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Audiophiles Anonymous


Harleywood

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When did you know you had an addiction to audio gear? 

I figured it out when getting settled into my first apartment in 1988 and I looked around at the bean bag chairs, the cardboard boxes for end and coffee tables and a $1400 two channel system in the corner. 

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2 minutes ago, SWL said:

I don't have no problem......




........but now that you mention it.......




.........I think I have a serious problem.



Anybody got some tubes they wanna sell me?emoji14.png

 

An addiction isn't always a problem unless of course the dealer is out of stock. :)

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13 minutes ago, Harleywood said:

I figured it out when getting settled into my first apartment in 1988 and I looked around at the bean bag chairs, the cardboard boxes for end and coffee tables and a $1400 two channel system in the corner. 

Nothing out of place here. ☺️

 

For me I started to realize when moving through the basement was getting difficult.

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Mine was when my wife told me she'd no longer help me carry any speakers in or out of our house.  It was that same day that I bought a two wheel dolly.  😂

 

From memory here are the Klipsch speakers that I used to own:

 

KV-1 (my very first!)

RF-25

RF-7

forte I

forte II

Quartet

SC-1

RS-42

KG-4

SC-3

KV-4

SS-1

SB-3 (gave to my sister & bro in law)

Chorus I (bought for $50, sold for $70)

 

Pretty mixed bag!  I think that covers them.

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5 hours ago, Harleywood said:

When did you know you had an addiction to audio gear? 

I like the "addiction to audio gear" much better than audiophile, it fits better.

Probably around 1976, but I only keep what can be played, nothing (much) in storage.

 

Only one set of speakers that you can't walk up to and turn on and it's the big yard speakers, I don't keep electronics under the patio since they rarely get used, I have to carry something out to play them. Not counting a pair of RB 75's I hold for our daughter since we gave here Forte's. 

 

My only problem is I ran out of room, and of course, there is always the money thing. 

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7 minutes ago, Westcoastdrums said:

Mine was when my wife told me she'd no longer help me carry any speakers in or out of our house.  It was that same day that I bought a two wheel dolly.  😂

 

Same story here.   Thats hilarious I'm not the only one. Haha. I think my brother is sick of helping me too.   

 A handtruck doesn't complain too often. The dolly for wood floors, the hand truck for going over tile and gravel driveways. I actually had to change the tires on mine!

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My first bed out of college was made up of eight tea crates (free for the asking from Lipton company at the Galveston docks) with a pad of foam rubber on top...for 5 years. 

 

il_340x270.1224058702_ec1j.jpg

 

In that time, I owned DIY 3-way acoustic suspension loudspeakers, and later gave them to a friend when I bought a pair of AR90s a year or so later with Pioneer receiver and direct drive TT with Shure V15 Type III cartridge.  About 2 years later I sprang for a pair of Magnepan MG-IIIAs with Carver C-2 preamp and M1.5t amplifier.  I was also a cat sailor/racer (NACRA 5.2, NACRA 5.5 18^2 metre, windsurfer) during that time and raced year 'round on the weekends on cats, then big boats (J24, 10-metre racing monohulls) on Galveston bay.  I basically lived like a beach bum in Galveston (later Alvin, home of Nolan Ryan)--but with a very good sound system. :happy:

 

I only accepted a donated bed from friends later--when they showed up at my door with a spare one that they had, thus having pity on my poor audiophile living state.  It was like a page of my life turned when I laid down on the new bed that evening.  I must've shed a little tear--knowing that life was going to change--forever.  (I later married the girl that brought the bed.)  That was 35 1/2 years ago.  She's still here.  Later, when our kids were almost out the door (i.e., graduated and with good jobs), I bought Jubilees.  The rest you already know.

 

The Magnepans are still in a box in the garage and the NACRA 5.5 is disassembled in the back yard (not having seen the water since I got married). 

 

I guess that I hang on the image of being an audiophile beach bum.

 

Chris

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I think it's when you tell your wife you are going to quit buying. Then you get rid of some stuff and find you still have an MCM 1900, a set of KP-450's still waiting to be picked up, three Altec A-7's in various condition to be fixed along with old KP201 and Heresy I sets,  a set of 1989 KP250's and KP 301's, a set of KP 115 and 250's. Then you have that set of pristine Chorus I's and the set of Forte II's that need a bit of veneer work. In the next few weeks you are going to get a cabinet saw to make cabinets for a set of Super MWM's and a set of Chorus I's and a set of modified La Scalas because you have some parts sitting around because you bought four beat up La Scalas and only two are worth saving and a set of Chorus parts. Oh and that set of two KP-450 horns and that set of KP-456 horns on the top shelf you are getting woofers for so you can build bass bins after you get done with the pile o KPT-456's you are also buying in a few weeks. That is in between times when you are machining MAHL horn lenses. It is however not an addiction it is a fascination with audio. Right?????

