Who remembers audio from the time when ...

When I was 8-10 yrs old I got a $2 allowance. I went directly to the record store and bought 2 45's @ $1 apiece. Got to hear them play before I bought them too. Then home to wear them out with my cheap "record player" I didn't get a decent stereo til I got out on my own. Then it wasn't anything special. Went the Quadrophonic route in the early 70's. Then in 78 I bought a Harmon Kardon 730 receiver and Large (Original) Advents and a Technics TT. The HK sounded amazing. Still does today. I recently fired it up and was again amazed at how full and big the sound is. It brought back fond memories

artemus - I think Boomers process recorded music in a fundamentally different way than young people. When we played records in the 50's & 60's (as well as hearing our $20 transistor radios), we understood that the sound was heavily distorted and compromised. We used our imaginations (imagine that!) to rework the base-data and reconstruct into an internal analog which we considered the "real thing". This is sort of like listening to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio instead of watching on T.V. -a totally immersive imagination experience.

For youngsters, music is cleaned up to the point where a lot less imagination is required and they accept the signal as "real". Since their $50 earbuds give them 90% of the high-end experience, they aren't as interested is dropping $30,000 for the remaining 10%.

Boomers, however, possess their internal "super processors" and engage a lot more closely to the performance and receive much more pleasure.

I vividly recall taking a bus to downtown New Haven (CT) in order to purchase a copy of Kind of Blue, shortly after its release. I was too young to drive but not too young to appreciate Miles Davis. I can still see in my mind's eye the facade of Cutler’s Record Shop on Broadway in New Haven, as the bus came to a stop. I was laser-focused on buying that one single LP, which almost certainly was in mono. The mission was accomplished.

Dweller, that is an interesting theory. The standard however has remained the same, live music. I also think young people appreciate  a fine hi fi. It is just not high on their list of priorities. My kids are always giving me the low down on new music. I have already given them the low down on old music. They and their friends love music just as much as I do. One plays piano the other piano and violin. I think the major difference is that audio electronics is not their hobby.
As an Infant my mother could not get me to shut up at night. In desperation she stuck a radio in my crib. It worked. Believe it or not I can still see that radio. My father had 8 mm movies (now CDs) of me conducting with my diapers falling. When I was 4 years old I was awakened at 2 AM with a large brown box sitting on the foot of my bed.
(it was my birthday). It was a Zenith portable record player complete with a black cobra tonearm with little white eyes and that tube smell. This was 1959. My father put together his first system in 1961 around Bozak B302's. The highlight being an Ampex reel to reel. I used the Zenith until I could convince my father that I could manipulate his system just fine. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. When I was 12 my father bought an Ariens snow blower. The deal was I could do as many drive ways as I wanted as long as I did ours first. At 10 dollars a driveway with a good New England Winter I could make as much as $500! Pretty soon I had my own system and I was moved to the finished basement of our house.
I attended my first Rock and Roll concert at 16, The Allman Brother's Band at Boston's Tea Party. Music was never the same. Both our systems sounded hopelessly colored and under powered. I guess I have been chasing that first concert my entire life. The closer I get the harder and more expensive it gets to make improvements. But that is our hobby isn't it? We are all chasing that illusive sound but for some it is a jazz band, other's a classical orchestra, and some of us everything. But the hobby is about sound, not music. You do not have to have a mega buck system to appreciate music, a telephone and decent ear buds will do it.
The kids are just as involved with music but not necessarily the sound.

@dweller Can you tell me where you got those $50 earbuds?

50 years ago in Late September/Early to Late October the following albums were released within the span of about 4 weeks:

The Band - The Band
The Beatles - Abbey Road
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Led Zepplin 2
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
The Kinks - Arthur
Spirit - Clear
Free - debut album

I doubt we’ll see a confluence of such commercial aspirations and artistic expression as during those heady days again.

In Jr High back in 1973 I had a paper route earned me enough to buy my first system. Today everyone has access to everything. Or at least you know its there, even if you can't afford it. Back then though unless a friend tells you or you happen across it, might as well not even exist. Or might as well, as Seattle might as well not exist, since no way no how are mom and dad driving you to Seattle just to hear stuff you (or hell, even they!) can't afford anyway.

But Puyallup, you can ride there on your bike! Its an hour each way and down in a valley while you live way up on the North Hill but you can do it. So it was I came to pester the guys at Radio Shack and spend God only knows how many hours listening and comparing while saving my paper route money....

