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Audiophila, what got you started?


ACV92

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Going with my dad to his work 4 or 5 nights a week.

Dad bought me pretty much any kit i wanted, Heathkits were "Ok" for a couple years.

Dad was more machanical/machining, but all of his bud's were electronics, i was exposed to "The Fisher", spoiled from day one.

 

Dad's work place and my Lab of learning was what was at the time called STL, Space Tech Labs. it's now called TRW.

These are the guy's who built the first satt's and all space research of the 60's thru today.

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In the early 1970's I was hanging out with a group of people 10 to 15 older than myself. They were in my opinion, the last of the hippie generation. Music all day every day. 

 My older cousin had a fantastic Jensen Quadraphonic system.  Listened to a lot of Quad albums, one that still stands was Ten Years After, ( A Space In Time ).  Then I heard a set of Bose 901"s that a friend of my cousin had set up in a attic of a house that was turned into his music room. The room was about 15 foot wide and 30 foot long. He put the lp , Traffic,   The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. Not long after that I heard a system that had speakers that were at least 5 foot tall, dont remember the brand, but he was running Phase Linear 400 amps. He had rented a sound proof apartment in Cincinnati Ohio and was evicted for playing his music too loud.  

Since then I have listened to so much audio equipment Its hard to deiced what my ultimate system would be.  I think a lot of us get way too caught up in the whole deal of our quest for the best sound. I personally dont like using the word Audiophile. I make a joke of what a true Audiophile is. A Audiophile is a guy who is headed out to purchase a $400 set of RCA cables while its raining and he is reaching outside of his car to work the wiper blade with his hand.   

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In 2009 I got approached by the "white van".

Oddly thanks to my inability to get to the ATM quick enough and the fact that I was in my home turf where I zipped in and out of little lanes to tell my welder to hold on for a bit, I am buying some high end audio - and by the time I got to the ATM, the scammers were very very leery of me. I then proceeded to talk to my wife in tamil as well as haggle with them some more. They thought I was scamming them, and they decided to find an easier target.

Ha, the joke's on them, I could have bought their crap for 3 or 400 and been so happy ever after, instead a whole house and container are full with crap, as well as the other house and a 10X25 storage - though to be honest, its not all audio.

 

Anyway having lost the deal of a lifetime, I proceeded to find a infinity RS625 later that same week in april/may 2009 that needed foam for free on CL, and foamed it, and I have been acquiring bigger and better crap ever since.

Cool.

Srinath.

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1 hour ago, staygroovybaby said:

In the early 1970's I was hanging out with a group of people 10 to 15 older than myself. They were in my opinion, the last of the hippie generation. Music all day every day. 

 My older cousin had a fantastic Jensen Quadraphonic system.  Listened to a lot of Quad albums, one that still stands was Ten Years After, ( A Space In Time ).  Then I heard a set of Bose 901"s that a friend of my cousin had set up in a attic of a house that was turned into his music room. The room was about 15 foot wide and 30 foot long. He put the lp , Traffic,   The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. Not long after that I heard a system that had speakers that were at least 5 foot tall, dont remember the brand, but he was running Phase Linear 400 amps. He had rented a sound proof apartment in Cincinnati Ohio and was evicted for playing his music too loud.  

Since then I have listened to so much audio equipment Its hard to deiced what my ultimate system would be.  I think a lot of us get way too caught up in the whole deal of our quest for the best sound. I personally dont like using the word Audiophile. I make a joke of what a true Audiophile is. A Audiophile is a guy who is headed out to purchase a $400 set of RCA cables while its raining and he is reaching outside of his car to work the wiper blade with his hand.   

my friend in cincy in the late 70's had some phase linear 400's and he used to tell someone who had 901's to bring em over and i blow them up for you. lived in the colerain area

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Worked as an usher at the Hollywood Bowl in the late 60's and the parents ran Fisher tubes into custom made JBL speakers.  Sort of a given that I'd head down this road.  Still have those JBL units.  Sister got the Fisher 500 and it is long gone and likely destroyed.

