How did you get into this hobby?

In Korea, instead of a starbuck , we have coffee houses with good stereo systems playing classical. I was shocked to learn that there is a world of beauty to be discovered, and we can turn on happiness by a button!

Ever since this pleasant discovery, I've been upgrading from a pioneer system thanks to audiogon and ebay (more risky).

Lets introduce others to this great hobby - these days, you can get pretty good sounds from not so much money - even a 1k system can sound entertaining and nonfatiguing.

My recipe is in three speaker system - 5 inch woofer bookshelfs like Athena ($170) with a sony sa-wm200 sub ($95). Even electronics like NAD and Rotel can have you on your feets dancing to your favorites.

It took me a long time to figure that out after many set of speakers, that a Sony sub was the missing link! B4 spending megabucks on speakers, you might want to try the 3 piece solution.

My wife bought me a pair of Grado SR80 headphones to go with an MP3 player for Christmas 4 or 5 years ago. Suddenly I was hearing details in the music that I never imagined existed. I fell in love with the sound immediately and have been chasing for higher quality ever since. I'm always hearing a piece of music, a guitar solo, etc, while driving, and I'll say to myself, "I can't wait to hear that again on a Hi-Fi system." My wife regrets the day she bought me those headphones.

Everything started when my dad let me sit with headphones listening Mozart, I was 3 years old... In school I started to save for my first "upgrade": some unit consisting of LP and Tape in one with two funny one-way speakers. And, so on...

played in the band in jr.high and high school- we had a record/playback system in both rooms (AR speakers, ampex tape decks, mikes on boom stands, etc.) begged my parents for a reel to reel (concord)- alligator clipped to a blaupunkt hi-fi/sw radio. later got a fisher compact stereo (turntable built onto a receiver). had an all-county band clinic at the high school one weekend- a guy shows up with a HUGE ampex recording rig. later i see peter mcgrath's studer a-80 with levinson electronics at his store. well, that's enuf for now- i have to go wipe my chin...

When I was about 11 months old (as my Mother tells me) I would crawl over to the "hi-fi" system (one of those pieces of furniture with 4 legs and a top that opened up to expose a turntable and an AM-FM stereo) and lay under it.

I wonder if the imaging was best down there?

My parents actually let me sleep under the hi-fi instead of taking me to bed.

They don't make parents like that anymore...