Originally Posted by Donald
I use to have a super stereo with speakers that needed 2 people to carry. Then got married and kids. Now I have speakers for my PC that include a subwoofer and they sound pretty good.
At 66 my hearing is not so good. Taking my temp I cannot hear when the thermometer "beeps".
Sure can relate to that. I'm 58 and that describes my hearing too.
First set up was my high school days, a 2215b, Marantz 6100 or something turntable and slightly bigger than bookshelf 3-way Marantz speakers. A few years later, I sold audio in the late 70's into 1983 or so.... always enjoyed being around it and having a nice set up. I felt lucky to have the audiophile interest and enjoy it from 'the store' without going whole hog on my own dollar. I'd never got the bug to get too fancy, big or spendy. At employee margins, I could spend $1500 and net a $3000 system.
I had friends that worked at the big box stores but I made friends at the higher end audio stores and found opportunities to work in those. I moved to Onkyo and Infinity a few years later with a 'midi-size' component set up that was a good mate for efficient book shelf speakers. Margins and clientele were different and even the big box type customers came around to see and hear the goods. In a matter of time, we'd win many of them over. Educating customers on the finer points of mid / high end stuff brought them around and I found just about everyone enjoys quality when it's something tangible and not just hype and buzzwords.
We had Luxman, McIntosh, Yamaha, IMF, Tandberg, Dahlquist, Hafler, Klipsch and some boutique speakers, sub-sats were big in those days as well. High end car audio was big biz and the CD players were just getting shipped to the US. Most of the systems we sold were delivered an set up or "installed" with some of the clients wanting prewired homes as they were built.
I've settled into a simple 5.1 set up as Marantz / Polk / Klipsch that fits the room well. I play with the outboard audyssey at times but still do some tuning by ear.
I really enjoy the impact of movie sounds and effects and even when I know the scene that's coming, it still takes my breath away at times.
Something about those years of selling and impressive equipment demo's even 40 some years ago makes me stop and find a scene to this day so I can say; "Hey wait a sec, come on over here and check this out ".