ive always been a 2 channel sort of feller. but my foray started in the mid seventies when my grandmother gave me an old record player witha bunch of old records. rip things apart and then put them back together. most of it stayed apart as i couldnt remember to put them back together.
had a few console systems that i pulled apart and started making components from those. without much luck. i did find an old record player and an old amp in a rumble sale ( cant remember the make) and started from there. bought some radioshack speakers minimus and had 4 channel for a while. early to mid 80's i mucked about with some pioneer/radioshack stuff jbl h/k jvc bose and too many more to remember.
got mostly into car stereo for the next few years as there is no sense having a stereo for home viewing when you only get one t.v. channel where i was living and only one video store 45 miles away (northern b.c.)
moved a few times got into satellite systems had rotel/ nad/ h/k.pioneer/denon/ basically had them all( 2 channel) got into ht about 10 years ago with a h/k setup that i have upgraded to another hk with customs. guess you could call it a 5.4 setup but for what it is its pretty good for my needs. and mostly carver and phase linear now (main system)
people who live near the big cities dont know how good they have it when it comes to comparison shopping for the newest and neatest gadgets. all us others have to wait until it trickles down the pipe before we can give it a whirl. and with items changing so fast by the time you find something you like they have allready replaced it with next years model.
oh well i guess there something to be said for the price of product advancement. im definately happy now with what ive got and am tired of chasing that golden note for awhile. time to enjoy the noise. but there was a t.v. i was looking at.......