How did you get started?

I was raised with music. Live (the Met, standing room every Saturday between ages 3&5) and at home (my faves were Peter and the Wolf and Porgy & Bess.) Played an instrument pretty well. My father had a Bozak-Mac-Fisher system. Showed me the ridges on lamp cord so you knew which side was which and didn't hook things up out of phase. When I was 15 I had my own rig. ElectroVoice, Eico amp, Gerrard. Evolution brought me to KLH 6s and AR3s. Electronics in that period swung between Dyna Stereo 70/PAS3 and Marantz Model 9 and pre with AR table. Segue to: Old Quads with a variety of amps from custom made OTLs to VTL triodes to krell KSA 80 to ARC Classic 30 with Sota table SME V arm and highish output (for moving coil) carts like EMT, Kiseki Rosedwood. The Quads morphed into a ProAc Response 3-ARC VT130 system. Presently I am getting excellent sound from Totem Mani-2s driven by Musical Fidelity M-250 mono blocks supplemented by a Triad sub-woofer. Front ends are Denon DP59L table with integrated dampened arm bearing a ClearAudio Veritas going into a Luxman LE-109 phono preamp (solid state) and an Adcom GFP 750 pre, (used in passive mode.) Digital: Sony 707ES (hardly the newest piece of gear around but very hard to beat.) Oh, and let us not forget the highly modified Kenwood
KT7500 for "free music." Music? Well, I no longer play an instrument pretty; well I do catch concerts (Mahler, Dylan, BB King). Catch some live jazz, usually at clubs. Was fortunate enough to have heard Ray Brown in Boston a year ago and had a date to hear him at Yoshi's in Berkeley. But he died. On the day he died I had enough Ray Brown on CD and vinyl to play for 12 hours straight and have plenty left over.

My first system included a Sansui tube receiver a Dual turnatable with a Shure catridge and Japanese no-name speakers. They were purchased in 1966 while I was still in the Navy. I have had MANY different systems since then, but my love of music motivated me to get into the hobby. The price tags keep getting bigger and the music keeps sounding better.

When I graduated from grammar school I recieved a folding "all in one stereo w/ Garrad turntable" as a gift from my parents. Most of my rather generous allowance (I worked hard for it) went towards records (1'st 45 was the Beatles "Hey Jude", first three albums "Magical MysteryTour" "Sgt.Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Cosmo's Factory". The next year I was sent to Boarding school in Europe. When I came back I was dismayed to find all my meticulously maintained records ruined (cigarette holes,scratches,gouges, etc.)my parents thought it O.K. to lend my prize collection to my cousins (My mother also thought it a good idea to throw away a huge collection of "MAD" magazines and replace my subscription with "Boys Life" (Yuch!)). There was nothing I could do about it, especially since I was away most of the time. A couple of years latter I returned and left. I was legally emancipated at age 14. Despite working three job (minimumn wage) I couldn't afford a new stereo (being on my own did allow me to spend almost every night in N.Y.'s great jazz clubs thanks to a fortuitous mistake on my passports year of birth). I always promised myself that one day I would own the best. I had all the classic misconceptions of the era (thanks Julian Hirsch), a watt is a watt, big boxes with many drivers and a reciever was all anybody but an idiot with money needed. A friend/co-worker who attended a lot of shows with me, brought me home to hear his Linn Kans with Adcom power amp, it was all over. I had to rethink all my previous misconceptions. The next year I spent over 10% of my measly yearly salary on speakers alone. I haven't looked back since.

My father can't carry a tune but loves music. He got into the hobby in the golden mid-Fifties with a Rek-o-Kut TT, a Shure cartridge with the first Fisher stereo amp--saw one on auction recently at about $300--and EV drivers in custom horns. He made sure the kids had something to play their records on so they wouldn't have to use his system. I learned not to drop the stylus on the disc and to keep the volume down at startup.

When I could, I started to build up my own system. An ELAC changer, a Dyna SCA-35 kit (thanks Mom!) and homebuilt speakers with Wharfedale drivers. Later, a Connoisseur turntable with Decca arm and cartridge, HK Citation 12 kit and ESS AMT-1 speakers. Didn't find a preamp I liked before the divorce.

Kits were a great way to learn and get great sound into the bargain. You can still do it today, but the marketers take up so much bandwidth that it's harder to learn about them.

Unsound, I was sent to boarding school in Europe at 15. I know what goes on while you're away (parents gave my bike to the chauffeur, what on earth happened to... ). Congratulations on your emancipation!

I was on the school playground after lunch when a dirty man in a raincoat approached me. "Hey kid, I want you to try something. Don't worry, I'm not gonna take nothin from ya." And he slips me a slim package in a brown wrapper. "If ya want more, the directions are in the bag." and he disappears. Inside was a copy of Brubeck-Tjader, and the address of The Record Hunter...