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What started you on your audio journey?

Airjmax

Airjmax

Active Member
I had always loved listening to records, then tapes, and on to CD's, but once children entered the picture and I mothballed my Pioneer SX-4, PL-220, CT-6R in favor of a Sony AV receiver, the enthusiasm died down a bit. Years later, while minding my own business, the bug bit me square in the ass! I was doing my usual thrifting and I stumbled on a Playback 500SX receiver at Goodwill. The memories came flooding back. Of course I immediately had to have it, and it was only $5.99! I scurried home with it, only to find that my Pioneer rack system speakers (CS-410) on a shelf in the garage had tweeters with the foam gone. Flash forward to a garage sale a week or so later, and I found a pair of vintage Magnavox S-8735 speakers for FIFTY CENTS! Another week or so later, I found a Technics SL-5 turntable at Salvation Army for $11.99. For a mere $18.50, I had a working vintage system. Many pieces of equipment have come and gone since then. The beat goes on, but these meager pieces kicked it all off!
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I was fascinated by records when I was around 14 or 15. My dad had his old Sony turntable sitting in storage, so one day I finally pulled it out and convinced him to help me get it running.
 
When I was about four, my Dad brought home a JBL 030 mono system in a plain plywood cabinet. I helped my Mom stain it in the kitchen. About five-years later, my Dad decided go stereo and purchased a Garrard TT, a Fisher 400 receiver, and some house-unbranded wall-mounted speakers. He then took the old system and put it at the curb for the Goodwill to pick up. I was about nine-years-old at the time and dragged that big box inside to my room and hid it in my closet along with the Pilot integrated (mono) amp and an Elac-Miracord TT. That was my first system. I was hooked. 63-years after it first entered my home, that speaker is still mine! I mated it with another orphan 030 when I was in high-school and bought a used McIntosh C20 pre-amp and a Fisher SA1000 amp used. I still have the Mac! I replaced the Fisher and its cranky and expensive RCA tubes with a Crown D150 amp around 1974 and still have that today, too! It's been a great six-decades.
:beerchug:
 
From the little GE transistor radio my grandpa gave me when I was a little kid; to the family Panasonic AM/FM 8-Track stereo with the speakers hanging the wall in the farm kitchen and a little Panasonic 8-Track player you see in my avatar that I got for Christmas as a pre-teen; to the Pioneer SX-780/EPI-100s/PL-200 TT/Pioneer cassette deck that I purchased with my hard earned farm wages during high school, is what got it all going. When I had a new career and family the audio interest went away for many years. I'm 57 now and it's only me and my wife around the house, so I purchased a new audio gear over the last few years and enjoy listening to music again.
 
We had a RCA mono tube hifi in the Dining room. It was old as f when I was in junior high, but it made nice sounds. But it’s really my media engineer neighbor and his cool wall of gear. None of which I could afford, so I bought a Readers Digest walnut clamshell record player for $5, and a Sony tape deck for $6, both at garage sales. I’d tape off of my brothers Bell and Howell receiver (it had no dial lights, I had to use a flashlight) and play the records I had and other taped hits. It was jank, but I loved it. I modded the speakers with RS drivers.
This is the model from RD, and this is the exact model cassette deck. I had to search that one out! It cost me $15 whole dollars to get it fixed back then. Dirty controls.
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Another my dad.

Funny thing is he was a casual user / music fan. But happened to drop some decent coin on a lower mid end rig. Sansui receiver and turntable and some infinity speakers. I absolutely loved as a young kid and it really took hold of me. By 16 or so I was well beyond my dads interest and gear.

I went wayyy too far since those days. And trying to dial back nowadays lol
 
As a young child in the 80s, I was given a portable cassette player like this one....

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techguy0192 said:
As a young child in the 80s, I was given a portable cassette player like this one....
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I had a portable Sanyo cassette deck as a kid in the mid 70s. I used to put it on the handlebars of my bike so I could have music while riding it.

I heard some excellent gear in the late 70s and early 80s, and was moving towards building a nice system when I bought a Marantz 1530 receiver, Legacy 100 speakers, and I do not remember what my turntable or cassette deck were. Then I went through a fire. And then kids. No time, money, or energy for quality audio.

When my kids had grown up, I started restoring Apple computer gear. I was starting to buy PowerMac G5s (my favourites), iMac G3s, eMacs, and more, and a room in the basement had about 40 units stored. As that was winding down (too much competition), I saw an ad for a MAC1900. The rest is history!
 
My late uncle, mom's brother. He had a "Hi-Fi" system back in the late 50's. It was like a 2.5 foot cube on four legs - top lifted up to reveal a turntable and front was where the mono speaker was mounted. I would have been 4 or 5 years old when I first saw it. He wouldn't let me touch it, but he did play some records for me. Can't even remember which ones or what genre. I'm guessing folk stuff like "The Brothers Four", etc. as my brothers and I found dozens of such records in the later model Mid Century Modern console my folks had. We had fun playing "Sama Kama Wacky Brown".

Years later, I was given an RCA (?) all in one system when I was in high school. I replaced it while in college in the early to mid 70's with a cheap Kenwood integrated amp (that I still have working), Garrard turntable and some really large, really cheap speakers I bought at K-Mart. Later bought a Technics top loading cassette deck with Dolby B (that I still have), and I was off and running. Recorded hundreds of albums on TDK-SA 90's while I was at college.