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Leaving home for college in the fall of 1983, I just knew deep in my bones that the only way to get my own stereo was to get a job - my first real punch-the-clock job, at minimum wage no less.  Which, back then, was a whopping $3.35 an hour.  I slaved in the cafeteria in my college dorm for an entire semester until I had enough to buy a basic dorm room system (Technics receiver, Panasonic cassette deck, and big honkin' disco-approved Fisher rack-grade "white woofer" speakers).  As I moved through college and my budding audiophilia, several things happened: I ditched cassettes for vinyl, I ditched those Fishers for a sweet pair of ADS L570s, I ditched a series of cheap *** receivers for some genuine audiophile-approved Adcom separates, and <drum roll please> the Compact Disc arrived.  I just had to have it.  Who paid for all of this?  Why YOU did taxpayers!  All through the 80s I cashed my student loan and Pell Grant checks every few months not to pay my tuition.  Hell no.  All that dough - thousands and thousands of dollars of it - bought me ever greater stereos.  Until I finally dropped out and enlisted in the military. And then the cycle started all over again (ever heard of an "AAFES stereo"?).  Yep, that was me: slave to the sound.  I can honestly say that for a decade from the early 80s to the early 90s (when I bought my first Klipsch) all of my expendable income went towards stereo gear and tapes/records/CDs.  I slept on the floor, ate ramen, mooched off the girlfriend, yada yada.  But the tunes were always cranking.  And usually at a relatively high level of quality. 

 

Top that you amateurs.

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2005 when was I bought my first REAL stereo at 18.  Got me pair of Klipsch RF7 and rsw 15 sub in black veneer natrually.   Got me 70% off through klipsch directz once a year.  Pair it with B&K 200.2 amp and ref 5 S2 preamp..... Still miss that system occasionally.... Very very capable system.   

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18 hours ago, Chris A said:

My first bed out of college was made up of eight tea crates (free for the asking from Lipton company at the Galveston docks) with a pad of foam rubber on top...for 5 years. 

 

il_340x270.1224058702_ec1j.jpg

 

In that time, I owned DIY 3-way acoustic suspension loudspeakers, and later gave them to a friend when I bought a pair of AR90s a year or so later with Pioneer receiver and direct drive TT with Shure V15 Type III cartridge.  About 2 years later I sprang for a pair of Magnepan MG-IIIAs with Carver C-2 preamp and M1.5t amplifier.  I was also a cat sailor/racer (NACRA 5.2, NACRA 5.5 18^2 metre, windsurfer) during that time and raced year 'round on the weekends on cats, then big boats (J24, 10-metre racing monohulls) on Galveston bay.  I basically lived like a beach bum in Galveston (later Alvin, home of Nolan Ryan)--but with a very good sound system. :happy:

 

I only accepted a donated bed from friends later--when they showed up at my door with a spare one that they had, thus having pity on my poor audiophile living state.  It was like a page of my life turned when I laid down on the new bed that evening.  I must've shed a little tear--knowing that life was going to change--forever.  (I later married the girl that brought the bed.)  That was 35 1/2 years ago.  She's still here.  Later, when our kids were almost out the door (i.e., graduated and with good jobs), I bought Jubilees.  The rest you already know.

 

The Magnepans are still in a box in the garage and the NACRA 5.5 is disassembled in the back yard (not having seen the water since I got married). 

 

I guess that I hang on the image of being an audiophile beach bum.

 

Chris

 

Great post Chris , very simple but elegantly told story  . As a confession I did not realize I had an audio gear addiction problem until I became infected by another addict via Audiophile Osmosis while listening to their audio set-up .   

 

 

 

 

 
 
Danley Labs SH 50 Speakers 4 ohms
First Watt SIT-2 Amplifier 8 watts into 4 ohms 
Pass Labs XP-30 Pre-amplifier Line level  
McIntosh MR-71 (Tube) FM-Tuner Vintage ( Restored )
Rel Stadium III Sub woofers ( Pair ) 1 per channel  
APL NWO-Master Universal Transport/DAC ( Esoteric UX-1Pi ) CD Transport and outboard Tube DAC


  

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1 hour ago, Ivanhoe56 said:

...As a confession I did not realize I had an audio gear addiction problem until I became infected by another addict via Audiophile Osmosis while listening to their audio set-up .    

This certainly was a factor in my "audio poor" living style when actually working for a living.  My best buddy in college (yes, you guessed it--an EE major) built his own DIY 3-ways and did a really good job, even though he had no SPL meter or acoustic measurement system at his disposal.  It was after all 1976 summer break.  He was a bit on the "meticulous" side (read: OCD) about his setup.  I just showed up at his dorm room to vegetate/study.  I found that engineering school kind of loads your rear end down...at least it did back then before Matlab and desktop PCs...so good tunes were actually a requirement for this easily distracted student.  "Synergistic" is the word that I'd use. :biggrin2:

 

Chris

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