RMAF 2011

As a centerpiece in our living room while I was growing up was a huge hardwood speaker cabinet, an upright console, a very solid mono Hifi system. Both the amplification and tuner were valve driven designs, because, well, there was really nothing else, rim drive turntable, and 15" woofer, midrange, tweeter configuration. My parents were relatively conservative and very frugal yet, while still planning their marriage and family and plans to buy a home (1955), saw fit to invest deeply in a long term commitment to excellent musical reproduction in their lives. It was the first piece they bought, before furniture. I grew up listening to all sorts of great music on vinyl on that Hifi. It opened my eyes and ears to worlds and cultures and art form that I would possibly never have known otherwise. Certainly a fantastically impressionable time for such a young lad. Bought my first copy of Sgt. Pepper (mono of course), and my friends and I sat in utter amazement to hear it the first time, all the way through, loud, clear, huge blooming midrange, and huge dynamics. Even my father, a jazz man, was impressed with this album.  Understand, by my teens all my friends had plastic solid state stereo systems and plastic turntables that were cheap and sounded it!  So to have a system early on of this great reference quality was kind of a big deal.

As I grew up and evolved in my own listening, along with practicing guitar and taking piano lessons, I collected and treasured many vinyl albums and built my own Hifi to a pretty respectable level. When I first moved out of my parents home, I set up and had playing music my first Hifi. In the upstairs of a small shared bungalow, I then proceeded to move the rest of my humble worldly possessions.

So like a piano, guitar, sitar, flute or whatever musical instrument, maybe even a Hifi, if you grew up with it in the house, as a focal point of enjoyment together, it would be unthinkable, in my mind, to start a home or family without it.

Happy Listening!