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

My father was a passionate audiophile who began his journey in 1948 with a single Altec 604B speaker. Growing up around his hi-fi system, I was exposed to high-quality sound from a very early age.

My own first stereo system appeared in my bedroom when I was 14, in 1967. It consisted of a used Marantz 8B amplifier, a Rek-O-Kut turntable, a Dynaco PAS-3X preamp that my father built, and a pair of JBL speakers.

Teenage electronics nerd in 1960s. Best friend and I would harvest Buick/Pontiac/Cadillac car radios available from junk yards for a few bucks. The audio sections were push-pull 6V6 with a heavy audio output transformer. To use these in our home "hi-fi" we had to power them on 120VAC. So, we'd build power supplies using power transformers from old Philco/ Zenith radios; these delivered 6.3 VAC for cathode heaters of car radio amp tubes, 5VAC for cathode heaters of the full-wave vacuum tube rectifier, which in turn provided filtered [choke and electrolytic condenser] higher DC voltage ["B+"] to the car radio amp tubes. 
The push-pull 6V6 amps put out 12 -20 decent watts that drove our home-built bass-reflex enclosed speakers, using drivers we'd got from Radio Shack, Allied, etc. 
Since then, gone thru AR3a, Dynaco amps, McIntosh, K-horns, B&W, Anthem... 
 

Wow I was about 12 yrs old. My dad was in the Air Force in Thailand. He sent back a Sony reel to reel. He sent me tons of music on reels. About a year after that he sent me a JVC tuner/table combo unit with speakers. It had a 4 band EQ and quad capabilities. It was a whopping 47 watts and I LOVED it!

From there He got me a pair of Sansui (I think 5 way) speakers. Then I saved up and bought a Marantz 1150D integrated and a 10 band Souncraftsman EQ. A Marantz 6501(i think was the model number) turntable with a Goldring cart. From there I lived to read mags,literature, listen to anything at a store.It has never stopped. Now between money and liking what I have I spend every day listening and enjoying music.

It was 1986 and I was 24. I was in the Navy stationed at Norfolk, VA. when I walked into a HiFi store and they were playing Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire 6 on Mark Levinson gear connected to Acoustat panel speakers. Is that weird that I remember the exact event? Anyway, I was hooked after that.

I had a portable Phillips Reel to Reel Tape Recorder when I was a teenager. I recorded my own guitar instrumentals and I guess it all started there.