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Vry early teens my best friends father built a wall-wall cabinet housing a RTR, turntable, Fisher AM/FM and two 15 inch full range JBLs. Quite the rig for mid 1960's. We'd listen all the time before and after school. Down from his house we hung with some of the first "long hairs" of the day who had a band so we listened to a lot of music. Mid 60's mind you so music legends are just emerging. Two bid stereo shops in town one a big time Mc dealer, the other carried it all a big JBL dealer. We left lots of drool in those stores. My dad worked with a guy who moonlighted at the JBL store, David Beatty Stereo, who fixed me up with a nice Kenwood integrated, Thorens table and the first Infinty speakers to hit the market. Quite the first rig for a 15 year old. Forward three years, at college my best friend above and I are wakened middle of the night by the long hairs mentioned above who were delivering a pair of custom cabinet JBL's with Pro Line LE15a and LE85 compression drivers. All done by dads inside friend at Beattys. What a surprise as this was just a pipe dream that my dad followed on! And when I say wakened in the middle of the night I mean it - these dudes were crawling through the front room window!!! Keep in mind now, the late 60's, long hairs in a band, you get the picture!!!! Another shop came to town, big Klipsch dealer. Ordered my first Klipsh speakers - walnut stained LaScallas. And on it goes ----

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My uncle was stationed in Taiwan with timex, brought back some really nice gear. He showed me that there was something more than all in one record players. His RTR was just magic to me. Fast forward 10yrs heard my first pair of Cornwalls I was totally hooked. I now have my uncles RTR and turntable and sansui quad receiver that I first heard as a kid. 

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43 minutes ago, Budman said:

my friend in cincy in the late 70's had some phase linear 400's and he used to tell someone who had 901's to bring em over and i blow them up for you. lived in the colerain area

Yeah, the Phase linear 400's were bad boys. I grew up in the Cincinnati  area,   I am currently living on the gulf coast and will be moving as soon as my property sells. Cant wait to move back home. Until this happens, eat a couple of cheese coneys for me. Or even a couple of white castles.  Many nights after bar hopping I would wear out a bag of white castles. The bar days are over, but the taste of home is still in my veins.  Dean

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4 hours ago, minermark said:

Going with my dad to his work 4 or 5 nights a week.

Dad bought me pretty much any kit i wanted, Heathkits were "Ok" for a couple years.

Dad was more machanical/machining, but all of his bud's were electronics, i was exposed to "The Fisher", spoiled from day one.

 

Dad's work place and my Lab of learning was what was at the time called STL, Space Tech Labs. it's now called TRW.

These are the guy's who built the first satt's and all space research of the 60's thru today.

So....you started snorting lead/acid solder fumes at an early age, huh?

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42 minutes ago, staygroovybaby said:

Yeah, the Phase linear 400's were bad boys. I grew up in the Cincinnati  area,   I am currently living on the gulf coast and will be moving as soon as my property sells. Cant wait to move back home. Until this happens, eat a couple of cheese coneys for me. Or even a couple of white castles.  Many nights after bar hopping I would wear out a bag of white castles. The bar days are over, but the taste of home is still in my veins.  Dean

 

I imagine the taste of White Castle still lingers also!! We had those in KC more than once but they never caught on. Like you said they were rumored to be the best thing going for curing a night of drinking. That I never tried in combination as the WC were enough on their own and even now thinking about both, together --- 'cuse me ---- got to run!!!

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1 hour ago, richieb said:

 

I imagine the taste of White Castle still lingers also!! We had those in KC more than once but they never caught on. Like you said they were rumored to be the best thing going for curing a night of drinking. That I never tried in combination as the WC were enough on their own and even now thinking about both, together --- 'cuse me ---- got to run!!!

I crave a couple WCs about once a month, then I have a few, then remember why I don't have them more often:D

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My father built our hi-fi system in 1959 or 1960: an Eico integrated amp, an Eico AM/FM tuner (mono FM — Pop added a separate FM de-multiplexer unit when FM stereo broadcasts began in the early 60s), a Garrard turntable and a pair of 12" Jensen coax speakers. The Eicos were kits (all tubes) that Pop built (the house always seemed to smell of solder), and he also built the speaker cabinets and the equipment cabinet (with a pull-out drawer for the Garrard). From the looks of the cabinets, he must have designed them himself. (He put Formica on the tops of all the cabinets, which made them kid-proof.)