It wasn't tubes but it was mine and best of all this was 1973 so we had Dark Side of the Moon, Nilsson Schmilsson, and I had my own listening room- aka bedroom- where I could put the speakers anywhere. Ditto acoustic treatment. Learned a lot about speaker placement even way back then.

Thinking back on it now its hard to say which I liked best, Without You which made my little heart ache, or Jump Into the Fire with the best drums ever. What I do know, I would play those just as loud as that system would go without breaking up. Which in case you ever want to try this, is with the speakers on the floor about 3 feet apart and pointed straight at each other with you laying on the floor with your head right between them. We can make each other happy. We can make each other happy. Waaaaaaa ahhhhhhh!!!!  Ho. Lee. Crap!

@noromance - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ear+buds&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

@dweller Dude, it was a joke!

drmemory,
I've got to tell you that bums me out a bit... Just glad those greats are still around for us to enjoy!  

I had an uncle in the late 50’s who had a part time job changing the records in jukeboxes and he would give the replaced 45’s to my sister and I . Since my sister wasn’t into music they were essentially mine. Even on my lofi record player you could tell they were pretty beat up but it was a great experience to listen to all the different genres of music. A Polish club would have some very different music from a country and western bar which in turn would be different from an Italian night club.Looking back I probably have to admit that is probably the reason I like so many different styles of music.

Anything we did in our youth was amazing. I remember hanging out in a friends basement with a very crappy stereo. He did however have a giant color organ that looked cool when Steve Miller was playing. I also had a girl with me. That added to it a bit! I'd trade my high end system to go back to that moment in time.

It was about 1972. My family and I moved into a new house in Essex County NJ. One day after some planning, my Dad and I went to Tech Hifi and we or he bought two stereos. One for our family room that consisted of an Elac Miracord turntable with AudioTechnica cartridge, Sansui Seven receiver, and a pair of Ohm B speakers. I don’t remember if he bought me my system or if I paid or chipped in for the system I got. I was a freshman in high school. But I somehow got a Philips GA-212 turntable with those cool elevator light buttons along with an AudioTechnica cartridge. Also got a Sansui 661 receiver and a pair of EPI 120 speakers. I think the very first album I ever bought was Derek and the Dominos Live in Concert. I would spend literally hours in Sam Goody scouring for albums to buy or put on my mental short list. Also did the same at EJ Korvettes. That was a great place to buy records. They always had great sales ads in the Newark Star Ledger. When my folks were not home I would crank my system LOUD. Loved it. As I got older in high school I worked during winter break steam cleaning cookie sheets for a bakery so that I could make enough money to go back to Tech Hifi and buy a Technics cassette deck. It was the one where the cassette sat in a 45 degree position behind a sliding clear door. Loved listening to WNEW-FM and their tremendous DJ crew. I remember them debuting the most amazing albums. One that immediately comes to mind was Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Unreal. Graduated college. Went to college. Got involved in the college radio station immediately. WMUH-FM in Allentown, PA. We were “Underground Radio for the Lehigh Valley”. I spent so many hours there. I had two four hour DJ shows. I Friday evening rock show and a Sunday afternoon jazz show. At different times I was Business Manager, Music Director and Assistant Station Manager. I could have been Station Manager, but I didn’t want to flunk out! Learned how to slip cue discs, handle PSA carts use the mic, develop a play list on short notice, manage time and avoid dead air. Discovered new bands from records sent to us from the record companies. One was Boston (duh!). Got to collect a bunch of “dupes” (duplicate records) from the station as a fringe benefit. Have always loved music. Learned how to play electric bass. Now I have an even better and elaborate system. Still enjoying the music. 

Dave's not here.....  1957 parents has a portable all in one mono Zenith record player.  4 speeds 16 2/3 up to 78, tubes and awesome (at the time) bass.  Pop played 2 45s a lot The Beat and The Tennessee Stud.  Needles were ceramic and about 1.50 to replace.  1965 while in hi school, got a Sears electronic stereo all in one with a detachable speaker.  Used to listen to Steppenwolf or the Seeds at night in bed, turned the volume down all the way.  The ceramic needle was loud enough just by itself.  1970, US navy and a Pioneer flea watt receiver.  1974 an Acoustic Research integrated with 50 whole watts.  And it just goes on and on.  Time changes everything, listening to music, live or recorded stays the same.

