the stereorob stereostory...., what brought you to this hobby??

hello, most of you guys allready know me, stereorob, aka, the shock and awe guy, the guy with too much gear, audio-jackazz, audiostunna, e.t.c,
here is how i found this hobby., im 26 years old, ive been collecting gear most of my life.

early experiances,

as a baby, my mom used to put my crib next to a stereo, she told me that i liked to play with the controls,

when i was 4 years old, my great aunt died, my parents were still young and poor, so my dad took all of her old furniture, along with a 1950s magnavox console stereo., the console ended up in my room, i used to play racecar or spaceship it it when i was little, it didnt work. when i was 5, i started taking things apart, my dad was gunna throw it away, so hecut the power cord, and gave me a screwdriver, and a few days later, it was in 1000 little peices lol.
in that console, i found a 78 speed record, the changer in the console didnt work. i had a fisher price record player that didnt play 78s amd i wanted to hear what the record sounded like.

this was the beginning..

i was 6 by then but i had no idea how to get a 78 turntable, neither did my dad. lol so we started hitting garage sales, and flea markets hoping to find one, my first taste of the game!! it took us over a year before we found a working one for cheap. the hunts were dissapointing, but my dad worked alot and it was the only real father and son time we had together., when i was 8, we finally found a school record player at a record shop for $20., it had a tube in it. and it worked!, sucsess!! oh it was such a thrill to score one! and it played 78s!, i still remember driving home with it, and how exited i was to get one!

fast-forward to 1993, i was 9.

my grandparents had a summer house in indiatlanitc, (fl), and i went to spend the summer with them, they were flea market junkies, this is when i scored my first "stereo", an all-in-one panasonic with an 8-track, tuner, and tt.
i thought i was the man!! lol, next week, i found an all-in-one "electrophonic" system. i went home that fall with two new old stereos, this is when i had my first stereo fight with my folks.. "too many bobby"...if i had a dollar for every time i herd that..

than not long after that, i got my first receiver.. a fisher 500b. that story later. my lunchbreak is over, outta time. much more to come!!!

My first real experience: I was about 6 and my mom gave me two old cassette players.. Neither worked correctly, but I took them apart, and using the belt from one, I made the other one play at the correct speed. My parents were first shocked to see that I had stolen (well, I borrowed it on the sly) a screw driver and take them apart, but they were even more surprised to see that I actually got one of them to work. After that, they gave me all kinds of old stuff to tinker with. We were pretty low income, so it was a hobby that suited my parents' failure to earn good wages.

When I was in high school, I had a job working in an apartment complex - I painted apartments part time, and worked in the office on the weekends and some evenings. It was a large place, and it had like 8 dumpsters. I found TVs, speakers, stereos, records, you name it. And better yet, many of the tenants knew about this, so when they would move out or upgrade, they would just give me their "garbage."

These days, I mostly buy working or close to working gear, but I still prefer to buy stuff used for cheap, if possible.

the vinyldavid vinylepic:

I've wanted better reproduction ever since I was a kid. My mother got me my first record player at age 2, and I was messing with my father's stereo system (he's an over the road trucker and never around) by age 3. This stereo consisted of a Sont STR-AV1070 receiver, Sony TC-K670 Cassette, Pioneer CLD-M90 LD/CDP, Sony Linear turntable, and Bose 10.2 speakers. I even made tapes. I also fixed a couple portable tape recorders around this time. Mainly by putting rubber bands in for belts.

At age 4 we moved out of that house and he tried to give away the system to his friend for helping us move, but I supposedly through such a fit that they kept the components other than the TT and speakers.

I always liked 'old radios and record players' and was more than mildly obsessed with consoles. I had a GE tube console that my mother forced me to toss when she saw the back glowing ('twas tubed), and so I persuaded her to get $18 bookshelf speakers for the Sony receiver. That's what started it all...upgrading from there.

