How old were you when audio gear first caught your interest?

I must’ve been 9 or 10 (in 1980/1981) when I listened to a pair of Yamaha FX-3’s at a dealer playing Pink Floyd’s fairly newly released album The Wall with "Another Brick In The Wall" on the turntable - that got me interested. I can’t remember the brand of the amp(s) and turntable. 

However I was only 8 when I sat glued for hours to my older brother's newly acquired radio cassette player/boombox listening to Blondie's "Heart of Glass" on constant repeat/rewind. I was completely transfixed, both with Deborah Harry's voice (being a smidgen in love) and the sound itself that made the plastic enclosure of the boombox resonate in a weird, fascinating way. 

But it was the Yamaha's that really got me hooked and planted in me the desire to pursue sound reproduction as anything reminiscent of an audiophile. 

Always noticed the console stereo cabinets in my home, in my youth. I could never afford equipment until my late teens...'70s

Born in 1952, started playing my own records (Disney, Huck Finn etc.) by age 6 or so. Had a portable record player, started playing dad's classical records on his console system by age 7 or so. I remember changing metal needles and putting coins on the tonearm to help with tracking. Bought my first system around 1970, made payments at Radio Shack for Realistic receiver,  Realistic automatic turntable (ugh) and RS Nova 8 speakers.. The start of a long journey that never ends.........so it seems.

I was 23 when I made enough money to buy my first system. I think I had met all the criteria of an audiophile when I hooked it up and played it hours on end.

Ironically, the first soundstage I heard was in a car with a Bose system in 2003. It was magical. 

But now that I think of it, I was annoyed with the clarity and detail of my own sound when I was born, crying, so there. I win. Audiophile from age 21 minutes.

I remember when I was 16, going with my father to pick up our new Fisher 500c receiver and Dual 1019 turntable (which I still have), and AR 2ax speakers for our newly remodeled den...I was hooked...