   In the late 60's I was in high school. At the time, my main interest was playing in a band with some of my school buds. We were pretty good for an amateur band and were the band of choice for many school functions. In those days in Atlanta, Ga. soul music had reigned for quite some time but the surge of British music (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds, and others) were taking over. Our ban incorporated all of those in our performances.   One night at a performance my Fender Twin Reverb blew a speaker. I was devastated. My next door neighbor was an elderly gent who had been in electronic repair for most of his life. He agreed to repair my Fender amp. When I went to his house to pick up the amp I noticed that he had an unusual audio system. Unusual to me since I never paid much attention to such stuff since my priority was live performance. His speakers were unfamiliar to me since I suspected that he probably made them himself. His cabinet was filled with electronics I didn't recognize. He started an Ampex reel to reel and played some music tracks. I was astounded at the quality of the sound even though the music style wasn't to my liking.   At the time my stereo system consisted of a gift from parents from Sears. It was an "all in one" unit with detachable speaker and a turntable that was hinged into the main assembly to be swung out to play records. I only used it to listen to popular songs to emulate guitar licks for my part in my band's makeup since we didn't perform original material.   But, I never forgot how good my neighbor's system sounded. Years later I sought to have such a good sounding system of my own. Nostalgia isn't just for memories.

@mijostyn we appear to be soul brothers except i earned the $ in harsh Ohio winters with a snow shovel. The old man had a Dual 1019, Shure Type II, MX-110 and MC-240 running Bozak B-305.

i still have the 110 Z and the 240 ;-) got me hooked for sure....

I vividly remember riding my bike to Seligman Bros. Record Store, which luckily, was only about a mile from our house. I mowed lawns and shoveled snow for the money for the bike and records. The LP I bought was Harry Nilsson - Son of Schmilsson.
It's 1971 in America on a beautiful Saturday morning and Mom has just served a nice brunch. Everybody is still sitting at the table, and it seems like the perfect time to show off my new purchase...
Mom and Dad both love music and it seems to be going pretty well
until track 5  - You're Breaking My Heart
Life lesson: Never play a track for an audience without previewing it !
I just ended up skipping that track, but I never forgot the lesson.
The system was a large Magnavox console with an Ampex eight-track recorder jacked into it.
I built my first stereo with a Garrard turntable Sansui receiver and  speakers shortly after that. Next stereo was DCM Time Window speakers with Adcom electronics JVC TT and Dynavector cartridge.
After that I ran across a good deal on a pair of B+W 804's.
There have been a lot of iterations over the years.
Great sound and great music both excite me very much.
Best Regards,
Bil

Grammar school. 8th grade.1965. Buddy's finished basement. Paneled, bar, killer stereo- don't know what. He was into soul, Motown. His mom handled the drinks. Ginger ale for us, vodka tonics for her. She was hot. Think Elizabeth  Montgomery. Weekly parties, bring your own 45s. Skinny black pants, mohair v neck sweaters, dickeys, beatle boots. My folks had a Garrard changer set up in our basement, two speakers. Can't believe they bought me Volunteers and Let It Bleed one Christmas. We bought our records from Sears and then Sam Goody's.

I was turned on to “hi fidelity” by a good friend whose dad had components - as opposed to the all-in-one systems that were common in the 70s. Still remembering listening to The Who Live at Leeds on that system. 
Soon after my Grandmother decided to give each of her grandchildren their inheritance on her 90th birthday - $1000.  Silly impetuous Matt ran out and bought the stereo he’d been dreaming about - a Kenwood KA-701 amp, AR-14 speakers and a Pioneer PL-17 TT. That stereo served me well for many years. None of my cousins or siblings has any idea what they did with their inheritance.

I’ve been fortunate over the past few years to finally get to upgrade my stereo and I’m very happy with what I have now - though I’m always looking for the next “thing”. But the best part of getting the new system has been passing the old gear on to my 2 sons. The TT gave up the ghost years ago but the Kenwood is at grad school in Utah being worked out every day by my oldest who has turned me on to more great music than I ever did for him and the ARs are in my youngest’s room and will be packed off to college next fall. Not that I’m proud of my boys or anything but the fact that they love music and audio the way I do is just icing on the cake. 

I spent the late 60s in Germany in the army where I bought my first System of separates.  Sansui AU-555, TU-555, Dual 1019, Sansui SP-100 and and AKAI reel to reel.

When I returned to Pgh and went back to college, it was an amazing time of shared music with friends, FM radio was just taking off and “underground” stations would play long tracks, think Alice’s Restaurant.

It was a time of early Steve Miller, Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, Cream, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, etc. and of course John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat.

For some reason, Fried Hockey Boogie in its many variations was popular with everyone.