I bought a couple TT's, had a Centrex all in one, and a buncha stuff. Then........decent audio. First vintage thing was a Sansui 661, and I don't want to even try to list everythign I have had since then. I have a running list somewhere on my other computer tho. The 661 was age 12, and I joined AK at 15.

ok, i have a few more minutes, back to the story!

at the age of 9, i had my first collection, about 10 diffrent all-in-ones, (8track,tt,radio)
but one day i got my first receiver, only by chance. it was an accident that couldnt happen!..

here is how it went down...

myfamely has a beach house in boca grande, fl, on the west coast, sometimes my dad would drive the senic route, and not take the hi-way, we would take hwy 27 through all those little backwoods towns, sebring, arcaida, frostproof, lake placid, etc.
where hwy 27 intersects with cr 771? i think thats the name, was this little greezy spoon diner that we would always stop for lunch during the trip, it was in the middle of absolutly nowere, well there was this old dilapidated house across from the diner, all overgrown, boards on the windows, etc, this house was a closed up junk shop, that had been closed for years. well just on this one day, the owner of the junkshop had died, and the famely was there to look at the house and decide what to do with it.
wile we were waiting for our food to come out, i somehow was able to slip away un-noticed, and went outside to do something bad, (i was a very bad kid.) i snuck over to the old house, and got inside, (i didnt know there was anyone there), the doors were unlocked. inside was all kinds of old junk! all coverd in dust and cob-webs, the place smelled very musty.
being the fearless inquisitive punk i was with no fear of death, at all, i ventured into the blackness,then i found a staircase, (in central florida some houses have basements) i started down the stairs into the blackness, i got about 4 steps down, and herd a noise, (the owners of the house came back), just then, the creaking staircase fell in on me!!! it was infested with termites and collapsed, taking me down into hell with it!!, i fell for what seemed like forever, and went splat on the concrete floor below, -with various other things with me. and to top it off, an old matress that was under the stairs fell on top of me., i suddenly hurd the shuffle of feet running to the basement door, a angry guy with a country accent said, "what the hell? "who the hell is down here?" "you gunna die!!!" just then some sunlight came threw the basement window, and when i opened my eyes, there 2 feet infront of my face, was an old radio., the guy pulled the matress of of me, and grabbed me by my hair and stood me up, i was brused, and dirty, but not hurt. he was about to give me the wuppin of my life, but realized i was a child and got scared. "my god boy! u aalriit?"
"u dun jus about die down heerea" he said, being the brat i was, i said, "can i have the old radio?", "yes, just take the damn thing and scram!", so i pulled it off the floor and got outside with it. then i realised it was a fisher. around that same time my dad came outside worried looking for me, i was walking across hwy.
to be continued!!!!!...............

so basically you stole your 1st receiver ? :yes:

Let's hear more --very interesting

I think it was 1976.....I was around 11 or 12, came home from grade school one day to my Grandfathers house and in the hallway was a bunch of big ass boxes. I distinctly remember my Pap upon my entry saying "Don't touch any of that stuff in the hallway your Uncle will kill you" or words to that effect.

Turns out my uncle had his new stereo delivered that day. At the time he had a little Lafayette amp with like 4 controls, a Garrard table, and Criterion speakers and I thought it was pretty cool.

I already knew about audio from reading his High Fidelity and Stereo Reviews so when I saw a Pioneer SX-838, JBL Decade 36 speakers, and a Technics SL-1300, I remember thinking "this is going to be awesome"

Well Unc finally comes home from work and after dinner proceeds to set up the system. After installing the V-15 on the TT on goes Steve Miller - Brave New World.

WOAHHH.....Space Cowboy combined with the delicious smell of new electronics.....yeah, it was definitely awesome. That was it....the rest as they say, is history.

He soon handed me down the Lafayette system which was my first "real" stereo. After a couple years of saving money I had earned, got as gifts, from pop bottles, etc. I bought my first piece - a brand new in a sealed box and all........SX-780 :yes:

And here I am today

BTW, my beloved 780 lived a hard life and suddenly died sometime in the early 90's :tears: I eventually used it for parts to restore another 780 and today it's battered remains are sitting somewhere up in the attic :thmbsp:

When I was born, the doctor looked at my mama and said....Mam, your child has Golden ears. I have been on a quest ever since.

cool

well ill continue the story tomorrow when i get to work, the computer at the office is WAY better than this pos.

