How I got started

Hartge7

Senior Member
I bought the AR-5 speakers because I could with my paper route money. My Dad said "you can't buy a car" and I didn't need a house. My brother started with a Sony STR-7050, AR-4x, Dual 1019. I guess I liked it. Dad talked me into a chunk of gear I haven't found in any of the catalogs and don't consider it my first rig. The AR-5s at about $260, replaced the speakers that were part of that system. Then in May of 1970 I got my Mom to drive me to Dixie Hi-Fi where I picked up a system able to power the AR-5s.

The new system was the Dual 1219 with the deluxe base and dust cover with a Stanton 681EE, getting me started on mounting a cartridge and setting up a turntable, a Kenwood KT-7000, a Sony TA-2000 (no F on this one, smooth knobs not Fluted and no FETs which I think is the reason for the F designation, not the knobs) and a Dynaco Stereo 120 Kit. I paid, including MD tax at the time $812.24, add to that the AR-5 and I'm well into 4 figures for my first main rig...but less than $1075. I have the Dixie Hi-Fi receipt in my files with the manuals for this gear.

This system was just fine for a teenager's bedroom, a bit large for a dorm room and apparently well liked by others in the Student Ghetto at college were someone decided they wanted it more than I did. This happened two more times due to the lowest cost housing I would find. Just the wrong place. That first insurance settlement was a windfall though and allowed me to upgrade a good bit. There were a few pieces of gear going through the system in that time, too. The purchase of the power amp is what lead to a job in a local Hi-Fi store about three years later. Stayed there for the end of the 70s into 1981 when I returned to school to finish my degree.

That was a very good time to be selling gear. The stores in Knoxville, TN had a good number of brands but no one had the really good stuff, the esoteric audio. Hi-Fi House added Luxman shortly after I started there and this was our 'good stuff'. Can't put gear on the shelves that was better than the customers were willing to look at and buy and we had educated the customer to the level of one of the best Japanese manufacturers. Another store had the McIntosh line and I did purchase a C-28 there to go with that big amp.

Working in the store got me plenty of opportunity to hear what we had and limited opportunity to hear what other stores had. Not comfortable cross shopping and I don't know if the other stores would want me there and well I was in a store all day long listening to so great gear did I want to listen to more gear on the one day off that the other stores were open?

Bought gear while I was selling and still have a pile of it. Learned a lot about the what was good and remembered it. Then did the work stuff, only visiting a store on rare occasion and picking up a tt from consignment, tt, arm, cartridge and MC phono pre amp. Added a portable CDP for the car, system and bike. Didn't hook up the TT for a couple years, using the RtR and CDP. No room or place to put it at the time.

Finally hooked up the tt and another one and bought a decent CDP all before CL and all the gear that was available there. Fortunately, what I remembered from the old days and with research on the web, I have been able to upgrade the main rig. Maybe I'll talk about the changes in that in another installment. Preamps, power amps, systems at the group home (really group home, well a house with 4 roommates and many had gear) integrated amps, speakers and turntables all changing but remaining the better gear from the past. I am not an SXer, my term that you are welcome to use, for those that covet the larger receivers of some line of gear they prefer because they don't know how good separates are/can be and lust for the biggest after buying the smaller unit back in the day.

tomlinmgt, I posted this because I said I would get a thread going about how we got started. We PMed and I found out you are a new to audio guy, less than a decade. Tell us about that.
 
Wow man...that was serious coin for a kid to spend on audio! I saw you mention once before that you worked in hifi retail in the late 70's and wanted to ask you if the store you worked for carried Infinity. I'm not necessarily an Infinity fanboy, but some of their flagship models have sort of found their way to my collection and I'm always curious to hear stories about them from back in the day...namely the QLS-1. Anyway...

I didn't get exposed to anything remotely hifi until I bought some Cerwin Vega D-3s and a Technics integrated back when I was seventeen (late 80's). I just needed something that would play loud and clear so I could play my drums along to music and be able to hear everything (boom boxes had no chance against a drum set). Greyhound freight busted up the Cerwin Vegas when I was in college (early 90's) and I replaced them with Bose 301 IV's but didn't do anything else with audio until I put together a home theater in the late 90's using a HK AVR and bookshelf speakers from Axiom and Paradigm. That system sounded good enough, but I did miss the sheer power of the Cerwin Vegas. I never did anything about it as I was married to a woman who was very serious about interior decor and big speakers were out of the question.