It was a time of cheap wine, good weed and amazing friends, think Big Chill.  And I got the Dave’s not here reference in an earlier post.

Thanks for starting thus thread as it makes me smile remembering those times again.

It was 1969, my older brother was in Vietnam and I would use his portable Zenith record player which he received for HS graduation. The turntable would fold down and the speakers were on hinges to spread them apart to listen to stereo. Wow it was a revelation to hear stereo since my family owned a large Grundig radio that played mono. I would ride my bike to EJ Korvettes in Brooklyn and buy the newest Moody Blues album. I would play it religiously along with other albums my brother had collected like the Beach Boys and the Byrds.

When he returned from Vietnam later that year, he gave me that Zenith player. I went to the local radio shop and bought my first headphones and a headphone adapter that I spliced into the speaker wires. I was in heaven which started me down the audio path.

After graduating HS in 1974, I bought my first real system, a Pioneer 737 receiver, Dual 1228 turntable and Altec bookshelf speakers. I finished the basement in our house so I would have my own listening room.

 My first system in high school was a Capehart turntable attached on top of the receiver and I was so excited.  Then in the military in Southeast Asia I got serious with a Kenwood receiver (quad) , Sansui TT , Teac Reel 2 Reel, Teac cassette, and Bose 901s.  I still remember how excited I was.  I still use the Sansui but upgraded everything else. It's been great fun.  

In the early/mid 60's, Mono LPs cost $2.00 while Stereo version cost $3.00.

So, get a part time job, payday, down to the record store. $6.00 was my weekly budget: 3 mono or 2 stereo was the struggle before buying and skipping on home for a listen.

Most of us teenagers had crap equipment, so, it didn't make much difference, but, I had heard some decent stuff elsewhere, so I knew in the future I would want the Stereo versions,

but, every week, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Animals, Zombies, eventually Beatles moved out of lovey dovey stuff, OMG, .....

@ kingbarbuda

+1 on EJ Korvettes

They used to have sales - any record in the store $3.99!We walked out of there with an arm full of records.

-Zenith Cobra tonearms 
-Console HiFi’s with tubes
-Early days of FM radio
-Concerts with 3 bands for under $10 at the Spectrum in Philly

All great memories! 
Revisiting some of the old music and discovering new music 
isn’t bad these days either. Streaming lossless is lots of fun.

tomic60, just a shovel? By back hurts thinking about it. I just had to do the stairs with a shovel and I know about those Ohio winters. Did my residency in Akron. It's a long story but I wound up being one of the House Docs at the Richmond Colosseum. All I had to do was report to the shack walk in and sit down. We had our own box right in front of the sound board:) 

bsheckler9:

My lesson was leaving the lyric sheet for Record 1 of Frank Zappa's Sheik Yerbouti out on the top of my turntable for my Mom to see Bobby Brown in all of his "Tower of Power" glory.

Never, ever, leave the lyric sheet of any Frank Zappa album out for Mom to find, even Hot Rats which was 95% instrumental.

dougsat the Spectrum in Philly brings back some good memories I think my ears are still ringing from seeing the Who there in the mid late 70's.  Growing up with the all in one setups in the 60's turntable folded down speakers uncoupled.  Early 70's were Marantz 22XX receivers and Garrard/Dual turntables  Buying records mostly cutouts and promos at Murphy's and Woolworth's for .99 cents.  The new releases were 3.99 and 5.99 for double albums at our fav record store which sold reel to reel tapes.  All our gatefold album covers had weed dust from straining out the seeds...good times indeed I wish I could go back

Caught the audio bug from my surrogate big brother, who came back from Vietnam with Dynaco, Garrard, Teac RtoR, and honkin' Pioneer (15" woofer!) speakers, not to mention a ton of classic rock.  When your friends are listening to The Archies and you're trying to introduce them to The Doors, it can make for some interesting dynamics.  Saved money from summer jobs and in HS bought my first real system:  Kenwood KA6006 integrated, BIC 960 turntable with Stanton 681EEE cartridge, Pioneer CTF2121 cassette deck, and Electro-Voice ETR-18 speakers.   By then the friends had discarded The Archies and I have great memories of many nights of listening to classic rock, progressive rock, blues, and a bit of fusion.  The joy of listening hasn't diminished over the years...