I've had some sort of decent or better system for the past 40 years and started buying records then. I never really considered it a hobby until I rediscovered my turntable about 7-8 years ago after a 15 year hiatus from playing vinyl (in favor of CD's). Until then, music was simply the stuff that came out of the speakers, not a hobby. To me, considering listening to music a hobby would have been akin to calling watching TV a hobby. It was entertainment.

I think part of why I now consider it a hobby is my renewed interest in vinyl and the ongoing search for new (to me) old music and records at yard sales, thrifts, and used record stores to fill gaps in my collection. To most people (outside of AK), collecting and playing vinyl on vintage audio gear is probably considered eccentric/unusual behavior. The word "hobby" is shorthand for enjoying something that is out of the mainstream.

When I started doing this in the late '60's (and for a couple of decades thereafter), listening to music on a nice stereo was decidedly mainstream. Listening to vinyl nowadays makes one a member of a fairly small club.

kind ofa late bloomer to having gear of my own. We had a community record Changer when I wasa kid, and a table radio in the dining room. Parents weren't into Audio that much. a few records and such. didn't get anything decent until all the kids were grown and gone. I've had a "stereo" from the time I was in the Navy (73 or so). SX434, Dual 1229 and a pair of Marantz Imperial 4G's. By the time I got married in 82, the 434 was dying from abuse, the 1229 had got bent durng a move, and the 4G's were on their last legs. The wife had an old Philco TV/Radio console (early 60's) that she watched/used. So the 434 got relegated to the attic. the Philco finally gave up the ghost, so we went to the Local "Stereo Store" and got a Kenwood Kr910, an AKAI GX4000D, and a cheap little Sanyo cassette Deck. A pair of MCS speakers, and it was good for about 10 years. then the PIONEER BUG Hit in the mid 90's. VSX456, a Dual Cassette Deck, CDM403 CD Player, and a pair of 201's. About 2 years ago I got the bug for a Console. 1964 Magnavox that was barely working. The amp was shot. tried to fix it, but didn't happen. Strippedit for parts, Got another one at the thrift shop (working). Then I found CRAIGSLIST. And it REALLY TOOK OFF. 5 Magnovox consoles (all astrosonics), 3 FISHERS(1 solid state, 2 hybrids), a 57 Olympic (did a restore on it), a 58 RCA (restored), then I found the SX-1010, SX-790, QX9900,QX747A, Sansui 1000A(total restore on it), Sansui 2000A, Fisher 400, and 500TX, AKAI's GX365D(Restored it), GX370, numerous low to low mid level speakers, Pioneer turntables, Duals, Miracords, a couple of Garrards. And there was the Radio Craftsman Model 10 Tuner and 550A amp which I restored.

I do it to keep busy, but rarely sell anything. Occasionally I'll sell a piece off but I like to fiddle with the stuff so much I don't see how I can break even. Everything has at least been recapped, (the Sansui 1000A, and Fisher 400 completely rebuilt), cabinets restored, and such.

I have my favorite console in the Living room, and SWMBO has hers in the Dining Room along with the RCA. Both of them are FISHERS. All the rest are in the basement. But I have the basement totally so I can do pretty much what i want down there.

Hit the flea markets in the area on a weekly basis and thrifts 2-3 times a week. and that's about all I can stand. Too many hustlers, and scammers, and just plain thieves.

Being on disability has it's ups(lots of time to play with the stuff) and downs (lack of funds most of the month to get basics to work on gear.) but it's been one hell of a trip.

Larry

donberry said:

so basically you stole your 1st receiver ? :yes:

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. Rob is there ever a point in this story when you get some class and become respectful of other people in your life and dealings? If not... Please stop telling it. I've really been biting my tongue for a while to try not to say anything negative in response to some of your posts and threads but you're continuing to make it harder and harder to do that.

elgato8905 said:

Exactly what I was thinking. Rob is there ever a point in this story when you get some class and become respectful of other people in your life and dealings? If not... Please stop telling it. I've really been biting my tongue for a while to try not to say anything negative in response to some of your posts and threads but you're continuing to make it harder and harder to do that.

