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

Age 14.    Used to go to the local audio store on my bike (connected to the local camera shop) and hang out & torture the salesmen.    
 

Bought a Yamaha receiver and Polk speakers and it was onward and upward from there.   By the time I was 18, I had a solid starter separates system, with Adcom separates, a Technics linear drive turntable, and a top-of-the-line Harman-Kardon CD-491 cassette deck (couldn’t afford the Nakamichi Dragon).    Fun times.   

I am also a Boomer of 1952 vintage.  Around 1962-1963, I took a commuter train with my father from Westfield, NJ into NYC to visit several dealers on Radio Row.  My dad had already made some decisions , and was finalizing purchases.  It was my first experience hearing “Serious” stereo setups.  My dad purchased a Fisher Integrated amp, a Fisher matching tuner, a Rek-O Kut turntable, empire cartridge and full range JBL 15” speakers in walnut cabinets.  Set up in our duplex home and hearing it for the first time, I was hooked!

I remember very early on maybe 5 yr old , playing my cousins 45s.  She gave me Sonny James Young Love, along with others. My uncle built Dynaco amp and preamp and I was hooked by 11 yrs old 1964 and the Beatles and especially The Rolling Stones fueled the fire.  I got a part time after school job at a local hi end stereo shop on Long Island.  We had Infinity Servo Stactic 1 on display, along with JBL, SAE Phase Liner Domestic and imported Marantz, Revox B&O.  Along with a speaker called LWE,  Been enjoying it for 68 of my 73 years 

@elliottbnewcombjr -

"I started smoking full time age 10; drinking beer age 13, so all my newspaper route money and recycling bottles for 2c and 5c for quart bottles, and coat hangers 1c for 2 hangers, went for beer and cigarettes. "

Your story cracks me up. Not sure of your age, but sounds like you and I were able to either find someone's brother to buy us beer, or there was a soused deli owner who wanted to pay his bills and figured why not sell to minors, because that's the age he started drinking.

David

I listened to my records on my parents console when I was a teenager.  I became interested in a better system when I went away to college, and I bought my first system when I was about 19.  I became interested in better sound quality in my early to mid 20's.  My first component with audiophile pretensions was a Musical Fidelity A1, which was a 20 watt amp that played in pure class A.  I purchased my first top-notch component, which was a VPI TNT III turntable when I was about 40, which I still use in my current system.