My parents had a Magnavox cabinet phonograph with 2 12" woofers! It was stocked with all Broadway show records that they had been to as well as Sinatra records.  They had seen him live many times at the Rustic Lodge in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  Well, I played the crap outa that thing, hence I know all the popular show tunes from the 60's.  Bought my first album at Sam Goodys it was Cream "Disraeli Gears", 1968.  My parents hated it. So, I got my first stereo for Christmas that year, a Philco all in
one, fold down turntable, detachable speakers, sounded horrible.  So I decided to add some speakers to it.  Scavenged the surrounding neighborhood for thrown out stereos and cabinet TVs.  On my bicycle with my tool bag I managed to get quite a collection of speakers over time.  Started to gang them together in parallel and the inevitable happened, I smoked the Philco literally.  That was the beginning of a long journey, no one around me at the time could understand why I would spend so much time trying to get better sound.  My better half totally gets it and is very supportive and a good listener.  One day you find yourself with many tens-of-thousands of dollars in audio and realize what a long strange trip its been.

To directly answer the question posed by davesandbag ………. I do! 

I am lucky enough to still own almost every piece of audio gear I ever purchased, minus the Garrard SL-72B turntable with Shure M93-E cartridge. The mechanicals wore out and I set it out for the trash. I still regret it.

I also inherited a number of older Heathkit tube amplifiers from my father when he passed including a pair of Heathkit A7-E tube amps and a pair of Heathkit A9-C tube amps.

I still have my very first Symphonic stereo which had just a turntable with ceramic cartridge, built in amp with volume, tone and balance controls and two fold out wing speakers. My first upgrade was a switch to a Pickering magnetic cartridge and a small preamp to boost the signal level to one that could be used with the built in amp.

Then came speaker systems I built from plans in Popular Mechanics. Then the Lafayette KT-630 stereo tube amp built from a kit in junior high electronics shop. The Garrard SL-72B turntable and Shure M93-E cartridge. Then the Fisher 210-T AM/FM stereo receiver, the ADC 303AX speakers and Ampex 761 open reel. The Teac V95RX reversing cassette deck. The Heathkit AD-1304 active audio processor. The ADC Sound Shaper 20, A pair of Heathkit AA-1640 amps, Heathkit AP-1615 preamp, Heathkit AD-1307 power meters and Heathkit AD-1305 equalizer. The entire collection of the Heathkit Pro-Series audio gear, including a pair of the AA-1800 power amps, the AD-1702 electronic crossover, the AD-1308 spectrum analyzer, the AD-1309 white & pink noise generator, the AD-1706 active audio processor, the AD-1703 equalizer, the AD-1701 graphic output indicator, the AP-1800 preamp, the AJ-1600 tuner and the AE-1705 rolling audio rack. Can’t forget the Heathkit AD-1013 audio scope. A pair of Heathkit AS-101 (Altec) speaker systems. Technics SL1700MKII DD turntable with Audio Technica AT155LC cartridge. Also somewhere in there was the ADC Accutrac 4000 turntable. 

Along the way, in no particular order, I must also include my Pioneer SX-1980 AM/FM stereo receiver, Pioneer RG-2 audio processor, Pioneer SR-303 reverb with time tunnel display, ADC Sound Shaper SS-412X and ADC Sound Shaper SS-450X, Empire 8000P speakers, Harman Kardon HK-50 speakers, Marantz 2250B AM/FM stereo receiver, Marantz 4300 AM/FM stereo receiver, Marantz 4400 AM/FM stereo receiver.

After that, came the current set-up!

It’s funny, as much as I like all my current gear, I still enjoy owning and listening to the old gear. Not all of it is set up, nor is it all fully functional, but most of it is. Now that I am retired, I have begun repairing and/or restoring it. 

Never before have I bought so many electrolytic capacitors and discrete transistors! 

Thank god I don’t have any other hobbies as intense as this one, I’d be broke! 

Although wives and kids are pretty expensive. Probably even more so that audio equipment! :-D

Acquiring my sisters abandoned mono Dansett record player in the late 60’s, I fitted a stereo cartridge and ran one channel to a small guitar amplifier. Sounded OK - just, but it did achieve separation suiting the left/right recordings of the day. Later additions at Uni were Kef Kit speakers which looked far better than they sounded, and a Heathkit amplifier still using the old Dansett platter wired like Frankenstein. As with Barts "I smoked the Philco literally" this produced an impressive bang and smoke whilst departing this earth. First real system was Pioneer PL12D, Yamaha receiver - all purchased on the strength of magazine ’reviews’, and still the old Kef Kit speakers. Small success in business led to Quad ESL63, quad 402, meridian 101 pre, and Rega Planar 3 - again all purchased blind from magazine reviews. 35 years later morphed into the current system, learning to listen before buying and take a critical (jealous?) mate with you and music you know really well. Also pay the dealer price for peace of mind and don’t import (story for another time).

