The Entry Level

for me was at my friend Kevin's apartment. Kevin and I were pals in college. We first met the first or second time I smoked marijuana. It was not his first or second time! He worked summers at a hifi store in the Raleigh, NC area. It was 1979 or so.

He asked me and my buddy Tandy to come over to his place for some respiratory cocktails. What he served up was even better than I was expecting. Not the weed, silly, the music.

He had Marantz electronics, big ass EPI speakers, and a Linn. He dropped the needle on DSOTM, the mofi pressing as I recall, and my life was changed. The spatial info was killer, and the bass moved my pants leg. I was hooked. Not on weed, on listening to fine playback.

Kevin talked me into buying the same speakers, which I used and loved for a decade, he talked me into a Rega turntable, the old one with the curved, silver arm, he talked me into a nice cartridge along with a little Audio Technica battery powered head amp. I think that is all he talked me into, and he did not have to talk long or hard.

So here is to you Kevin! Decades later, I still have the MoFi's you turned me onto, and I still grove to a fine system.

Trey

Both those albums are oh so fantastic, good taste Stephen. Would love to have them on vinyl but alas the CD's are cheaper to buy. Shame my VPI is dying to play them.

volvic: The Iron & Wine/Calexico album only costs $10 at the Iron & Wine site, the same price as the CD. You NEED it.

Stephen,

Great story. Depending on how you define Audiophile I'm either dead on our way off. Based on your definition I feel like I'm dead on. Over the last 10 months or so I'd say I've really stepped up my audio experiences. I've found it fun to experiment with different types of defile including amps, pre-amps, and turn tables. I've posted a few videos of my systems and vinyl collection on YouTube at http://www.YouTube.com/ccvalentino that may beof interest to the entry level world.

Take care and thanks for the post and focus on "affordable" gear!

Chris

My wife and I have this wonderful friend. She is interested in many wonderful things; she is a designer and !@)#* good at it - she can see subtle colour differences that no one else could, she can pick out perfect fabric and paint and all that stuff all the while being down to earth and lots of fun to be around. She's a great cook.

Bottom line, she is a fully-formed person with depth and appreciation and understanding for much that is wonderful.

She also has some coin and has probably spent more money on wiring her brand new beautiful house for sound than most audiophiles will every spend on their gear, but it's on mediocre "background" sound and cinema and "sound distribution" and horrible wretched S**T like that.

Why am I telling you this? Well, simple - here is someone that has both the capacity to appreciate wonderful music of all kinds, wonderfully reproduced, and also the financial means to do so, and yet she prefers to have sound distributed throughout the house played back through "ceiling pot" speakers, and finds BBC Music Magazine "too audiophile".

So, what's going on here? Is there a moment, to which Our Fearless Leader Stephen refers, where someone is an incipient audiophile, worried that the new speakers won't go with the kitchen décor, and then a moment after where all of a sudden the décor becomes servant to the delivery of music?

If so, I think that is a really wonderful moment, our very own "audiophile tipping point". I think it's the crossing Our Fearless Leader Stephen writes about in his blog above, and I think we, dutiful readers of This Magazine, have all crossed it in some way or the other (deciding that we really don't care if the speakers match the ashtrays, or deciding that we can put off that new car purchase one more year in order to buy that turntable, or whatever).

I've crossed over, and I'm glad that my sound system is in the living room and that we often turn it up and that we sometimes even move the furniture and dance with our kids.

And, I'm sad for our dear friend who has spent more on drapes than pretty much anyone else I know has spent on audio gear and has decided she's "not audiophile enough" do actually have a music room or a real stereo in the kitchen instead of that crap in the ceiling.

