How Did You Get Started? - Page 2

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My grandmother (a grammer school and music teacher and chorus singer) bought me the first 5 or so Beatles records as they were released, and taught me how to handle them properly. I still have them and they are in cherry condition.

When growing up my parents would always play records, I was so intrigued and it grew from there. My first ever Portable player was a Panasonic Tape Player/Walkman, I was around 10-11yrs old. Then moved onto Portable CD players in my Teens. Will always remember my first quality pair of Earbuds! MX500's with the storage winder. They lasted me quite a long time, until i got hold of some PX100's and it exploded from there.

Since being a young teenager I've always had a passing interest in audio tech. as part of an interest in technology in general. I got great satisfaction from a good Panasonic Walkman I got one Christmas/Birthday and later enhanced my listening with a pair of £30 Sony ear buds. I was an early adopter of the portable MP3 player (I wasn't aware then that MP3 would further lower the standards of consumer music 'consumption') and through my university years I was a proud owner of a Denon bookshelf system.

It was the Sennheiser HD 25-1 II which really got me hooked into head-fi and high quality music reproduction in general. When I was younger I remember an older guy I knew having a pair of the HD 25's and how he raved about them. A year or so ago I was looking for a new pair of headphones and remembered the HD 25's. Searching for reviews took me to Head-Fi, and well that was it really. After getting the HD 25's I learnt about lossless, foobar2000, brought a Nuforce uDAC, then a hybrid tube amp, then some Westone IEMs, ...

I think what got me hooked was the wealth of information and different areas to learn about. Also, every change/upgrade I made provided a tangible improvement which helped me get to know the music I loved better (hearing new, little details in the music which you didn't know where there before is the best bit for me).

Of course, a love of music itself is a driving force behind the desire to improve your listening experience and get closer to the music. I've got my Mum to thank for that. She introduced me to such greats as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lenard Cohen, King Crimson, etc. which in turn focused my interests to genres such as blues, folk, classic and progressive rock and I've continued exploring from there.