Click to expand...

would you like some cheese with that wine?

first of all, when i broke into that old house, i thought it was abandond., and if you have nothing good to say, say nothing. if you dont like my posts, dont read them., how about YOU share YOUR "how i got into stereo gear" story?
stay on topic! i dont want this one to get closed before i can even finish it.

THANK YOU.

stereorob said:

would you like some cheese with that wine?

first of all, when i broke into that old house, i thought it was abandond., and if you have nothing good to say, say nothing. if you dont like my posts, dont read them., how about YOU share YOUR "how i got into stereo gear" story?
stay on topic! i dont want this one to get closed before i can even finish it.

THANK YOU.

Click to expand...

That obviously answers my question.

elgato8905 said:

That obviously answers my question.

Click to expand...

no hard feelings, well, how about it? your story?

I remember back in the late 60's, my mother bought me a Philco 1964 Ford Mustang transistor radio. I listened to that radio for close to 10 years. I remember going to bed at night listening to WLS and WCFL. Later I got addicted to talk radio by listening to Ed Schwartz on WIND which he always had interesting topics.

Never had a decent system during the 70's. The best system on the block was my next door neighbor. His father had a console stereo that had tubes in it. The speakers were huge with 15" woofers that used to make the grill in front move. It was awesome to listen to 45's we bought at the local K Mart. He had other consoles since he was a pack rat. He also had a Grundig stereo where it had an equalizer which when you adjust the controls, would raise these music notes.

My brother got an all-in-one stereo in 1972 which I don't remember the brand name. It had two very small speakers with a small turntable and radio. He later got a Capeheart stereo in 1973 that was all-in-one, but it had an 8 track recorder. I remember him recording 8 tracks on it from 45's. He was an expert fitting every song perfect before the track changes. His old stereo got retired to the basement. I remember inviting my friends over to listen to Cheech and Chong, George Carlin and Richard Pryor and we would laugh ourselves sick.

I managed to get a new Soundesign stereo at the local Zayre store in May of 1979. It had a separate turntable with a AM/FM Stereo receiver with 8 track built-in. The turntable started acting up within a few months. One channel was louder than the other, the controls were starting to get scratchy. I sure did not know any better.

I started working in September 1979. My mother recently got a divorce and our fiances were not too good. So, my mother got me a job where she worked at Bantam Books. I made $143 a week after taxes. Out of that I gave $90 to my mother to help out. I went to Radio Shack in Des Plaines where I picked out a Realistic STA 52B receiver, MC 1400 speakers and a LAB 89 turntable for a total of $339. I put everything on layaway when I started working. I managed to get the system in March of 1980. Listening to that system compared to my other stereos was like night and day.

Had other systems during the 80's and 90's which came and go. Had receivers and separates. Some were nice like an A8087 Onkyo integrated amplifier. Others were terrible like the Kenwood KR-76R receiver. Went with receivers with digital tuning, It sounded good, but somehow, something was missing in my listening experience.

Went to a resale shop called Cash Converters in 2001. I have bought a Pioneer SX 3800 receiver for $40. I just fell in love with the analog tuning dial, the weight of the unit and the sound. Never looked back since.

Back in about 1963 or so, my dad bought a Philco console stereo and my mother would play Broadway musicals and other assorted old-school music on it while me and my 4 brothers and sisters had gone to bed. The Philco, of course, was tubed and had that now-classic Danish walnut finish to it. Fact is, my mother used it far more than my father. This was the fixture in the house outside of the B&W TV we had right through my high school years.

Fast forward to 1972, the year I graduated and we moved to Durham, NC just after I graduated that June. Not knowing anyone in town, I wandered around on a bike to get to know the area around Duke University.

Tucked away in a small commercial district close to Duke was an audio store, Soundhaus, who was a McIntosh dealer. So, one hot afternoon that summer, I rode by to hear one of those Broadway musicals being played from inside so I parked the bike and went in.

Not ever having been exposed to anything but the mighty Philco console, I was not prepared for the dark, plush showroom. Low lights played across the audio gear along the walls and the place, with its separate auditioning rooms, seemed more like a hookah bar than an audio salon.

Well, Robert Goulet singing the theme song from, 'Camelot', seemed to be standing just in the next room as I entered. Now, this is a frequent LP played as I had gone to sleep for the better part of a decade by this time and I had never heard it sound like what I was hearing.

