what made you get into high end gear.

All the gorgeous babes!

Marco

I grew up in a small Bronx apartment from the late 50's to the late 60's. My Dad took an interest in audio in the early 50's and worked at Harvey Radio in Manhatten where he was able to eventually afford to bring home Hi end gear from McIntosh, Marantz,Fisher and Studer. His first table was an older Thorens TD 121..then eventually 124 and finally a 125 with a Shure Cart and an SME III arm. This was hot stuff back then!

I remember his first speaker was an "ahead of its time" Hybrid KLH Model 1 Bass cabinet with Janszen 131 Electrostats in the upper compartment..Just 1 played in mono though as "stereo" had not quite caught on as yet. Driven with a Fisher pre amp and one lone Mc60! Eventually he got the second speaker and second amp for stereo afew years later....

I suppose you can say that I remember all this quite well even as a kid and so came by this hobby quite honestly. I still cant beleive its been the better part of 40+ years later and to think that my Dad who has since retired still is an avid audiophile as well as a great dad! I also cant believe he still kept his Model 1 KLH bass cabinets since back then( after selling the Janszens back in the 70's)...and has just recently pulled them out to use after finding some later model Janszens 131's he won on Ebay!..Who would have thought?

Thats my story of how this all started for me..the rest was history I guess and like most of the rest of us Phools, Ive been all over the map with changing systems since. ;) The really interesting part of this is how much choice we have now(and also how much confusion) about so many different components. Back in the day..it was Mac, Marantz and Fisher, Peter Walker bringing his now famous Quads to market( with some reliablility issues of course! ;) KLH and later AR for truly Hi End and if you took home any of those brands...you were set and the envy of any Audiophile who was worth his salt.! FWIW..Wharfedale was making some truly excellent drivers back in the early going..but really lacked a good cabinet to put them in!

mental illness

this damn site!

My first sound system was a one box phonograph record changer with a small speaker in the front covered with a grill, late 50's. I thought it was great then my parents got a Stromberg=Carlson multiplex stereo cabinet with phonograph and tuner and the sound was so superior to anything I had heard, even if all in one cabinet, a very nice cabinet though. That I got hooked. For them it was probably more functional for me the start of a long and continuing road, that at one point had me become an electronic technician so I could understand just what those specs meant.