Audio Gear & Quality, When You First Became Aware...

[soundmotor]

I was 16 or so and never given much thought to audio gear as far as quality. I certainly applied it to other things (cars, guns, skis) but it never dawned on me that there would be quality grades for audio gear. I'd gone with my mom to a multi-level department store and we were up in the kitchen section. While she was shopping I wandered off and found the stereo gear in with the furniture.

There was a big rack system front & center on a raised platform and the way the light was hitting it I could see right through the speaker cloth. There were silver ring stickers around the drivers and they were starting to peel off and drooping! I had the epiphany that what I was looking at was probably a piece of crap.

How about you, what was your experience?

 

[Hyfi]

Watched my brother build Heathkits, Hafler Kits, and Dynaco gear on the kitchen table and then test it all out on various models of AR Speakers when I was about 10 years old. No going backwards from there.

 

[SteveA]

When I had a part time job in a hifi store while a student.

 

[crazy-in-az]

I used a Bose Wave radio that my grandma gave me for about 3 years. I started getting the vinyl itch when I was about 17 after buying a Dual 1219 from my neighbor for $25, and some records at a second hand store. I remember there was CSN&Y's "Deja Vu" and Steely Dan's "Aja" in the small stack I bought, the latter being the one album that really opened my eyes to hifi. I had to get better equipment after hearing that...

 

[jdurbin1]

I remember when it happened, but not why. I had a semi-crappy all-in-one system in high school, a Panasonic device of some kind with a TT, receiver, & tape deck and the junky speakers that came with it. Took that to college & can remember taking it and whatever similar junk system my roommate had and merging them into a larger POS system that made more noise.

By the time I dropped out and moving back home for a bit, something had changed: I went to a local sound emporium and put an Advent 201A tape deck and Kenwood KA-7100 amp on layaway. Don't remember what else ended up in the system with those two components but everything I've owned since then has been better quality gear. Can't recall a specific catalyst for that, though.

John

 

[twiiii]

1960 just before I turned 15.

 

[Chrisxo55441]

I got a marantz 2245 - dual 1218 - and janszen z410 electrostatic speakers when i was 20 and i had been dreaming about it for a while before and looking around electronics stores wanting to get rid of my cheap gear so i must of been about 18 when the quality bug hit me 1972 maybe

 

[62vauxhall]

My parents rented out the top floor suite of our house to a couple who lived there a number of years. She was from Trinidad, absolutely gorgeous and always had a crock of fermented fruit cocktail on the counter. I got invited up numerous occasions for a scoop of ice cream with that on top. After a couple bowls of that, I felt good for some reason. Unfortunately there was a two serving limit.

He was a figure skating instructor with a national champion in his stable. Music for the routines was his pick from a selection of 78's. Then in 1964 when I was 11 he switched from those to LP's and from mono to stereo. His new amplifier was a Fisher (tubed in those days), a Dual turntable and AR speakers of some kind. That was the first time I heard stereo and it was better than mono.

 

[the_nines]

Back in the '70s, when I first heard these:

The rest is history.

Thank you, JBL!

 

[musichal]

When I was age 12 or 13, I volunteered to bring my Lloyd's eight-track receiver and speakers to a friend's pool party. I assured him it would be loud enough because it played loud in my small bedroom. Well, you know how that went - I was embarrassed. I began taking long bicycle rides into town, discovering McIntosh and AR, though they were well beyond affordability for a po' boy. That began a life-long hobby.

 

[soundmotor]

and always had a crock of fermented fruit cocktail on the counter.

That's something I'd not thought about in 40 years. My mom had a Swedish friend who did the same thing. She called it friendship fruit. It was a ritual when went over.

 

[soundmotor]

I remember when it happened, but not why. I had a semi-crappy all-in-one system in high school, a Panasonic device of some kind with a TT, receiver, & tape deck and the junky speakers that came with it. Took that to college & can remember taking it and whatever similar junk system my roommate had and merging them into a larger POS system that made more noise.

I had a Panasonic all-in-wonder too. It actually survived until move-out day my freshman year. A guy on the hall made me a cash offer on it and that was that.

 

[Hyfi]

That's something I'd not thought about in 40 years. My mom had a Swedish friend who did the same thing. She called it friendship fruit. It was a ritual when went over.

My wife's family is all Italian and her mom calls it Drunken Fruit

 

[toxcrusadr]

Dad had tube gear in the early 60s when I was a wee lad so I never heard a bad stereo until I got into high school and started going to friends' houses who had all in ones and maybe a console. Soon figured out I better watch my comments or I'd sound like an audio snob.

 

[Dave_1962]

I grew up with a crappy Viking portable TT (not even a radio in it) from Eaton's so I knew nothing about quality gear. When I was 17 (1979) I moved to another town and got a job at the foundry and went over to "buddy's" house one pay day and got exposed to his brand new Sansui BA-3000/CA-3000/TU-9900. That was it - I was a goner hooked for life.

