What started you on your audiophile journey .


Was it a friend or family members great system , the love of well recorded music , or just needed a hobby .
tmsorosk
record players fascinated me and i shocked myself once playing around with a phono as a kid.
I'd say my audiophile journey has consisted of 2 phases.

Phase 1 was self-started.

At an early age, very early age, I liked music. I gravitated to buying records, record players, transistor radios. At least in part, I was invited to parties probably because I was the one that had all the music.

Then, I guess I'd say I became somewhat dormant in terms of being an audiophile.

Phase 2 was started by my brother and sister-in-law.

By brother and sister-in-law gave me an Ipod for my birthday one year. I knew about Ipods and what an Ipod was but never really paid them much attention. But once I got the Ipod and became familiar with it I became kinda fascninated with it and understood better why and how it had impacted the world.

This woke up the dormant audiophile in me.
My dad bought me an expensive Concord mono cassete recorder in the 60's and I started tapeing songs off my am/fm portable radio. When I turned 16, I bought my first component system: Sansui receiver, BSR turntable, Sony cassette deck, Teac Dolby B adapter and Rectilinear speakers. Set me back 6 months of work at 500.00. Still have the receipt to this day.

Exactly a year later, I traded up all the equipment, well you know the rest.........

Bob
I walked into Esoteric Audio in Scottsdale, many years ago.
I heard a sytem that sounded better than anything I'd ever heard before. That system was:

SOTA turntable.
CJ preamp wth phonostage.
CJ amp.
Spica Angelus speakers.

I couldn't believe how good it sounded!
I had heard the big Sansui & Pioneer receivers, Cerwin Vega speakers, several turntables & even Yamaha NS10M speakers, before.
The CJ system was in another league!
I too had always loved music as a kid. As a young paper boy, part of our salary was put into a bond for us when we quit. On that glorious day, I took my "bond" money and rushed with my mom to the local "stereo" store. I ended up purchasing an all in one panasonic unit - that is what the budget got me at that time. I was exceptionally happy with my first stereo. No longer did I have to take my turn on my parent's Hi Fi! Later in my college years, a friend had a great system for a college kid consisting of a Micro Seiki deck, which I thought was to die for! He was probably the biggest influence on the journey towards quality reproduction of the music I loved. He introduced me to used gear at a local shop, and encouraged me to move into an NAD integrated. I teamed that up with my roommates turntable, and later was able to get a pair of Maggies. Both of which I still own - sentimental to the core.