How did you get into audio?

[DRC]

My Father was a mild hi fi fanatic, he worked for ADS 7 in Adelaide and I got to hang around the studio now and then and kinda got a liking for tech gear. Dad had a cartridge player in the car and a turntable + reel-to-reel at home, so the early exposure was there. Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel.

At about 13 I got a Pye 3-in-1, which lasted until I could afford one of those new fangled cd players at about age 18. Progressed on the upgraditis path for a few years until the age of 25 then stopped buying hi fi gear. Spent more on records/discs in my teens and twenties than on hi fi. Owned a pretty decent system before buying a car, priorities right?

The bug bit hard again about five years ago. Upgraditis followed.

[Sir Triode]

Sony's 1st Walkman hooked me............well n truly

It was a chunky thing, but it played such sweet tunes.

But.....before that it was a Philips 'all in one' ........which was only a T/T (or record player as it was known in the 60's) and the lid came off and transformed into a speaker (mono of course).

I haven't quite caught on to the iPod as yet.

It seems we share similar experiences.

My dad had one of those Philips all in ones too (but ours was stereo - the lid consisted of two speakers) . And that is what got me started as well. At 5 years of age I would pick out Beethovens 5th on DG by Karajan our of dad's extensive classical LP collection (sadly he threw them all away in the 80s), I would stick it on the semi-auto TT and conduct my imaginary orchestra while standing on the sofa.

Graduated to creating my own tapes in the late 70s on Dad's NEC hi-fi system and bought the first Sony Walkman in 1981.

[Drizt]

I remember playing born in the USA on vinyl on my dads all in one unit. This is my earliest audio memory.

[evil c]

I remember my father imported an Akai stereo cassette player with speakers from Japan & all my friends were in awe of it. I would sit mesmerised by the magic of sound & my parents bought me a stereo cassette deck around the mid 70's. I then needed an amp & speakers.

Cannibalized 2 - 5 Watt valve amps from old Radiograms & ran I for each channel through some kit Phillips tweeter, mid & woofers I mounted on a baffle. Still remember hearing Aja by Steely Dan, ( who I saw last week at Rochford ), & being seduced by the sonic thrill of "true hi-fidelity". That was the big first step into a lifelong love affair taking many paths & now returning 30+ years later to warmth of valves, back to where I started.

[Art Vandelay]

For me, the origins of interest were born from my father's really bad sounding hi-fi. He built a SS kit amp in the early 70's which he thought sounded really good, and the speakers were 'Expo' brand and the system almost redefined 'crap' it was so bad.

As a 12 yo in 1976 experimenting with electronics I built a much better kit amp and used headphones for a much better aural result. I found that my hearing extended beyond 20kHz too which could be a reason that I appreciated good sound.

However, with no funds my source was a modest teac cassette deck. My high school years became more dominated by an interest in FM radio, and I actually built a low powered FM transmitter and an antenna and started a pirate FM station of my own. In 1979 there were still only 3 stations on the entire FM band and by that time my pirate station had a range of about 5km.

With some funds saved from pocket money and a part time job by 1981 I had acquired a proper Teac amp, a tuner, a much better Teac 3 head cassette deck and a Marantz dd turntable. Suddenly my FM station also became high fidelity and compared favourably with the new commercial stations - MMM and 2DAYFM.

Around that time my father bought me a copy of the ARRL amateur radio handbook, which I studied at every opportunity. I built a whole new 30W FM transmitter and a 5/8 wave ground plane and after getting my parents to agree to the erection of a 12m radio tower I was on air across the entire city.

I had a routine radio show on Saturday nights, with many friends tuning in and of course a myriad of people that stumbled upon it as they tuned up and down the band. I called it XXXFM and played tracks in groups of 4, which I called my 'fourplay'.

