ago and heard a sound that was amazing. Asked the guy what he was playing and he showed me an Oracle turntable and some vintage (I don't remember) speakers. This store became The Audio Company in a few years. Any way, one Christmas the wife asks what I would like for Christmas. I told her nothing, just let me build a system like I had in my 20's. She said OK under a coulple of conditions.
1. Never miss a bill
2. Don't go crazy........but I think I did.
3. And if a bill collector ever calls, I can kiss my butt goodbye.

I have met all those conditions and my signature says what I ended up with.
She's a good woman. I will keep her.
 
It was a sort of golden age of gear in the mid 70's. A lot of the older guys had come home from overseas with some great gear. One was a roommate for a while and a Sansui with 4 Pioneer speakers and a Akai RtR. That RtR and the Ten Years After Watt tape was the start for me.
 
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