What started you on the path to being audionut?


I was 14 and visited by 26 year old neighbor. Went to his room. He fired up his Thorens table with some Chicago running through a Carver preamp/cube amp into Heresy horn speakers.
At the time this was leaps and bounds better versus anything else I heard. I was hooked from that moment.

He also played trumpet in a Chicago tribute band. I use to sit outside on my mom's front steps listening to his band practice as the music flowed out from the open, cellar hatchway doors.
pdspecl
"Jameswei: My pride and joy were my Rectilinear 3 highboys. But years later when I read a column by Julian Hirsch about how modern speakers had surpassed them, I started upgrading again."

My pride and joy were my Rectilinear 3A's. I read the same article by Julian Hirsch and traded them in for something different. I still wish I had kept them as I truly loved their sound.
I found records fascinating as a kid and listened to and studied them intently. Then one day i received a shock while playing around with a record player and the rest is history.
My uncle gave me his collection of Danny Kaye albums (books of 78's). Grandma bought me a Webcor phonograph... the result is a depletion of my bank account.
Stereo5, I really liked the way the Rectilinears sounded too. In my mind, they had a sense of the sound of electrostatics, which were out of my price range. They were airy and the sound seemed to be emitted from the entire baffle, given their 4 tweeters. And the ported woofer went lower than most others.

Looking at Wikipedia, a list of key people at the company has notable designers: Arnold Schwartz, James Bongiorno, Marty Gersten, Jon Dahlquist, Richard Shahinian
A visit to the Electronic Workshop in Greenwich Village when I was 16 years old. The K-Horn (mono days) and tube electronics, and Thorens took my breath away. Soon I was buying Marantz and McIntosh. I still remember that visit.