Listening to records on it by Benny Goodman, Spike Jones, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Carl Sandburg (singing American folk songs), Theodore Bikel (singing Jewish folk songs), Elvis Presley, the Mills Brothers, the Firehouse Five plus Two (Dixieland jazz), Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw starting when I was 8, it sounded absolutely great, as it did with all the folk music, middle-eastern music, opera, jazz and pop music that we heard on FM (plus Vin Scully calling 162 Dodger games a year). It sounded even better when I was 12, and started playing Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Beatles records on it, and again when I was 15 and began feeding it records by Cream, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.

The integrated:
Name:  Eico Amp.jpg Views: 117 Size:  54.4 KB

The mono tuner was similar to this, but had an AM band as well:
Name:  Eico tuner.jpg Views: 115 Size:  56.2 KB

The stereo FM demultiplexer:
Name:  eico-stereo-fm-multiplexer_med_hr.jpg Views: 112 Size:  31.8 KB

Couldn't find the Jensens, and I don't remember enough about the Garrard to pinpoint it. BTW, my father always ran the amp and tuner without their cases, no doubt because of heat build-up.

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3 hours ago, staygroovybaby said:

 Many nights after bar hopping I would wear out a bag of white castles. The bar days are over, but the taste of home is still in my veins.  Dean

 

 

2 hours ago, richieb said:

 

I imagine the taste of White Castle still lingers also!! We had those in KC more than once but they never caught on. Like you said they were rumored to be the best thing going for curing a night of drinking. That I never tried in combination as the WC were enough on their own and even now thinking about both, together --- 'cuse me ---- got to run!!!

 

 

growing up in B'ham AL, we did n't have WC.  we had Krystal, which I hear is about the same thing.  and we used to do the same - wind up @ the Krystal, even while having a mixed drink in the parking lot.  sometimes, we'd even buy some squares to go with our drinks.  I remember if I had too much, my story to the parents was that the Krystals didn't agree with me  :dry:.  they never gave me too much grief.

 

1 hour ago, Ceptorman said:

I crave a couple WCs about once a month, then I have a few, then remember why I don't have them more often:D

 

yep, same here.  every now & then, maybe 2x a year, I'll get some.  and then I'm set for another 6 mo or so

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Just now, CECAA850 said:

I lived there a couple years.  Worked at Doug Willey Pontiac on 6'th St.

 

 

I remember it!  don't remember exactly where it was but do remember the name!  seems like it was in Ensley area maybe, yes?

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Just now, -js- said:

 

 

I remember it!  don't remember exactly where it was but do remember the name!  seems like it was in Ensley area maybe, yes?

Not sure where Ensley was.  I was there around '78 and '79.  My brother worked at Crown Mercedes which was a sister store I believe.

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11 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Not sure where Ensley was.  I was there around '78 and '79.  My brother worked at Crown Mercedes which was a sister store I believe.

 

nice.  I was in my last year at Homewood HS that year.  the Ensley area is still around but nothing like what it used to be.  it's just west of the downtown area.  I remember Crown Mercedes.  I think used to be in the downtown area.  a number of years ago I think they moved out to the 'burbs.  last I recall, Crown is still doing quite well, dealing for Merc's & other similar imports.

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On 3/1/2017 at 8:48 AM, moray james said:

Schu: that's more or less the deal but you forgot the toilet paper tube 28 gage magnet wire tuning coil and the wire antenna strung out the window to the apple tree in the back yard. did not take long to lose the cats whisker and move on to dedicated crystals. first speakers by the summer I turned 12 and sold those to a neighbor later that fall and built a better set with the profit. been going on ever since.

Ahhh the wire antenna strung out the window!  Mine went from the tiny, rustic house my dad, the neighbor kid and I built (which, of course had an electronically opening secret room hiding behind it), up to the top of the camphor tree, then across the roof of my parents' house, with a lead down to my grandfather's radio, then across to the neighbor kid's roof to a tall pole strapped to his chimney, then down to his bedroom. 

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