Mr. Goulet's audition room presence, I discovered as I rounded the corner, was actually one huge McIntosh setup with massive speakers (ML4C's as I discovered) and large tube amplifiers sitting on top with meters gently bouncing along to the beat (MC3500s as I learned later).

A salesman asked me if he could help about then and I said, 'no', but then decided to ask how much something like this would cost. I can't remember the exact figure but quickly realized it was far more than the Chevy II car my mom used to drive around for errands. As I stepped away astounded that people would pay that amount of $$ for a stereo, the salesman came back and asked if I liked something else than musicals and would I be interested in listening to this brand new LP he had just picked up by a band called the Doobie Brothers? Well, that went onto the Thorens TD-125 w/SME arm and I was once again blown away with a sheer wall of sound. IIRC, they were using the C28 preamp with the setup. I shall, as long as I live, remember that moment when the audio bug bit - and badly.

After that, I set out on a quest to have some McIntosh gear myself one day. Indeed, when I arrived at college (as a music major!) I sought out the local stereo stores and ended up working at one though it wasn't a Mac dealer. My first piece of Mac gear was an MX-110 that was traded in and next came the Thorens TD-124/SME arm/Ortofon cartridge.

I've been at it now pretty much non-stop save for the time the kid was small.

Cheers,

David

Not too much to tell, as i'm not very old (feeling older everyday though)

Was playing records on my mothers panasonic all-in-one (yeah, with thrusters) when I was about four or so, she has a nice collection of the Beach boys and all that, great fun. Well, being a kid, I don't care too much for a while, and change focus.

Turn around to middle school, i'm bored, so I root through my dads massive cd collection. Not much there of interest (for some reason he likes "nature" tapes:scratch2...EXCEPT one...Dark side of the moon...if you could wear out a cd, that would have been the one. Turn around and find "wish you were here", "animals", and "the wall". Well, at this point I have a favorite band, and am enjoying music.

High school didn't allow much to happen in the way of music, really, I mostly listened to a old (60's solid state) GE radio in study hall that got some commments (at that point, the school rules did not say that radios were not allowed, just digital media devices). And this leads to the early college semesters, where, after earning some money, I go down to a resale shop, and for a reasonable price by a perfect sx-525, and epi t/e-70's. Well, that was the top of the slope...

Couple years later, I have two main turntables, two receivers(upgraded to the sx-727, after some work), and start getting a good collection going. The best thing I can say about getting into mid/hi-fi, is that I now love music, my music taste and knowledge have leapfrogged dramatically...not only from getting a real setup, but from joing AK even.

Well...that was a long short story...

As a kid in the 50's, Dad had a Grundig stereo rcvr.console, with a, I believe, Garrard TT within and a separate extension speaker. He would mainly play his considerable jazz collection...Armstrong, Goodman, Biderbeck etc, Mum had her Broadway shows. As we lived in Ghana at this point, Dad also was into Highlife, some of which I still have.

I started buying records in 1962 I think, amongst the first was Telstar/The Tornados and then the Beatles came along. My first LP purchase was "With the Beatles" and shortly thereafter came the first Rolling Stones album.

My first personal rig was a Bush record player with integrated speaker, this followed me around for years, to boarding school and the like. Think I sold it in 1970 when I graduated for 5 pounds.

After that I didn't have a stereo for years as I made my way around the world, before returning to Scotland in 1974, where I bought an ITT AIO. That was replaced by a Pioneer (some model that had about 20WPC) around 1975, some Phillips speakers and for the life of me I can't remember the TT make now.

All that was replaced by a Quad 33/303, FM 3, Technics SL 1510 and Rectilinear speakers. The speakers and TT were purchased at Mildenhall USAF base in England as my wife and I had base privileges anywhere in the UK. I still have that set up, the TT is about to make a reappearence, the Rectlinears and the Quad gear all need refurbished, coming soon. The Quad was purchased from an outfit in Brighton, England who amongst other things, built mixer consoles for many well known artists at the time, Exposure Electronics.

There, now you have my thumb nail sketch of how it all came to be