 

[Hawkeye83]

I used a Bose Wave radio that my grandma gave me for about 3 years. I started getting the vinyl itch when I was about 17 after buying a Dual 1219 from my neighbor for $25, and some records at a second hand store. I remember there was CSN&Y's "Deja Vu" and Steely Dan's "Aja" in the small stack I bought, the latter being the one album that really opened my eyes to hifi. I had to get better equipment after hearing that...

I too pretty much got started with a Bose Wave Radio. My uncle gave it to me when I was 17 or so. Prior to that, my parents always had the crappy old all-in-one's from the 1970's...you know, the turntable, tuner, integrated amp, 8-track or cassette things. When I went to college I had the Bose Wave Radio and also some cheap Altec computer speakers. When I moved out of the dorms and into a house, I started thinking about a bigger stereo. Unfortunately I got suckered into some "white van" speakers. Shortly after buying those, I realized what they were. I sold them to a buddy, at a fair price (they actually didn't sound too bad, but they left a bad taste in my mouth, knowing what they were). I had another buddy that worked at Best Buy, who got a 50% discount on gear, so I bought some $900 Klipsch towers and a receiver. The system could POUND for parties! That's what I really cared about! I stuck with that system for about 10 years! Not until around 2012 did I really start the upgrade path. My wife bought me a Rega RP1 and that started it all. Next was a tube phono pre. Then new speakers. Then more new speakers. Then new amp and preamp. Then DAC. Then it just exploded. A whole train of speakers came rolling through.

But the Bose Wave Radio actually started it for me. I think it was just the name BOSE. Made me realize it might be worthwhile to seek out quality stereo pieces...after all, I knew I really loved music! Just didn't have the funds to actually do it for another 10+ years! And now here I am, 17 years later (twice as old as I was then!) with three "nice" stereos. Two pairs of speakers that I could consider "end-game" for me, my "dream" preamp (realistically), and some other nice pieces...some of them likely won't stick around for the long haul, but still quality pieces that are nice enough, for now.

 

[Audiofreak71]

I was 9 when my dad got the big box my uncle delivered while he was in the Army stationed in Germany. I'll never forget how excited my dad and I was opening it and I'll never forget the beautiful gold front and odd but cool gyro wheel that I would soon learn was the Marantz signature on most of there amps. The year was 1980 and I remember that day distinctly when we hooked it all up and I was sucked into this great journey that we all love and I still continue to this day.

 

[onepixel]

My epiphany hit when I was 16 in 1975. Wen I walked into the Kadena AFB, Base Exchange Stereo Shop on Okinawa, Japan. It's tropical and very humid there, so the shop was temperature and humidity controlled. The smell first hit me as I opened the sealed door, then all the shiny surfaces and lights and music. It was like Christmas, the Holy Grail, the Playboy Mansion. All the vintage stuff we drool over and covet was in stock. I remember staring at and being blown away by the sheer size and coolness of the Marantz 2600 and it's scope. The endless buttons and meters on the Sansui QRX-9001 Quad receiver. Stack after stack of Sansui, Pioneer, Kenwood, JBL, JVC, AKAI, amps, turntables, R2Rs, tape decks, speakers...

 

[Audiofreak71]

My epiphany hit when I was 16 in 1975. Wen I walked into the Kadena AFB, Base Exchange Stereo Shop on Okinawa, Japan. It's tropical and very humid there, so the shop was temperature and humidity controlled. The smell first hit me as I opened the sealed door, then all the shiny surfaces and lights and music. It was like Christmas, the Holy Grail, the Playboy Mansion. All the vintage stuff we drool over and covet was in stock. I remember staring at and being blown away by the sheer size and coolness of the Marantz 2600 and it's scope. The endless buttons and meters on the Sansui QRX-9001 Quad receiver. Stack after stack of Sansui, Pioneer, Kenwood, JBL, JVC, AKAI, amps, turntables, R2Rs, tape decks, speakers...

Ah the good ole days, it was nice to be able to see what is vintage now, new back in the day, all the big heavy over built equipment there was such excitement to go into a store and take it all in.

 

[cnolanh]

My parents had decent audio equipment in the 1960s and 70s (H/K, Dual, Pioneer, AR), so that's what I first heard growing up. For my own room, though, I owned just a small radio and drooled over nearly anything that would be an upgrade, even the Lloyds all-in-one systems I saw in catalogs.

As a 10-12 year old beginning to like rock music I decided that maxing out bass and treble controls and turning on loudness would get the most interesting sound out of a stereo. One day at my uncle's house he grumbled that someone who couldn't hear had been messing with his receiver, and he set all the tone controls back to flat. I overheard him and that might have been the moment that my hi-fi awareness really began.

About that same year, 1978, my dad came home with a Pioneer CT-F900 cassette deck and I was hooked immediately: silver knobs, Flouroscan meters, and the ability to record whatever I wanted from radio or LP! I made tapes on my parents' system and played them back in my own room or (later) in my car. The music and audio madness is still with me 40 years later...