When I got married in 1978, a different uncle (Dad's brother) asked what I was going to do with the cash we received as gifts. Told him I was going to buy some Infinity Qe speakers. He asked, "Why the Qe". I told him they almost sounded as good as the Qb, and I didn't feel I could spend that much on speakers. He slipped me another $50 and said, "Get the Qb's." I did. Listening to them now. I found out years later that he had a set of Qb's himself. I don't know if they were bought before or after we spoke. He died a year ago, and I never asked him. Dunno why...

My nephew's eyes got really large when he saw my cassettes, and he couldn't believe it when I handed him a Pioneer double cassette player and a Pioneer VSX something or other receiver and all the tapes. Another nephew got that same Technics linear turntable pictured in the first post in this thread. Three generations of Audio Karma spread across several branches of my family tree.
 
As far back as I am able to remember, it was fascination for music that drove me to musical instruments, musical recordings, and the means by which to express my self musically and listen to the recordings. I was "playing records" and the radio by age 4-5 years, playing piano by age 5, guitar by age 7, and listening to and collecting "Race Records" -- LP, 78, and 45RPM formats -- by age of 10 or 11, throughout the South Side (Chicago) and in Gary (IN), and all over the North Side -- garage/yard sales, secondhand stores, etc. -- where I could find old-time "String Bands" (read: Country), "Rock 'n Roll", "Rockabilly, and eventually ""Psych", "Prog", "Folk" and so on. Should note that copping really good "String Band" (i.e., early "Country") in Chicago, especially in 78 format, was tres difficult; but so-called "Race Records" were everywhere, and it seems that by circa 1966 nobody wanted those ol' "dusties" takin' up space no more and were glad to dump as much as would fit in our wagons or, in the case of record hunting in Gary, in the back of our mother's station wagon: Yes, she drove us down to Gary and waited patiently as we went door-2-door asking if folks had any old records they didn't want. In the city we were on our own, on foot (after El transport) or bicycles.

PS: First "good" sudio system was a gift from my grandmother in 1966 and was comprised of a Sony receiver, AR speakers, and a Garrard turntable. The first LP I spun on that player was a "new" record I'd just bought: The Doors S/T (1966), the debut LP. I think a Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, or Kink album was the second spin.
 
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I "upgraded" by disconnecting the internal speaker and hooking up to a 5" or 6" TV speaker someone gave me.
I think I put the speaker in some kind of wooden box, maybe a crate. Mid 60's when I was in 5th grade...
Somewhat better system today.
 
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I was always kind of interested in the gear and from a pretty young age mad about collecting records. I've had hi fi gear going back to when I was a teenager and I've upgraded some of the gear over the years, but didn't really become serious about chasing the really good sound until very, very recently... I always had a "music first" philosophy, which kind of of prevented me from taking the gear too seriously. At some point I got kind of bored of my music collection and it was only then that I started to think more seriously about putting together an audio system that would hopefully make my old records (and some new ones) sound so good that I'd be hearing them in a new light... and it's pretty much worked!
 
Airjmax said:
I had always loved listening to records, then tapes, and on to CD's, but once children entered the picture and I mothballed my Pioneer SX-4, PL-220, CT-6R in favor of a Sony AV receiver, the enthusiasm died down a bit. Years later, while minding my own business, the bug bit me square in the ass! I was doing my usual thrifting and I stumbled on a Playback 500SX receiver at Goodwill. The memories came flooding back. Of course I immediately had to have it, and it was only $5.99! I scurried home with it, only to find that my Pioneer rack system speakers (CS-410) on a shelf in the garage had tweeters with the foam gone. Flash forward to a garage sale a week or so later, and I found a pair of vintage Magnavox S-8735 speakers for FIFTY CENTS! Another week or so later, I found a Technics SL-5 turntable at Salvation Army for $11.99. For a mere $18.50, I had a working vintage system. Many pieces of equipment have come and gone since then. The beat goes on, but these meager pieces kicked it all off!
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That's great! I see these videos on Youtube where folks are challenging themselves by putting together the best system they can for 1k. That's cool, but even cooler, I think is just how well you can do with $100 if you are good at finding the used gear. I'm not sure that I'd really be wowed by the collection of great that you mention, but at the same time I would likely think that it sounds far better than it has a right to. I bet it sounds better than the vast majority of the systems that folks' families that I know had growing up and even those things were still good enough to start a real appreciation of music with...
 
What convinced me that vintage Audio is better than just about any new gear I could afford was when I realized that my modern home theatre system my kids wanted to show off to their friends because it sounded so good, sounded muddy compared to my keeper vintage. It is a pretty decent home theatre system too!
 
I've kind of always had a fascination with audio gear (and music!). Growing up, I played w/various stereo systems my parents had (mostly with a Sanyo rack system), and portable cassette recorders (even though it was at a time when the CD sales peak and rise of MP3 were right around the corner).

But as an adult, it was actually when I bought my Pro-Ject Carbon Debut (which I no longer have) - that was my first "real" turntable, and I was shocked at what I was hearing from an "obsolete" format. It's been over the past 2 years where I've really tumbled down the rabbit hole though. My purchase of an Akai AA-R30 got me hooked on hunting down more vintage gear...now the "collection" has grown to several receivers, amps, tuners, tape decks, and two TTs :p.

Definitely one of the most addictive, but fun hobbies I've gotten into.
 
When a neighbor from across the street handed me a McIntosh MC225 and MX110 he had stored away after the MX110 stopped working 15 years earlier. Being the way I am I took on the challenge to get them both working again and joining AK was my first step. It’s been a good ride ever sense,
 
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