In Alex Ross' "Listen to This", he refers to a gap in the audiences for live orchestral music as "Culturally Aware Non-Attenders." I don't know if he coined the term but they are basically people who attend plays and films, go to art galleries, probably can name more than a few composers and even own some 'classical' CDs and so on but who never, ever, go to hear live orchestras. (I'm one of them). The situation that monetschemist is describing seems similar; people who appear to be a natural market for a good sound system but aren't inclined to get one. They can usually hear the difference but don't care enough to bother. Price usually isn't the barrier, as you point out they might spend more on bad sound than it would cost for something much better. Basically, readers of this magazine and website are a niche market and, like many members of a niche, we sometimes don't understand why everyone doesn't share our priorities.

My dad had a quite decent hifi when I grew up. Big ugly Jamo speakers that sounded wonderful. He also had a fine LP collection out of which DSOTM was my favourite - I was 4-5 at that time. It was so interactive in that sense that my dad and I used to play police and robber using DSOTM as a soundtrack. I always had in the back of my mind that I'd get my self a hifi system when I grew up. That didn't happen before I was 29, just over a year ago. Marantz amp and cd with DALI speakers. My ancient urge for hifi was re-triggered when I was at a nice little concert with a greenlandic singer; Nive Nielsen and her band. The music was something I had not heard before - at least coming from any artist up here. It was a revelation that hit me really hard, and I think that I was in tears everytime they began a new song. I was enjoying music at a level I haven't been on since I was a kid.
The Dali's were sold just 2 days ago. They are too big in my new apartment and I'm getting standmounts which I still haven't decided on. In the mean time I'm listening with my headphones. Reading this blog entry reminded of Nive's cd, which I'm listening to as I type.

This is why I am moving to the United States : )

She's the perfect catch!!! Loves music and adores analogue. :)

Great read!

I was 17 when I first heard Surfer Rosa, and in a car. Blew me away. Had Black Francis been more camera friendly I think the Alternative Scene would of happened much quicker.

I'm also with you on the vinyl thing. Bought a Yamaha AV and a Sony USB Turntable several months ago, and now have more records than I ever owned in my life. At about 100 now.

I'm going to upgrade to the Rega RP-1, but just bought an Oppo BDP-93 and I'm not sure if anything can beat a Blu-Ray audio. I never really dug Tom Petty that much, but his Blu-Ray release blew me away. Hopefully the people in charge start doing more of the Blu Ray Audio. I bought Inception just because it came with the Blu Ray Soundtrack.

Anyway, many thanks for the good read, and hope to see more.

The first really good system I heard, was my good friends house in high school, I was 17 and was blown away by the sound. Phil Harvey's dad had Marantz tuner , you know the one with the tiny osciliscope, a turntable w/horizontal tracking arm, don't know which one. Also, Klipsch corner horns, some kind of Marantz Power Amp. We listened to the Doors double album, it was brand new never opened until that day. As I said previously, I was blown away, we listened to it at what could be called reference level. I was hooked, my first system was a Sansui integrated amp, an AR turntable w/ Thorens arm, and Advent Mini-3's, bought a tuner much later. If I remember right it was a matching Sansui AM-FM. ,Stephen, what a wonderful subject, brings back many fond memories!

Thank you so much for reminding me about this album. I bought a digital copy several years ago but hadn't listened to it in a while. I found a vinyl copy in my local record store for $12 and grabbed it. It has to be hands down one of the nicest sounding records I've heard. I've only listened twice so far but both times have been a treat. My dad is going to love this. Thanks again.

Dear Stephen,

As a young audio enthusiast, I very much enjoyed reading this column.  I love your writing style and all your stories.  You've inspired me not only to learn more about music but also to start my first blog!  I really identified with your idea about the audiophile not wanting to be alone and searching for someone to share with and I suppose the blog is part of that search for me.

Speaking of which, you're welcome!  It was an honor to help you complete this article :)

Nice choices.

...and maybe even, Friends of Dean Martinez -The Shadow of Your Smile.

Killer album titles in your leading pic and for that matter both groups have an excellent and deep discography to dig through.

I would love to hear them all on vinyl, on the DeVores.

Happy Listening!