I walked into Northridge Audio one day and heard someone playing a tenor sax in one of the listening rooms. Well, always being a jazz sax fan, I asked the guy behind the counter who the sax player was. He said, "oh, that's just the FM jazz station. He asked me to go in for a listen. What I found was a pair of Quad 57s, driven by Quad electronics including that little FM tuner they had. I couldn't leave, I was stuck in my seat for the entire afternoon. After I got into it years later, I was looking for a good preamp. I visited Randy Cooley's store in Santa Monica. I wanted to audition the first incarnation of the Audible Illusion preamp. If I remember correctly, it was $1100. I didn't care for it all that much. So .. Randy told me that he had this other preamp made by a company called Audio Research. It was $3500. I was astounded. I looked at Randy and said ... "who in their right mind would pay $3500 for a preamp?" He said with a smile ... "guys like you!" It's been downhill ever since.
How did you contract "Audiophilia"
I remember it well. The year was 1973 the place was Austin Texas. I was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base and befriended a guy in my squadron who had just returned from a tour in Japan. He invited me over to listen to music at his house. He played a lot of good records. The Rascals, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, etc. Then he put on Dark Side of the Moon and turned up the volume to what at first seemed like ridiculous levels. But, as I listened, the music pulled me in. I heard details in that album I had never experienced in recorded music before. The record took me on a journey. When the silence at the end of the second side brought me out of my dream, I was hooked. His simple system consisted of a turntable (I can't remember the brand), connected to a Phase Linear amplifier and driving a pair of JBL Athena 99 loudspeakers. I've never been totally satisfied when my playback equipment since then, always searching for better sound. What was your first foray into hifi?