Fast forward to '09 and fresh from a divorce and with a house of my own I decided to find some big Cerwin Vegas for the pad. I found a pair of VS120's on CL that looked like they'd fit the bill and when I got to the seller's house he had a bunch of vintage audio gear out in his garage and I found myself fascinated. We talked about some of the pieces he had and he told me how vintage audio was the hot ticket to hifi on the cheap. He suggested I could do better than the VS120's and that if I didn't like them for any reason he'd take them back and let me try a pair of Polk Monitor 10a's he had sitting in the corner. I thought the Polks looked a little small and blew them off, certain the big CV's were what I needed. But when I got home and hooked them up I was severely disappointed. I guess the Bose, Axiom and Paradigm speakers had conditioned my ears to more refined mids and highs because I literally thought something was wrong with those CV's. I took the seller up on his offer and returned them in exchange for the Polks. While I was there a Carver integrated caught my eye and the seller said it would be a great match for the Polks and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I set that Carver/Polk system up in my garage with a Pioneer cdp I already had and that's all it took...once I heard what was possible for two bills I was hooked. I found Audio Karma, did my research, and started hunting and gathering vintage audio like a man possessed. I worked my way into better and better stuff, discovered how critical acoustics are, set the garage up as a critical listening space and started climbing the ladder. I've been on something of a tear ever since....for better or for worse. :p
 
I guess I do need to mention the brands that I was selling at the time. Other brands were in the store before and after I was there. I still talk to the manage who was there when I started so we reminisce about those times.
Speakers
Bose 301-501-601-901, receivers
Epicure 5-10-11-20(+), 1.0-2.0-3.0
DCM Time Window
Dahlquist DQ-10, DQ-1W, Crossovers
Magnepan MG-I, I imp, IIA and IIB
Receivers
Kenwood, Onkyo, Harman Kardon and Luxman
Tape:
Tandberg, Teac, Kenwood, Aiwa
Phono:
Philips, Kenwood, Luxman,
Cartridges:
Ortofon, Nagatron, Micro-Acoustics and some others I believe
Tuners:
Kenwood, Luxman, Onkyo, Crown
Preamps:
Crown, Luxman, Hafler and some others
Power amps:
Crown, Luxman, Hafler, Kenwood

This was just before the outbreak of the true high end gear, so nothing really top of the market but we did sell a pile of the LRS gear from Luxman and the Crown gear was decent with the Hafler leading the value parade. The Luxman tube gear also sold well since it was on clearance in the late 70s. The CL-35III, pair of MB-3045s and a T-110 tuner for dirt cheap. I don't recall the exact price but I should have...
I did not sell the ∞ brand nor do I have anything more than a passing acquaintance with any of their products except the Black Widow which a friend owns. There highly rated speakers are on the list of ones to try.
 
@David

When I got Vandersteen 2ci's and found they sounded like total shit in my listening space compared to how they sounded at the seller's place.

How about a little stroll down memory lane??? That's them Vandees under the bags. Recognize the place?


This would be night...





...and this would be day.



 

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I became interested in recording as a wee lad, with my grandmas portable mono RtR deck, that she used to record her choir, and solos.

For stereo playback:
1968/69, at my friends house, across the street. He shared a room with his older brother that had one similar to this:
GE%20portable%20stereo%20turntable%20early%2070s.jpg

We had Creedence Clearwaters Cosmos Factory that we'd play in endless loops.

Then his older, older brother (one step over the one he roomed with) returned home from VietNam duty with a component system that just blew us away.
That was around 1970. It had me addicted to good sound, but, at an age of being pretty helpless for replicating that at home.
Then my parents bought themselves a console stereo (solid state era), and I finally had good sound in the house.
Problem: It was in the living room, which was moms turf. She loved a freshly mowed shag carpet, with the patterns left behind, and, my rolling around on the floor in front of the stereo made her a bit upset.
This kept up for a few years. I started buying records at that same time, as there was now a player in the house.
Around 1973/74, they built a new house, and the console went into the living room, again, and, I'd lie on the floor listening, wrecking the freshly mowed carpet patterns.
I got a bedroom stereo that xmas. It wasn't much. It had a flea watt SS Kenwood amp (10 whole watts), that clipped almost constantly, a decent pair of speakers, and a Dual idler TT (I think it was a 12xx series). They bought it used at a local stereo shop (probably bartered for; a favorite of my dads).

