What made you become an 'audiophile'.

Hearing Kef 104.2 speakers.

 

Great stuff, everyone. Keep 'em comin'!

 

One of my Dads friends had a pair of Apogees. Heard that and I was done.

 

Realising that (even with limited funds as a teenager) I could spend roughly the same money as my friends were spending on so-so gear, and simply by buying used could get much more bang for my buck. Or pound, if you will. Did it again four years ago with my CD player and got something for £120 that paying twice that for something new couldn't even come near.

 

It was a process for me. It started with a fascination with trying to record AM radio with a Panasonic 3" dictation R2R which I was handed-down from older siblings when I was kid. This evolved into drooling over Jafco Catalogs, and going over to the neighbor's house to see and hear that incredible Pioneer RT707 R2R of theirs.

When I was in 7th grade, my father "upgraded" his system to a technics receiver, and I received his old hand-me-down Dynaco tube gear. While this was a huge upgrade over my radio-shack clarinet 12, I was still never completely happy with the sound of my system, always feeling that it was lacking something which I should be hearing. Shortly thereafter I started subscribing to stereo magazines, and read them from cover to cover multiple times each. At some point in high-school I first learned of the existence of high-end audio equipment through an article which was mocking it in Stereo Review. I had to check it out for myself, and when I heard my first system running some Conrad Johnson gear, I was so completely blown-away by the sound that I was total and completely hooked from that point-on.

So I started modifying my dynacos to try to equal the sound of those amazing CJs which I has heard. I ultimately failed at that task, but I learned a lot in the process and it launched a lifelong obsessions with great sounding audio.

 

Buying magazines 'turned me' in the 80s.
As a kid and teenager I went on looks and specs, plus just listening for myself to decide if I liked something.
Then in the 80s the audiophile fads kicked in and I spend a couple of decades doing some frankly silly things.
Now I'm cured and these days stick with the classic old kit I liked as a kid in many cases, paired with modern digital sources.

I suppose they call that going full circle but at last it shows you can be cured

 

OK, serious now
I was living in a house and sitting there at my PC blasting out tunes via my Audigy sound card and some Logitech surround speakers, saying to some friends "sounds good hay?"
One is a tube amp designer, later that was to be a "DOH!" moment, credit to him not saying anything in response, I think his lip may have been bleeding from biting it

 

I can tell you the night. It was in the first half of 1972 and I was a freshman in college. A family friend had a house in San Jose, CA, and I had gone there to study for finals, the dorm and the library having too many distractions. I pulled an all-nighter in his family room, cramming for exams.

In the room was a fine stereo from that era: a Philips GA-212 turntable plugged into Harmon Kardon 330 receiver driving a pair of Large Advents. He also had an excellent record collection. I had found a new distraction and spent much of the night not studying but instead playing LPs. The system sounded wonderful, much better than any one I'd heard before. I was hooked.

I can't tell you how I did for finals although it probably wasn't good. Later I got a letter from the Dean telling me was on academic probation for not completing enough credits. But it didn't matter. I had found a new hobby which eventually turned into my career.

 

SH.tv doesn't turn someone into an audiophile. People are already addicted to audio when they come here.

Instead, the music forums on SH.tv are the drug that keeps you hooked.

 

Hearing SH'er earwax' system.

 

I was a huge stereo and rock fan in the 1960s and early 1970s, and when I started college in 1972, I walked into an audiophile store in our college town and was blown away by the sound of Magnapan speakers and Audio Research electronics. That was the first time I realized there were a couple of levels of quality far beyond anything I had been exposed to up to that point. Soon after, I discovered Stereophile magazine and The Absolute Sound, as well as all the newsstand and industry rags (while they lasted), and became a huge fan for many years.

It's interesting to note the differences between pro recording studios' philosophies and those of the audiophile. It often cracks me up that people worry about infinitesimally small things that are completely ignored in most studios, particularly stuff like AC cables, interconnect cable, and all that stuff. Don't get me wrong: I think they matter a tiny bit. But you'd get laughed out of the studio if you made the claims that some people do in the magazine reviews.

