How did you get into the hobby of HT?

[L.J.]

Great stories everyone!

Anybody else gotta nice lil story to tell?

How did you get into HT?

[jocko_nc]

My first recollection of HT was "Midway" presented in "Sense-Surround" (sp). Ha! We had some sweet quadraphonic 8-tracks, too.

Jeez, get me going... Since I can remember, I was always tearing into radios. Old tube portables and the big furniture consoles. We opened them up and messed with them. When I found an old turntable was missing a needle, I literally bent a straight needle and wedged it in. It worked. I was sure to make it nice and sharp on the grinder first. We destroyed a nice collection of original 45's that way. The little wisps of vinyl should have told me someting. I ripped the speakers/doors off one of the units, cut them down to size and stuck a tweeter in them. Stripped the paint off and put some varnish on. Early DIY project with parts from Radio Shack. My brother got a transistor radio, which was really cool. I ripped the drivers out of any garage sale consoles I could find. Eventually, I ran wires down the hall so I could run my bedroom speakers du jour off the parents stereo. I would put the radio on while running the turntable. The auto-off function would turn off the whole thing when the record was over. That was my nite timer.

I did lawns and saved money. My first receiver was a Realistic model that was the receiver match to the Minimus-7. Remember those? It was sweet. I went through a number of speakers. I always read the local papers for equipment for sale. I was a whore at the stereo stores. I remember a HUGE Fisher control amp and a Marantz "gyro" tuner. My big moment was the day the top-of-the-line Realistic tower speakers went on sale 2-for-1. I got mine and had Mom drive them home in the back of the station wagon. Those lasted a long time, eventually going to college, where they were melted down repeatedly. I learned to have driver re-coned and up-sized the inductors in the crossovers. I eventually got a Carver amp and Peavy cabinets with dual 15-inch drivers and horns. College.

I treated myself to Vandersteen 2Ci's when I graduated college in 1991. Same Carver amp. I had the same until recently. Growing up and getting married does little for your toy collection.

I am still a 2-channel music guy. I cannot help it. However, I do like the occasional movie and want it to sound great as well.

a long, strange trip indeed.

jocko