That system lasted until about 1980'ish, when the college days and partying pushed that amp into its last clipping, and it went belly up.
I went for a coupe of years without my own amplifier, using my roommates.
I moved in with my mom when I came back from school, and, built a room in her garage (three car; two on one side, one to the other side). One night, she mistook the gas pedal for the brakes, and plowed into a wall that had my TT shelf on it, and it went flying and exploded. The old Dual was in pieces, all over the floor.
I replaced that TT with a new Technics DD.


In around 1983, I started making some cash and bought a new Hafler pre and amp (DH110 pre, and DH120w amp), and a pair of used ADS bookshelf speakers (L10).
At this same time, I started recording, and all of my efforts went to the recording front end, and, being satisfied with my playback, not realizing just how lacking it was; but I figured, there will come a time to upgrade the playback; focus on the recordings for now.

This system, ^^, lasted until 2000, or so, when I bought my current reference system
Plinius 8200 AB SS -> Soliloquy 6.3 reference towers, with 9ga. Analysis-Plus Bi-Oval9's speaker cables.
Lot of peripheral items have changed around the base of the system, but the amp-> cables->speakers have stayed constant to this day. I love them, and still feel thrilled whenever I hear them. The speakers have massive bass capability, and everything above that point is just sweetness.
 
I'm a newbie to audio compared to most here. My journey started back in 2003 with a Klipsch Promedia 2.1 computer setup. I ran some junky Logitech computer speakers for awhile before that, until I happened upon the Promedias at Best Buy on a Black Friday sale for $75. That system got me hooked, and from there I bought a Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Music sound card and kept craving more. Prior to that, the only experience I had with audio was my old Sony CD/cassette boombox, which my mom got me for Christmas in 1995. I remember ripping all of my CD's to 128kb/s MP3 files, which was an archaic process at the time because even the slightest mouse movement could make things get ugly.

Everything changed, when one day, a friend of mine came over and said "you should think about getting rid of the computer speakers and get some bookshelf speakers and a stereo receiver." He and I hightailed it to Best Buy, and I bought an Onkyo stereo receiver and a pair of the relatively infamous Insignia NS-B2111 speakers for $200. I was in audio heaven. From there I started upward, buying T-amps, Klipsch Reference bookshelf speakers, building my own speakers...it has been one hell of a journey. I have come a long way, and have many members on this forum to thank for lending their knowledge and expertise. You guys are strange creatures, half guiding light, half bad influence :D. Those Insignias are still used by me to this day, sitting on either side of my computer monitor as they have for nearly a decade.
 
Since SongCatcher mentioned how music started for him, I'll post how I got the bug.

I was out washing the windows of the house in Pass Christian that is no longer standing following Katrina but this was decades earlier. I took a bakelite radio out with me. Large round gold rim around what would be at least and 8" driver on the radio, sort of rectangular after that with a slight tilt to the front. Dial across the bottom volume and tuning knobs on the side.

Anyway, WNOE, New Orleans was not country back then and I enjoyed listening to the music. Wiki says it was the sister station of some Heritage Top 40 stations and in the 70s was AOR, flipping to country in 1980. Mid-60s it was my first experience with rock and roll and I liked it. Took half a decade for me to get a stereo system.
 

I was always more into the quality of my system then my friends even when I was in HS, and started out with a Marantz MR1150 receiver, matching Marantz speakers and a BSR turntable. Not good stuff but still better than they had. I put it all away when I went into the US Army after HS.

Fast fwd to about 1991 and I started listening again. Went to a brick and mortar audio store for some new headphones and ended up with Grado which was a brand I had never heard of. All was good but I couldn't help thinking about all that other gear...Amps and preamps (why not just a receiver??), nice speakers, CD players...man, I want a CD Player.
So eventually I went back and ended up with a NAD 304 integrated and Paradigm Mini speakers, and a Magnavox CD Player (because all CD Players sound exactly the same 'cause they're all digital).

The rest as they say is history.
 
I just love that picture of the vandersteens. That brings me back in a special way. I had auditioned those.
 
