do you remember

I grew up listening to my dad's mono system, single Klipshorn corner horn, Scott vacuum tube integrated and tuner, Garrard rim drive table and Ampex reel-to-reel. A lot of modern high end could learn from this rig.

A record store in Portland (Music on Records?) had a pair of Quads set up. Don't remember any other details, but have never forgotten it. (still haven't bought quads for myself, but they're always on my list). This was end of the fifties or very early 60's.

Shortly after I bought my first system back around 1978, one of the store owners invited to his home to hear his personal system. He had a Linn LP12 feeding big-ass MacIntosh tube gear feeding some huge Fried pyramid-shaped sub/sats. Quite amazing sound, but best of all, this guy lived in a trailer! His system probably cost more than his home. I guess he had his priorities straight after all.

My first time in a "high-end" store in 1992: I walked right into a demontration of the "new" Mission/Cyrus system by a Mission representative. Listening to "way down deep' truly got me floored and eventually got me into high-end. A year later I attended the high-end show in Frankfurt and started getting more and more interested in hifi.

By chance I found the speakers, a pair of Mission 751, several years later on a closeout, keeping them for the next 8 years.

The rest is "Audiogon" history (as documented in my systems pages).

Rene

I already had a pair of Rectilinear 3s with Crown amps, but on my way to lunch, I walked by the open door of a stereo store and heard wondrous music. It was a pair of Infinity ServoStatic 1s playing with Paoli moded Dyna amps. I bought a pair three days later, and it has been a slippery slope since.