What gave you your 'appetite for audio excellence?'

My interest started very early, mostly due to a grandfather who was an electrical engineer that had related home hobbies and a father that built DIY audio gear from Heathkit. So, what happened early in your life to spark an interest in hi-fi, or stereo, or HT?

My 9th grade homeroom teacher gave me a mono record player. The kind with the one tube amp built into the base of the turntable.

As is my habit, I opened it up to find out what was inside and how to make it better. I really did not have much luck at the "making it better" part untill I learned some serious electronics and science. By the time that happened, that turntable and lots of other audio gear had came and gone.

Paul

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the 1derful1

[This message has been edited by Paul J. Stiles (edited July 16, 2003).]

Short answer: musical family

My dad plays piano. My brother plays piano. I played piano and from 5th grade on have been playing trumpet. In other words, grew up with music always around.

Longer answer: family friend with insane hi-fi system.

His system was used by Mark Levinson as a demo system. Oh, that's just the stereo room. His home theater room features Cello Stradavari Masters with REL subs (2) and maxed out Theta processing with a plasma screen. Not too shabby...

He showed me "Armageddon" and with the explosions coming at me, I was hooked for life.

Similar semi musical family.. My dad played the drums, I started playing the sax in 5th grade.... then started building up stereo stuff....

My first "seperates" type system was a kenwood stereo reciever and 2 speakers that my uncle gave me.. I think they were Radio Shack the brand was "Omega"...

I've always tried to have "perfect" sound but it's only been recently that I've been more able to make significant improvements... Ideally I want to get a really good microphone and record my own sax and hear it played back exactly the same in my living room.... but there's no way my wife would let me spend the kind of money it would take to get an almost perfect recording

[This message has been edited by Unferth (edited July 16, 2003).]

http://www.apeculture.com/whipped.htm

Sex ( or sort of)
I have the most vivid memory of being tiny and raised in a VERY strict household, when something strange occurred. I caught my father hiding Something ???? (very usual behavior for my father).
Of course when he left I had to see what was up in the area of the house he was acting ‘guilty’ in , - and discovered the album “Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream and Other Delights”

WELL that was the equivalent of hard corn porn in my house. (I mean REALLY it was obvious she was not wearing anything but whipped cream) And to further concret the memory for me, that same weekend I had to stand around forever in several audio stores while my Dad shopped for a brand new LP player. The night he set it up, sure enough after I was supposed to be in bed, I came through the area again and there he was feet up staring at the album cover, saw me, and was flipping that album cover back down (out of sight) so fast he nearly fell out of his chair.

Any thing connected with that much secrecy (by my hopelessly old-fashioned household standards) AND warrenting the purchase of a new record player JUST to play it. Rated my full attention. I always semi watched very carefully men purchasing audio gear after that…and .for a few years….I equated it with ….“THEY are ALL up to NO GOOD”….

Seriously I just love music, live preferably, but since I rarely access that, - I decided to determine what makes one system more revealing than another. Did not ‘like’ the sound of what we had…husband too busy to ‘fix’ it for me….so off I went!.

Edit: WOW, looking up a link which would show a pic of that album cover, (not just text like most of them) I found a copy of it for sale for $98.00. Jackpot!!! I think its still at my parents!

[This message has been edited by Smart Little Lena (edited July 16, 2003).]

These stories are great, and special thanks to SSL for such detail. I'm glad to know a bit about my 'gunslinging family.' Who else has a story to tell?

Hmmm...I guess being a musician is part of it. I learned trumpet, sax, and drums in 5th grade I believe. Then my dad taught me Piano/keyboards, 6 and 12 string guitar, then I taught myself how to play Bass guitar and drums.

My first system, if you wanna call it that, was a Pioneer receiver, pioneer cd player, and some Jensen speakers. I quickly replaced the jensens with some decent JBL and thats when it started. I noticed such a huge difference between the 2 speakers that my thirst for the best sound still grows to this day

I love everything about this passion/hobby. From doing research about a product, to picking it out. Even calibrating is fun. I've only been into this for about 12 serious years, and I don't see a slow down anytime soon. Happy Listening

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Play it LoUd!!

Just a bit of obscure trivia. That girl on the "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" cover was pregnant at the time that picture was taken!


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited July 16, 2003).]

More trivia: it was shaving cream and not whipped cream!!

That is one of those album covers that makes you miss "album cover art." All that space...

