I’d have to start with my cheap plastic record player and speakers tethered by not even lamp cord circa 1969! I can still remember a few of my early LPs… Uriah Heap, Demons & Wizards. ELP, Pictures at an Exhibition. Savoy Brown…
I think I must’ve been 12 years old. Shared a basement bedroom with my foster brother of the new family I landed in who put me on the spot — sneaking out the window with the classic “shhh, don’t tell.” I couldn’t afford anything but would drool walking through the electronics store looking at all those shiny Marantz, Fisher, and Sansui receivers with the plethora of knobs, switches, and meters.
Birth of an audiophile, I still haven’t shaken it.
(oops, sorry, back to Ron’s thread)