Great stories, everybody!  I've told mine in other threads but here's the compressed version with a few additions.
1950's -- Dad has mountain of 78's, 45's & 33's.  Plays 'em on a one-box record changer.  Me and older sis have a brightly colored kiddie 78er.  Later, Dad builds Heathkit hifi on kitchen table.  All separates, including AM tuner.
Early 1960's.  Dad takes me downtown to hifi show at Ambassador Hotel (I grow up in L.A.).  Both wowed by stereophonic.  Dad buys big Kenwood receiver for 'self. I get the Heathkit.  Later, Dad gets me a smaller Kenwood stereo receiver which I hook to mismatched speakers.
Early 1970's.  I visit my best buddy, who's in college at Berkeley.  His stereo is so superior to mine, I must go shopping.  I wind up with KEF Corelli's, which I hook to the Kenwood but which I properly align and place on stands.  In time, I inherit my dad's mountain of vinyl and shellac.
Switch to today.  Retired.  Living on an island.  Dedicated audio room/man cave.  Tweek-a-zoid electrical outlets.  Nola Boxers aligned/fine-tuned by ear.  Tons of vinyl and CDs.  Totally addicted to streaming.  But my stereo ain't working!!!!  The PrimaLuna has blown a fuse and nobody on the island sells the proper replacement. No luck at the local auto parts stores.  I guess I'll just have to sit tight until the box of mail-order fuses arrives and can see if the problem with the 'Luna is actually serious.

SQ Quadraphonic

I just found an album liner with promotion of many Columbia recordings, and one section discussed the 'new at that time' SQ Quadraphonic system.

"startling, miraculous engineering, total realism, flexible, imaginative, complete, compatible, amazingly simple, in short, the most natural sound ever designed for records".

"the finishing touch to the revolution in home audio that Columbia began in 1948"

They issued both Quad LP's and Q8 4 channel tape cartridges. (I never saw or heard one of them). A list of 15 early issues, all big name artists was included.

 My friend jumped in, certain things were interesting. It died.

The difference between driving a stick-shift car VS an automatic transmission.

TV. The ultimate wasteland. I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. 

Or your imagination reading a book.

Curiosity led me to buy a Fisher 105 3-piece system during high school. It handily outclassed my parents’ Magnavox console.

But it was greatly outclassed by the other guys’ rigs in my college dorm. I started to upgrade with AR amp, AR tuner, Miracord 50H, Rectilinear hiboys.

Started working and added an Adcom GFA 1 and a NAD tuner. Still have the Adcom but the NAD was a disappointment.

After reading a retrospective column by Julian Hirsch in the 1990s on how good the Rectilinears actually were, I got back in with Thiel 3.6s. They sounded so much better! It got me upgrading everything.

Don’t like discarding stuff that I once lusted for before buying, so I had music in more and more rooms in the house. Now with smaller house, I am down to systems in only 3 rooms. And a lot is in storage. lol

I remember when I was about 5, my Japanese uncle sent me a 45 of the theme song from Ultraman. My father was delighted that I was mesmerized by the proto anime space hero, as my mother was white American and I didn't have much exposure to the old world culture.

I remember playing that record on my mother's portable record player , I think an RCA unit. The smell and glow of the tubes warming up was very exciting, and sometimes I think my predilection for idler drives and tubes comes from that player.

Later, the Star Wars craze happened, but immediately before my mother played oboe in her community orchestra's performance of Holst's Planets. I was again mesmerized by music, this time live. I was eleven.

The following year, after virtually wearing out my mother's LP of Bernstein and the New York Phil's recording of the said Planets suite, and my sister's Star Wars soundtrack, my mother bought me the recording which would forever change my life - Stravinsky conducting his incredible Rite of Spring.

I was transported to another world, and this was on the very chic but decidedly non-hifi Panasonic SG-999 (OK, it wasn't that bad).

I was hooked on 20th century orchestral music, and I was hooked on hifi! Still am....

We always had tube radios and amps around growing up. I know that smell so well, I'm convinced it's hardwired my brain. Look at my system to see why!

Noromance, Nice!

Yes....I had a Rek-O-kut, mounted a Grado Lab arm on it, then an ESL, then a Grace 709, then a Grace 707 arm.   I built Dynaco PAS 3x, Stereo 70, FM1......all great experiences.