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I can't wait tilli get a job... My goal by the end of senior year is a Music Hall USB-1 turntable, bigger speakers for my room rig, a Schiit Modi/Magni stack, a HE-400, and wood for my Grados. I've got 2 1/2 years to get that accomplished...
LOL...I like your other comment of "where do you get your money from." Then I like the "we got jobs" comment. Then I read this post about getting a TT by the end of your senior year. I was just thinking about how I have been out of high school for exactly HALF MY LIFE. Im 34, and I graduated about 17 years ago (class of 96)!!!! If you could get that geat by the time you graduate, congrats to you! You are already way farther ahead than I was at that age!
Old man talk now: When I was your age, I remember listening to cassettes on the lowest end Walkman around, with whatever earbuds came with it. At home, I had to make do with whatever was the late 80s version of a Sony HTiB, which had a TT, Cassette and finally a CD player! I Had exactly 2 CDs for most of my Sohpmore and Junior years! Then I discovered columbia house and the ridiculous ways a person could exploit them! Even then I always loved putting on my set of earbuds and tuning out the world and get lost in the music. Sometime in my senior year I was able to finally afford a Discman.
Now some boring story about how I went about getting bit by the Hi/Head-Fi bug and how I gathered my equipment:
My first attempt at Hi-Fi gear was building a good sound system for my 87 Honda Accord my freshman year at UCLA. LOL. It consisted of 4 Pioneer Speakers, and a 1000W Jensen Amp. I used to love it! Then some dickwad stole my amp in Hollywood. Ever since then, most of my music $$$ was spent either on concerts or car audio. It kinda had to be this way. Ever since I moved out of my parents house some 17 years ago, I always live in apartments and always had complaints from neighbors about noise, so a full blown system was never really in mind. Over my years, I owned a JVC mini-surround system (real boom boxy look), and 3 HTiB setups: a Panasonic, Sony and Yamaha (in fact my HTR-3064 is a carry over).
My first attempt at Hi-Fi came five years ago with...ahem...a pair of Bose headphones and IEMs. I was so impressed that I bought a set of Bose Companion 3 computer speakers (which just recently got retired when I picked up the Wharfe 7.1s/EMU 1212. I bought a cheapy universal Sony BR player so I could listen to SACDs (my cheapo Sony HTiB reciver could do DSD) and I was hooked! Mind you, this didn't happen until about just over a year ago. Ive been flip flopping between work and school since high school, and during my work phases my money was spent on cars, modding cars and car audio. When the home/head-fi bug hit me hard, I still had about a year to go before I finished my second bachelors and went on to grad school, where I was a student BUT ALSO AN EMPLOYEE!!! During my last remaining student days I picked up my HD650s off Amazon's from a killer X-mas special ($350). I also got my FiiO E7 a few weeks later and although I liked what they could do with my 650s, they still lacked. Over the next couple of months I was able to buy a pair of Sennheiser PX360s, the Cowon J3 and a FiiO E9, and finally knew what Head-Fi was all about on the portable end (J3+E7+PX360) and at home (HD650s+E9). I was officially stung. From there, I picked up my Yamaha S2500 SACD player at a stupid price ($15+$20 for shipping!!) and jumped on the Wharfedale Evo2 closeout sale prices when I got the Evo2-20 Towers and Center.
That was all by March of last year. Every nickle and dime that was left over from financial aid from school and my "cut" of the refund from my wife's and I's taxes went to buying all I listed above. We finally bought this condo this summer, right after I graduated (I was already admitted to a grad school and given TA-ship which paid me a paltry, but sufficient salary). First week of taking ownership I bought the Evo2-30 towers. A month later after getting my first paycheck, I got the REL T2...and the story repeats itself from there: a new paycheck, a part goes into buying new equipment. Sometimes I buy something with that "cut" sometimes I save the cut, until I can buy something much more substantial (like the Denon and Oppo).
My wonderful and understanding wife, who hated the look, bulk, idea of the Evo2-20s finally became a believer when she heard the Norah Jones SACD played from the S2500 through the Evo2-30s. She still resists though. She did not know why the heck id buy a damn turntable, but when she heard Adele 21, Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison, and Bob Marley - Legend on vinyl she again believed (so much so that she liked the idea of the Rega being placed prominently on top of our entertainment center, which stunned me since she always complained about clutter, and I actually wanted to toss the turntable in my media closet so the bass would affect it less and so the EC area could look cleaner). Again she wondered what the hell I was thinking buying the Denon and the Oppo...until she saw how bad ass video looked now (still not completely sold on the audio qualities of this set up...not yet at least..).
So, long story even longer: you are lucky! You have all these resources and the where-with-all to use them to spend your money RIGHT. Old man talk: by the time your my age, your set up will be one like I could have only dreamed of when I was 34