[Happy Camper]

I was misting nostalgic this afternoon thinking back on my audio highlights. The music, gear, era, etc.

What are your favorite moments memories?

Getting to go with my dad to see him play in a band at the county fair on a weekend night. I was maybe 3-4 with a flat top, cowboy boots and hat. I was carrying a sixshooter and thought I was the sheeet.

My first record player was a "portable changer" in 61 (5 yrs old). I had a bunch of donated 78s & 45s from my relatives. I was the first grandchild so I knew shaking my rear made the adults laugh so it started as a means to get attention.

I really started listening to the music when the Beatles came to the US. From there I was hooked. There wasn't a lot of music available so you had lounge music, pop, folk, country, western, R&B etc. Soon pop bands started adding blues to their music and rock and roll started blooming circa 65.

I had a portable pocket radio for listening to am. It had one ear plug. From it, I listened to Cardinal baseball into the early hours as a kid. The kids had an abandoned car that had the battery that was good. We'd listen to music and baseball throughout the summer nights while watching for shooting stars and space ships.

 

[Lazarus Short]

For me, maybe it was finding new music in the local used LP shops in the early 1970's, and buying it for $1 per disc. Those were the days!

Maybe it was the window into the music I got with my Stax headphones, the best hi-fi I had (and maybe still) ever heard.

 

[virometal]

Not to be contrarian or some such, but for me that memory now. We are living in a golden age of music. Never has it been so accessible. Through forums, online reiviews and whatever method one may offer, there is a smorgasbord of tunes to discover and readily sample. Part of me is jealous of the today's youth that is blessed with the access, the other anxious to seize my own relatively smaller window of opportunity.

 

[zotjen]

I'm tempted to say it's when I first had real money and could actually start buying music on a regular basis, as opposed to getting records as gifts or with Christmas and birthday money. However, thinking back, I have fond memories of some early audio devices which include:

1. The transistor radio (AM only) I received from my grandparents on my 8th birthday. I still have it and I'll have to check if it still works.
2. The record players the same grandparents above brought back from Italy for my older brother and sister. I forget what they're called but basically they were like rectangular boxes and you pushed the record (45's only) into a slot in the front and it would automatically start playing. You then had to press a button to eject it.
3. My first record player which I bought with my own money when I was about 10 or 11. It was a Panasonic portable player very similar to the one shown here, even down to the colors. The main differences were that it was not a kids' player and the top cover detached from the base.
Vintage GE General Electric Portable Kids Record Player - eBay (item 380212099777 end time Mar-08-10 19:13:22 PST)
4. My parents' old record player which was kept upstairs in my father's closet but the speakers attached to it were downstairs in the living room. It was similar in style to this one although it was even deeper:
Vintage Philco Suitcase Style Record Player...Works!!! - eBay (item 250590892088 end time Mar-11-10 05:12:19 PST)
It had a "drop down" feature which allowed you to place a number of records on the spindle at one time. When a record finished, the next one would drop down on top the one just played. When playing records, basically we would hear the A sides first, flip them all over and then hear the B sides. I loved the smell of it and it's knobs.
4. The first real stereo my father bought, which included an 8-track player and quadrophonic capability. Unfortunately he never bought more than two speakers.
5. My first tape recorder. I believe it was a Sanyo.

 

[buddhashenglong]

1. Al Di Meola - Kiss My Axe. I bought this CD used in Austin TX after reading what seemed like the thousandth interview with a legitimate guitar god praising this Italian cat from Dirty Jersey. Fast forward a dozen years and I am still stoked beyond belief on this album.

2. Foxy Lady at the doctor's office on a clock radio, I might have been three or four but this was the first time I ever SAW or felt sound. One of my most vivid memories.

3. to be continued

 

[atbglenn]

Successfully building my first DynaKit PAS3X Preamp, and Stereo 70 Power Amp back in 1969. Coupled with my AR4x Loudspeakers and AR Turntable with a Stanton Cartridge, made for one sweet sounding system. I wish I still had it...

 

[Anonanimal]

I think for me it was the first time I put on a pair of headphones. I remember it very clearly- It was Christmas morning and I'd received a Sony Walkman (one of the old cassette tape ones!

) and a Michael Jackson tape to go with it. I was just absolutely in awe of how the sound seemed to come out of thin air... been hooked ever since.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

Walking in the moonlight with my Shure E4Gs. In a way, I actually liked them more than my Etymotic ER4Ss.

 

[Superpredator]

My dad played Steely Dan's Aja when I was a toddler. It was the first album I loved. "Drink your big black cow, and get out of here!"

I prehistorically used to listen to the radio with blank tapes and a dual cassette recorder to capture and mix songs. It was a richly analog experience.

One seriously hot summer I walked to my cousin's every morning to watch MTV and bask in the climate control. MTV played ten videos on repeat, all day - I Do It For You; November Rain; Under the Bridge; I'll Be There; End of the Road; Save the Best For Last; If You Asked Me To; Tears in Heaven; Life is a Highway; and Cryin'. That's when I realized I hated MTV.

In eighth grade my best friend played me Smells Like Teen Spirit. A few weeks later a classmate played it in class, issuing a challenge that no one could name it. I was the only person who could. That same friend repeatedly tried to turn me onto decent music, but I was always way behind the curve. The first time I really liked something was MTV's premiere of Black Hole Sun.

Until it failed, I used 1-800-MUSIC-NOW to scope out music. It was pretty useless, but I think it helped me figure out who did Counting Blue Cars (Dishwalla). Ah, the budding information age.

When I started making money I "upgraded" from an Aiwa boombox to a fake 5.0 Aiwa system with a fake graphic equalizer. I had dreamed the dream of having a graphic equalizer for many a grease-faced year.

I met a co-worker at my crummy pharmacy job who was as delighted as I was that someone else in the world was blown away by OK Computer in a year heavy with Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Third Eye Blind, neo-swing, and other horrible crap. It was the start of a fruitful music-based friendship.

I entered my first real relationship by bonding over Tricky (her) and Massive Attack (me). Later I realized how connected the two were, and what a silly terrible relationship I was in.

The post-rave scene at Space in Philadelphia was interesting, even if I don't much listen to the music anymore.

I rescued an old Onkyo rig from some creepy child talent agency after the owner was accused of molesting children and the place had to sell off all its dusty, weird equipment. This was more of a bizarre memory than a fond one.

Seeing Radiohead and Rufus Wainwright with an ex shortly after breaking up. It was nice to set aside our past and thoroughly enjoy some shows together. Very transcendental.

Finally, I suppose, plugging an HD595 into a Corda Aria for the first time. Audio is one of only a few sectors of consumer technology where the adherents aren't chasing soulless gadgets for diametrically inhuman purposes. There's a certain purity to it, and I'm glad to have stumbled into it.

Oh right, I almost forgot. My rig hasn't changed in a few years, but my buying/selling heyday on Head-Fi was obsessively fun. It's amazing what a good listener you can be when you're working your way up the ladder toward your perfect sound.

 

[ronnielee54]

Back in 1976 when I got my first "real" stereo. Kenwood reciever, Sony turntable, Yamaha cassette deck, and a pair of Altec Lansing Model 9 Sudio Monitors. Paid cash for it at a shop in Anaheim when I was stationed at Camp Pendleton.