Trivia about the obscure trivia:

Soundhound, how do you know that?

There was an article in Mix magazine a couple months ago about the recording of that album. They have a "classic tracks" article in each issue that offers facinating information on how some of the early recordings were made.

And there is the issue about my, I mean, THE baby

for such detail …more than you ever wanted to know !?

After that trip down memory lane, -I’m going to have to go dig that out at my parents and spin it. I remember HATING trumpets for awhile, (I guess he played it a lot) I don’t think I liked that album at all. I also remember “telling’ on him to my mother.
“MOMMY do you see what Picture Daddy has!” I was not even allowed to be in the same room as a James Bond flic, My parents bless them for trying were some of the last holdout residents of “Pleasantville”.

She ages well doesn’t she! had not seen that pic in years!

When I was growing up at home we also had the Whipped Cream & Other Delights album. I really liked that album and the music too. I always loved music, it could take me away, bring on many emotions, could listen to it while doing other things. It's just a great gift. My uncle had a terrific stereo system but he never knew its potential, or his wife wouldn't let him. But I was intrigued by it. However I could never afford much so I "settled" for a small Panasonic tuner/phono combo. And then it hit me at my first year in college, Pioneer had a travelling demo show at the campus. I was so taken by it that I went out and purchased a 15 watt/ch stereo receiver and Advent skrs. Two months later I purchased a Technic direct drive turntable and that's when this bug got me and never let go. I stayed up all night just listening to my albums, hearing things I never knew were in the recordings. I fell in love with this electronic stuff and to this day, 27 years later, I just can't get enough.

Born in '53.....50 yrs. of rockin..........
amazing! My parents loved their music (Sinatra,Louis Prima/Keely Smith,Big Bands...)....that's my earliest recollections of "listening" to music..... on their huge, old, amazingly retro hi-fi (RCA, I think)....I remember being facinated with the warm glow of the tubes, and the cool look and sound of the "Hi-Fi" system, the mysterious stuff that made it sound so good....I was hooked! I had an older sister who loved Motown and the "British invasion" of the mid 60's. By my early teens I was given the old Hi-Fi, and it was a start. Soon enough I was modifying - took out the amp, the big old speakers,....and that was the beginning. Soon after got some kind of cool looking Kenwood separates in late 60's, added (modified) to the existing old RCA hand me downs, and was truly rockin'!!! When I could afford more, early 70's, bought S.A.E. separates (anyone remember...parametric eq, nice amps)and have never looked back since.....
still got the bug, only not quite as bad.
I personally loved the Herb Alpert record, and even the music inside the cover too... have loved all kinds of music considering my early musical influences...
I did love that old 50's Hi-Fi though....

Actually, SSL, being the type of inter-personal person that I am with the right kind of people, the details are just right.

I remember that my father started with an H H Scott arm and turntable, a Heathkit 25 watt mono amplifier, and a Heathkit 4-way loudspeaker: 15" in a rear-loaded and vented, corner placed, Klipsch designed cabinet; 8" low/mid-range; 2x6"(?) horn upper/mid-range; and a small circular horn tweeter. My grandfather, being an electical engineer for Union Switch and Signal (railroad equipment), was the inspiration for a non-musical LP of train sounds. A recording of the 1812 overture featured not only the symphony, but a description of how the cannon fire was recorded: multiple microphones and various distances in the attempt to capture both the sharp blast near the cannon and the more distant rumblings. Several examples of the methods tried were played back. Finally the 'tried and true, Mercury single microphone method' was determined to be the best at a distance of about 150? feet. (Seem familiar, SH?) I found the dynamics reproduced by the Heathkit equipment very, very enjoyable.

Later, to begin his foray into stereo, after some experience in mono LP's, he chose reel-to-reel 1/4" tape as his media. A "Webcor" stereo tape recorder, I think it was. I soon learned to handle the tapes carefully and enjoyed the remarkable sound of E. Power Biggs classical pipe organ being played back through that 4-way room shaker. He also had recordings of Henry Mancini's Ebb Tide, Joan Baez, Peter-Paul-and-Mary, Victory at Sea, and on and on. If I am not mistaken, I listened to Herb Alpert also!

My appetite for well reproduced sound was whetted and enhanced ... I will likely still have it throughout all my years, even if I become senile! And, in a nod to SSL's post, I wonder which will last longer even in senility ... an appetite for audio or for sex?

[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited July 17, 2003).]

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