As the station improved I wanted better and better audio sources as well as better speakers for monitoring. By late 1983 I had added a Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, a 100W Luxman amp and a pair of Rogers Studio 1 speakers. I was a regular buyer of Australian Hi-Fi too. This is where I entered more rarefied hi-fi territory. I closed my FM station down in 1984 due to studies and the realisation that the authorities would eventually catch up with me. In Feb 1985 I decided to have one grand finale on the air, which ended badly on a Saturday night with a federal police raid on my parents property. That was obviously my last transmission.

I had a court appearance but was spared a big fine due to my relative youth and high quality representation from my father's barrister friends I was fined only $200 for the indiscretion, which i discovered usually attracts $5000 - $10000.

From that time, my main hobby has been hi-fi (although I am also a radio ham)

By 1985 I had bought a pair of KEF 104.2 and B&W 802.FS speakers and Sony CDP502ES. cd player.

[proftournesol]

Art, that's so punk:)

[jimdgoulding]

I'm glad you asked. I've been wanting to tell someone my story. On weekend nights, my mother would take me along to her best friend's house. Maybe we'd get some take out or something. I didn't mind going at all cause my mom's best friend had a daughter a year older than me. I was 10 and by the time I had reached puberty she had gotten virtue. Damn. My mom's best friend was what I would describe as bohemian. Wore thongs on her feet instead of shoes. Ran around in one piece mumu's. Never shaved her legs or wore underwear. And loved Opera. She had a big Motorola stereo console (stereo was a new thing in those days) and played Opera incessantly and the more she drank of gallon jugs of inexpensive wine, the louder she would turn the stereo up (she used to get the cops called on her by neighbors in the summer months when everyone had their windows open). I used to watch her reactions to the music. And when the climax of an aria or an orchestral passage would come around, she would clutch her breast and swoon. She taught me how to listen for passion in music.

My best friends sister when I was sixteen had a collection of mostly West Coast jazz. Cal Tjader, Kenton, June Christy, Chet Baker, artists like that. My friend, John, used to baby sit her apartment when she traveled with her boyfriend and we would listen to her collection. John had his own key. What his sister didn't know is that he had his own key to her boyfriend's two four-barrel-carb stick shift '57 Corvette, too! We entertained the ladies when we could but mostly just stayed up late drinking tea and listening to her record collection.

When I went into the military after high school I got into a whole other area of jazz music. My roommate, six or seven years my senior, was from the East Coast and was far more worldly and wise than I ever imagined a black man could be. I was from Texas and segregation had only been done away with 3 years earlier. He had a record collection and a one-box player. He warmed up to me because I was unprejudiced and eager to learn and it was by him that I began to hear jazz with the longing and angst I had heard at my mom's best friend's house many times. We made trips to San Francisco to hear live music. Places like The Blackhawk and The Jazz Workshop where well known musicians played. His name was LC Banks. He got orders to go overseas but I had gotten my own record player by then and started my own collection. Next thing you know, guys of all races were hanging out in my room on the weekends to listen. I've been listening ever since. I guess that should be obvious.

Years later my Mom's best friend visited she and I at my house. My wife and I made quarters for me mum in our home. I had Acoustat Three's by then and some other heady gear. I played Opera for her. She reacted the same way as I remember, swooning and clutching her breast, God bless her. When she passed she willed her record collection to me and her albums are filed away with my own. Her name was Ruth Fisher.

My wife and I used to travel often. When we did, I would drag her to live music venues. She warmed up to Horace Silver in a wild sextet at a place in San Francisco*. She's seen Meredith Monk in New York, just to name a couple of artists, and some South American gaucho music in Paris, an opera in London- Britten's Turn of the Screw, etc, etc. I still listen nearly every night to something and I am fortunate enough to have a dedicated room. It's a passion, you know. Ya'll be cool. Thanks.

Oh! That's how I got into audio and why is to get the full measure of the recorded event in my inner and outer space.

*Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Live at Keystone 3 (Concord Jazz) is representative of that very club. Plus, it's fabulous!