On the plus side, I think recording studios today have a much, much higher understanding of sound quality than they did 20 or 25 years ago. Unfortunately, this comes at a time when most current hit songs use tons of processing, Autotune, and compression. But the rooms are capable of good sound, and there are some big-name engineers who are genuine audiophiles.

 

For those who went up against Quad ESL's or Apogee ribbons, you didn't strand a chance! haha! I was hooked by a fellow electrician's helper who had a Sansui system. He played "Who's Next" on Decca, start to finish! I was hooked! My first system was purchased piece by piece, a Pioneer and AR system.

 

Sensitive ears.

 

I heard the Apogees many, many times at CES demo rooms and always enjoyed them. Some of the best listening experiences I've ever had were at high-end CES exhibits. The Wilson Audio loudspeakers were always terrific, and they paid a lot of attention to the acoustics in their rooms.

 

no life-Lol!

 

12 years old. Heard English first pressing of the White Album through a V-15 III cartridge, Grace tonearm on a "I don't remember the make" turntable, home made amp and Wharfedale "inspired" (panels filled with beach sand) three way loudspeakers. WHOA!!!!

 

I was 14 and my boyfriend dragged me to some electronics store, I saw a Garrard Lab80 TT and I was mesmerized by the wood tone arm. I wanted one even though the TT alone was $99. (back in 1964 that was a LOT for a teen.)
So a year later my parents allowed me to buy a real stereo, With the Garrard...
I kept that stereo for 15 years. Never even thought about 'upgrading' etc..
I would say I became a neophite audiophile when I bought some Infinity RSIIa speakers in the early 1980's ($3,200 list)
THAT is when i actually started being an audiophile.

 

Grew up reading books and building Lego creations, doing homework, playing board games and staring off into space while stretched out on a big, old oriental rug laid out between two huge speakers, thousands of records on shelves and various amps, receivers and a turntable. I couldn't tell you definitively what all the gear was with any accuracy (I'd have to ring up my father to be certain), but there was Technics, NAD, Nakamichi, Akai, etc.
I bought a Technics 1200 MK IV, a little outboard phono stage and powered monitor speakers a few years ago after various cheap and problematic TTs and amps.
Never looked back since, been an amazing journey and I'm just started down the audiophile path with decades to go.

 

My interest was always the music. In the later 60s, my mum and dad had a Dansette Viva record player, one of the old stacking things. They had a mix of old records and though I'm sure that I listened to childrens music, my clearer memory is of listening to Eleanor Rigby!

We had a bunch of records; big bang, Reader's Digest box sets - classical lite effectively - with Eric Robinson's World of Music that covered various themes in nine LPs. Another was a Mantovani box set. Another was a soundtracks LP on the budget Music for Pleasure label; Geoff Love and his orchestra did various renditions.

My mum loved big band and rock and roll. My dad loved country and western. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

So, The Beatles, classical, Jim Reeves, Elvis, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller... right from age five upwards. That's what kicked it off. The gear's just an enabler.

 

My security blanket as a kid (3 years old) was a small transistor radio. I used to go to sleep with the sounds of LM radio (South Africans and EX pat south Africans will know what I am talking about.)

Until I was 17 either listened to the radio or Lp's on my folks old Radiogram.

Before I went into the Army in 1974 (Compulsory call up) I had worked for 6 weeks and bought my very first system, an all in one Pilot.

Then I met Jack Kahn and David Manley. My fate was sealed.

 

G'day all, for me a lot of things contributed. My interest in Amateur Radio, electronics generally, 'high fidelity' and listening to music. Regards, Felix.

 

My passion for music.

 

In high school this friend's brother had a kick ass audio system. Listening to Pink Floyd on that system really spoiled me for good sound. At the same time I got to learn about clever usage of double album folds.

 

I just knew when I was 13-14 that my there was more than my Fidelity Music Master record player.