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

I think it was 1953 and I was 17.  A neighbor had a JBL C34 rear-loaded corner horn, Gerrard changer with Shure variable reluctance cartridge, and an amp he designed with separate chassis for power supply.  I was amazed.

1965, I was 8 years old. My uncle's system. Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey" on a Garrard turntable, Macintosh amp, Klipsch Klipschorn speakers. A presentation I shall never forget. Thanks for ever, Uncle Raymond. GRYS

18. I had joined the navy in ‘73. My ship traveled from Hawaii to Japan. Sansui, Pioneer, all of the great reel to reel players were all dirt cheap. I was hooked. Also same for photography equipment. Each became lifelong passions. I’m now 70. So yeah, 52 years have flown by!

It  was in the late 1960's. My uncle was a country doctor who still made house calls. He had ham equipment and let me listen to shortwave on his tube Zenith Trans-Oceanic. I have the same model radio now. But regarding HIFI, It was around 1970. Some older kids across the street had a a good stereo including a McIntosh integrated. Led Zeppelin II had just been released and they had bought a copy. So I asked if I could come over and listen to it. They let me come over but one of the channels was out so they ran both channels into one and I listened to it in mono.

@coltrane1 I still have my Toyo 45A 4X5 box camera! Digital photography just isn't even close to the quality of a scanned 4X5 sheet of Fujichrome.