well, in a flagrant effort to get my post count higher before Sept, I'll chime in..... First, and foremost, the path to love of music was instilled by my Mom, who felt that music was part of being a well rounded person. The idea stuck, despite assorted failed attempts at actually PLAYING music. I found I was much better at playing recordings of other people's music. Anyhow, high-school-early college saw me with a cobbled together system of so-so stuff. The BSR table, RatShack amp and some speakers I long forget. This persisted to 1979, while I was in grad school. By then, I'd heard better stuff in the dorms and apartments of friends, and was ready to move up. Now, mind you, I'm a cheap bastard, and further, have ALWAYS focused more on obtaining music than the nuts and bolts of making it sound better. I grabbed some cash, and went to HiFi House on the Concord Pike in Delaware, when home visiting my parents(step one in being cheap: buy where there are no sales taxes). I ended up with a HarmonKardon 630c receiver, a nice pair of ADS speakers, a Philips 437 table and a Nakamichi(sp) cassette deck. These served me well for years, and then around 1990, the soon-to-be wife fried the HK. Had I known some of the folks I do now, that likely would have been an easy fix, but I addressed it by getting a Denon receiver, which did nothing for me, followed in a couple years by a refurbed Sansui 771 that I had for some time. I always really liked the sound of that receiver. Along the way, I blundered into the PL-41 turntable I still have, and also a few online boards that started me down the road to playing with optimizing that old beast. Those boards provided me with folks with golden ears, loads of hi-fi experience and patience galore with dumbass questions. With their help and advice, I have a surprisingly decent sounding cheap DVD player that handles SACDs and redbook CDs, a high quality DAC for the redbook stuff to go through, embarked on an integrated amp quest that yielded a surprising winner and then a speaker shootout of 6 months that brought me the Triton 2s. All in all, a surprisingly good sounding cheap system. Will I upgrade? Likely so. Will it wait until I have 3 small grandchildren out of my house and back living with my daughter elsewhere? Probably(holding my breath waiting for that day isn't happening). Next project will likely be getting quality sound on the cheap in my southern quarters at the Virginia shore. Along the journey, I keep dragging the old record collection with me, adding to it, along with CDs, SACDs and try to focus on the music more than the equipment.
 
Mine started from my fathers love of music!! Neil Diamond or Meatloaf or Julie Covington etc etc Played on a Sansui CA/BA 3000 combo played through a set of Yamaha NS-1000's. I would wait for my folks to go out and let those babies rip!!! I remember there being a big ole Denon up top for the TT but honestly can't remember which one.....Music and late night parties just about every weekend were the norm, later in the night is when the music would get loud and the house would start to thump......funny thing was I didn't mind even though I was trying to sleep, I loved the music!!!!! Those pieces are all long gone unfortunately however the memories and love for music have lived on and are now being passed on to my kids. I remember my oldest doing her homework at the kitchen table and I decided to put on Zep 1, about five minutes into it she turns her head around the corner and asks me who this is, its friggin awesome!!!! Proud day in a daddy's life to introduce her to good tunes..............
 
When I got out of The Navy in 66 I bought a Fisher 500T. Dual 1009 and Altec Valencia speakers. In a couple of years I wanted better sound as the Fisher transistor receiver sounded a bit gravely to me. I heard a Mac setup and immediately started saving up to get a C-26 and MC-2505. They remained my electronics for the next 30 some years. After that I was able to upgrade to newer used Mac gear which I still have. I gave the original Vals to my Niece along with the C-26 and a MC-502. I bought a newer pair of Vals that had cabinets that were not ruined by frequent moves.

Over the years I've modded a few things but remain happy with my Vals. I overlook their flaws and this has saved me thousands over the years as I've watched some of my friends chase the elusive sound almost to financial ruin. :)

I selected Altecs because my friends had either Wharfedales or JBL L-100's. I didn't care for either for one reason or another. Being easy to please sonically has saved me a lot of money and frustration over the years.

My audio epiphany occurred shortly after I acquired the Mac gear. I invited a friend over to listen and his reaction was "I have an Airline console that sounds exactly like this". I was hurt and angry for a couple of minutes until I realized that Bill wasn't being mean at all. He just heard sound differently than I do. So after that I try to remember that nobody hears quite the same as everyone else.

After all these years I have returned to close to where I started in one aspect of the vinyl game. I bought a rebuilt Dual 1219 so I can put on multiple records when I'm working on something and want uninterrupted music for a while. I have a standard TT for most listening.
 
Growing up in the 1960's my father who was an electrical engineer and designer built a Heath Kit stereo- tube amp, preamp and tuner along with speakers and a TT. I loved the warm lush sound of that gear. Then in college in 1976 my room mate had a Marantz receiver along with Marantz speakers and I was hooked. I bought my first system which was a 15wpc Pioneer receiver and Altec Model 2 speakers.

I have passed down the love of music to my 24yo son. We sit and listen to music together 2-3 hours per week. He has all my hand me down gear- Parasound A21 amp, Van Alstine tube preamp and DAC, Velodyne CHT-8 sub. I bought him some PSB B6 speakers. I even picked up a vintage Pioneer TT for him, a Pioneer pl-55x refurbished in mint condition.
 
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