Edited November 21, 2011 by jimdgoulding

[JeffK]

Excellent story, Jim. Thanks for sharing that. You should write a memoir!

Jeff

[jimdgoulding]

Thanks, Jeff. Bet you enjoyed Art's story, too. Got me inspired, actually.

[Bunyip]

Damn! Jim and art, you have both just proven why this is my favourite thread on stereonet. I love your stories!

Art. I love the fact you had a pirate radio station without the ship!

Jim, your story is brilliant because there are such great characters in it. I can just see your mum's best friend in her mumu. Hilarious. Such a great story well told. Thank you.

[jimdgoulding]

ALL the entries are excellent, imo. Enjoyed reading them immensely, brothers in arms.

[Art Vandelay]

Damn! Jim and art, you have both just proven why this is my favourite thread on stereonet. I love your stories!

Art. I love the fact you had a pirate radio station without the ship!.

I found out the hard way why pirates should have a ship.

My sulphur crested parrot sure wasn't much help when the feds stormed in.

Great story from Jim too.

That's a journey and an education in life and music that was only possible at the right time, in the right place, and for a select few. It seems unlikely that the passion and appreciation that existed for pure jazz back then will be revived for a future generation.

[MKSOUND_HT]

Well my early years of audio started off 19 years ago with my dads old record/radio/tape player. I had a collection of around 10 or so records (they were dads) and i enjoyed putting lego characters sitting on the vinyl and watching them go around haha. I was about 9-10 at the time but this was the beginning of something much greater.

Later on in life as a teenager I used my computer for sound, starting off with cheap swap meet speakers for $40. This was a great introduction to audio, and I became more particular regarding bass response and smooth treble. After this I ended up selling this set of speakers and went onto several other multimedia speakers, in order:

Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 (the original cube speakers)

Altec Lansing ACS54 Speakers

Logitech Z560 4.1 Speakers

Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 Speakers

VideoLogic Sirocco 2.1 (These were remarkable)

Then I went onto headphones, I had bought a set of Beyer Dynamics DTX800 headphones 10 years ago. These are still in operation today, while they have been thrown at the wall (by my brother in anger), stepped on, i've slept with them on many times, and general wear and tear use.

A mate of mine was an importer of the Koda Goldsky inc speakers had a small store in the city, I liked the look of the speakers and ended up buying a number of different sets of him for testing, my room looked like a true "audiophile" room with several sets of speakers sitting at the front of the room. Pretty cool for someone that was 17 years old and still in school.

In year 11 I built my first HT system comprimising of some Koda AK48 speakers and a gold pioneer VSX510 a/v receiver. After this I saved up and bought a pair of the MP200 Koda speakers (which I have a new set of recently).

These days i'm much more into vinyl and movies, I built a collection up in the last few years of dvds and want to pursue the fine balance between having a good HT system and a good Musical setup (which may require splitting in different rooms at some stage

I still enjoy it just as much as the first time watching those legos characters spin around. I was mesmorised that sound could be coming from that piece of precision vinyl and still am mesmorised everytime i listen to it.

Its the only thing apart from property that i've called an investment money wise. I get such joy out of this passion and its worth every one of my pennies

[Willco]

Yoh! Some great stories here--my venture started 1958 when I went AWOL from a school outing to see a performance of Hamlet at the Wellington Opera Society of NZ--and snuck out to a launch at AWA Showroom off Manners Street of the

Quad ESL 57 speaker. Well the penny dropped-and I've been spending many a great bunch of them since-! Next year I went to London to Art School --made my first Heathkit Amp--Grey Stove paint sloping front and sharp knobs--Ha!!!

Richard Allen Speaker--no Stereo yet-however when Stereo--and my bank balance improved bought Leak Variscope/Garrard Changer and pair Tannoy 12's--pretty good system for Art Student then!

From there the bug stayed I've owned many a decent product--and a few dogs along the way--much to the detriment of other necessities of live such as food/booze and women.

