It was in the fall of 1969 that I bought my first really qualified "high-end" component: an AR turntable. (It cost me $58 new without a cartridge, and I spent the whole previous summer saving for it.) I was 15 years old at the time and aquired my father's circa 1956 Sherwood (mono) FM tuner and amp. Around Christmastime I purchased an AR-5 speaker (in unfinished pine!), and by the next spring I bought a second AR-5 and a matching Sherwood amp and FM multiplex adaptor from a fellow down the street who was upgrading his system. This was my first "high-end" stereo system. If it would count, I could trace my first interest in such things to 1958, when I was 4 years old: my father had one of the first Ampex home tape recorders, a model A-110 I believe, and I used to love when he would turn it on and record or play a tape.

long live hi fi!

excuse my english,I prefer to speak french.(I am).I'm interresting by hifi since 1978 after a memorable listen of ONKEN system rdive by an 300B amplifier.

Interested in hi-fi but I'm completely overtaken by the technical jargon used by component reviewers in magazines like Stereophile. To me, this language seems to come from outer space. When are we going to find in our bookstores a book entitled "Webster's Dictionary of Hi-Fi Language"?

My Dad was in at the start with 'radiograms', then a Decca 700 stereogram, then Leak solid state gear, we always had the first of everything! I followed his example and later married a girl who loves music too.

I have loved high quality music since I was a teenager but I didn't know high-end existed until about 5 years ago.

When I first heard an LP of Mozart sonatas played with a Linn Sondek through a Mark Levinson HQD system, I was hooked for life.

My father was an audiophile when I was born. I grew up with this same love. My children probably will too.

My previous 15-year-old system consisted of Boston Accoustic A400s and a poor to fair amp and CD and terrible cables. I now have a Cary 300 SEI, biwired Infinity Compositions, Accuphase DP55, and good cables and interconnects. I am enjoying the system immensely. This summer I would like to do a few tweaks, and hopefully I'll be done for a while. Unfortunately, I do find myself wondering about other hardware that I read about. I suspect I'll never be done.

On my 21st birthday I went out & bought 12 LPs, a Garrard turntable, a pair of small Wharfedales, and a Pioneer amp. I thought it was the "best" . . . for a couple of weeks, at least (this was in 1971). I've never looked back . . . what a great hobby!!!

How are you defining "high-end"? I've been interested in really high-end (the concert hall) all my life. As far as equipment is concerned, I became interested as soon as I was economically able to consider buying. High-end is a neverending quest; what might be high-end for me is not for someone else. I wish the manufacturers would do a better job at marketing and selling, through recomending products that work well with their equipment so that an increase in sales volume helps a reduction in prices and high-end can become more affordable to more people. It's only now that I can consider a $20k system. Is that high-end?

Six to 10 years, but if you count trying to sleep on the sofa as a child while my father perfected his SME tonearm setup at 2am, then maybe it's more like 20 years! Like father, like son . . .

Realy ... ? I meet less and less "friends" or colleagues who care about (real) audio. I personaly don't consider Home Theater to be part of the (high-end) audio business, but then I am out of step, as I don't even have a VCR. There are 3 real audio-systems in this household, though ! Harold G

About 10 days.

It seemed to be more about the music and less about technical- and engineering-related issues back in the mid-'60s when I devoured classical, jazz, and rock genres. I hope kids today experience the same wonder discovering the orchestral repertoire and jazz giants along with contemporary rock, rap, hip-hop, etc. May none of us, old or new to this peculiar hobby, ever be reduced to merely hearing "equipment."

I'm 18 and discovered the "high-end" several months ago when I picked up a copy of your magazine at a newsstand. I frequent the nearest hi-fi shop, and have enjoyed learning how recorded music should sound. I especially like single-ended triode amps like the Bel Canto SET 40. My favorite speakers are Dynaudio Contour 2.8s, but I haven't heard the 3.3s. Someday, maybe I'll be able to afford them! I just put in a subscription. Thank you for sparking my interest!

It's like a switch that turns on: once it does, you never listen to music or look at audio equipment in the same way again.

Your magazine is the greatest!

Digital is even worse than analog

i started pre-digital,took a break for education and am back, am slowly re-learning high-end audio.

Relatively small progress seems to have been made in those 30 years.

I have been into audio since my dad upgraded his system and gave me his old one (he was fooled by a flashy Sony rack system). So now my setup is better! I have been interested since I was about 10, and it just gets better, but it also gets worse!!! What a silly hobby! Count me in!

This is my life...

It would be interesting to find out what your readers feel qualifies as "high-end".

I started when I was 8 when my dad and I took an old "desk" type stereo, pulled out the woofers, tweeters, amplifier and phono and reboxed everything to make me a system. It was a modest start by any account but it lit a fire that has caused many upgrades and much enjoyment.

Many systems and dollars.

I started when I heard my first 331/3 album. No more 45's for me I'm ashamed to say I had put a weight on that headshell to get more life out of it. Still in high school and no real income to speak of I heard my freinds box systems I loved what I heard even though those things had everything in one box(tuner,turntable,preamp,amp) I remember that those turntables had platters smaller than the album itself, no matter we had great times listening, this was the early 70's and we never new of seprates. When I graduated in 74 I was promised a stereo system as long as it didn't cost to much. I listened to a salesman and invested in a Marantz quad system remember quad OOHH NO...Oh well live and learn...

I'm 23 years old, and I've always been interested in music. It's actually gone past the point of obsession now. I can't see any way (other than making music yourself)of reproducing music that would do it justice other than on a hi-end quality system. Attention is placed on the music first and all gimicks second, if at all.

Surround sound is the greatest improvement in audio in my twenty-eight years of involvement.