Every hi-fi fan has an origin story. Unlike comics, most may not start with a planet exploding or a radioactive spider bite, but in our experience, they’re still always interesting.
Whether it’s a specific product, album or concert, we all remember the first time we heard “good sound” and started our never-ending quest for audio nirvana, and it's a fun story to share, especially amongst fellow enthusiasts.
That’s why, Nosey Nellies that we are, last month we asked you, our awesome readers, to share some of yours, eager to find out if there are any common themes.
After a month, your responses have come flooding back, and while a few brands pop up on more than one occasion, for the most part it was a free-for-all where every story was unique.
Glorious audio chaos
The only real theme we got from reading your replies is that there is no one common starting point.
For starters, despite us asking “which product” got you started, a number of you still went one step back, replying with the piece of music or album that made you want better hardware. Including onsite commenter Ivan Harrison, who bluntly stated, “Dark Side Of The Moon.”
Editor’s Note: To be fair, it’s a great Pink Floyd album. Not as good as In The Court Of The Crimson King, by King Crimson, or Close To The Edge, by Yes, though, at least in my (and most of your) humble opinion.
Even among the people who replied with the product that started it all, there was a disparity, and more than a few unique tales, about custom hardware, Cold War smuggling and more. Take, for example, Jan Sejvl's story:
“A German tourist brought for me through the Iron Curtain to Czechoslovakia my first real hi-fi gear in the 80s. Gigantic Toshiba receiver with Dual CS 1246 turntable. Loudspeakers, I made at home with [the] help of my friend. The first tones of Queen’s Radio Ga Ga through this system was the very start of a never-ending search for something better. I have to admit I have never [had] such [a] feeling of happiness as I did at that moment in the past.”
And DIY seems to have been a theme for many of our older readers, with more than a few mentioning soldering their own amps out of old motherboards.
A few even mentioned reel-to-reel – which is enjoying a resurgence in the high-end market right now. This included reader Froze Rekmeyata, who told us:
“This would probably take me back to a 3-inch reel-to-reel made by GE; I was 11 years old when I got it. That machine made me start to appreciate music. Then when I was 14, I got a 1970 Montgomery Ward's Airline AM/FM Cassette home stereo for Christmas; that was a huge improvement in sound... for me.”
Hand-me-downs were another common theme in your responses, which included a particularly nice one from reader Roony Muck, who said:
“During high school, my friend's parents divorced, and during the aftermath clean-out, his mom gave me a ’70s-era classic Marantz stereo receiver. That, paired with my dad's hand-me-down Celestion Ditton 15s, at the age of 15, was my bar for listening to my music on vinyl and CD. The combination of a warm and expansive amp and tight, accurate and clear Dittons was striking to me at an early age. In my late 20s, I had to travel across the country and gave my Marantz and Dittons to another 15-year-old... Seemed the right thing to do.”
Our hot take
A love of music and the desire to have the hardware necessary to do it justice can start at any moment. That’s clear from your replies and the diverse origin stories you’ll find among the What Hi-Fi? team – which range from “oh wow” moments hearing classic prog for the first time, to the first speakers that blew our minds sonically. The only thing we’re certain of is that, as we detailed in a previous Ask the Reader column, once you start, it’s very hard to stop!
MORE:
These are the best record players we’ve tested
Our picks of the best stereo amps
We rank the best speakers money can buy