Brands I've owned include ARC, QUAD, Avalon, Wilson, Soundlab, Rowland, Jadis, Gryphon, Tannoy, Linn, Naim,Ampzilla, Dahlquist, Dayton Wright, Magnepan, Acoustic R,

CEC, Shindo--Blah Blah--etc I've forgotten the other 100 or so!

Ah well I would'nt have changed anything for the world!

Willco

[sjay]

both my parents are old rock n rollers so i was exposed to everything from hendrix to credence from a very young age.

In fact i remmeber turning up to school with a tape of ac/dc's tnt in the 2nd grade and my mates thought i had lost it lol.... which is not true because I did not lose it until much later in life

[hedalfa]

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that had some predilection towards hi fi. Yet it was only when I was in my teens did I ask about the time my father worked for the loudspeaker manufacturer Goodmans, they produced other hi fi equipment but their loudspeakers are what they are most known for historically, particularly for the Axiom 80.

As a teenager I saved up over a long period to build my first set of speakers. They were magnavox three ways with two Phillips dome tweeters for the treble. The performances wasn't outstanding, yet there were plenty of speakers that sounded worse, especially given that they were in much better cabinets than many commercial offerings of the time. Some cabinets were so flimsy its no surprise the sound wasn't good.

Later my father let me have the preamp and valve amps he had built from assorted parts and I also had the opportunity to use two Goodmans 8 inch axtette drivers also in hand made cabinets. The wife acceptance factor was poor of this equipment, and he had purchased solid state equipment which took up less space and was neater.The equipment took up quite a bit of my small bedroom but I didn't care. I didn't care much about hum and other noises that it made either, they were present but weren't so loud to be very distracting.

Compared with what my friends of my age had it was clearly superior in one way looking back it wasn't fatiguing I could have music going all day and not tire of it. It was evergreen. I used to listen to the radio a lot to and that was via a valve tuner.

What was etched in the memory was getting for my 18th birthday a brand new AR turntable. It was a really simple design, but did give a sweet sound compared with a lot of the really clunky low end turntables I had seen many other people using,.in particular the three in ones. The AR added another dimension to my musicalenjoyment. After I moved out of home I ended up with solid state mostly low fi equipment. Oneof my worst purchases was 5 CD player that lasted a year and then failed, I was able to pick up a nice set Goodmans 12 inch two ways from someone moving overseas a few years later. The story is likely a familiar one, other costs cars, and house and then children took priority and I just stuck with the equipment that I had. Listening too had to lost of some of the special quality that it had my youth.

My return to hi fi was via home theatre where I wasn't impressed with too much ofthe crash bang wallop of many of the systems being auditioned to me. I ended upproceeding in stages buying a pre and power amp and then building my own centre channel speaker and sub woofer and then purchasing some JBL rear speakers. After hearing another valve based setup at turner audio with some custom speakers I realised the limitations of my home theatre setup. I decided I wanted to rediscover tubes and lps again and began creating this kind of stereo system. One of my first purchases was dynaco st 70 and then a Conrad Johnson pre amp which has had quite a few upgrades made to it. I experimented with active speakers beginning with low cost pro audio crossovers.

The journey continues and I am still in the process of evolving my main stereo system. I have sound that I never dreamed was possible and its exciting that further improvements are possible . As well asenjoying the music more than ever, there is enjoyment also in search for good music, in particular the discovery of something special.

Edited January 11, 2012 by hedalfa

[Boots-n-All]

Hi there,

I guess that I was always there -

Kriesler radiogram with 78's in the 1950's

Philips stereogram with LPs in the 1960's

A couple of unfortunate lo-fi setups in the late 60's

And bought my 1st "HiFi" setup in 1974:-

Speakers - AR6

Amp - Elektra 25wpc

Turntable - Pioneer PL12D

Cart - Shure M91D

Boots.