Audiophile History

[RetroStereo]

If this is not the appropriate forum for this post, please move it with my blessings.

I'm hoping that a few "old timers" here on ASL can add to the memories.

I'm now pushing 80 still kicking and screaming for, at least, a small part of my youth. As a teenager and through my mid/late 20's, I was lucky enough to witness first hand many of the innovations in the audio industry's golden age, their originators and some of the start-up companies that still make up the backbone of high-end audio today.

Although I am not from Raleigh NC (where I now live), I had family there and visited often. Later, I went to NCSU and lived in the area for a few years following college. My favorite hangout was The Audio Center (Andrew Edwards, owner & Bill [surname?], tech guru) in Ridgewood Shopping Center just off Wade Ave, behind Meredith College. If it was esoteric, they had it in house and would let anyone (or, at least, me) play with the buttons and dials. It was there that I met Amar Bose (901s), Oskar Heil (ESS AMT 1), Dick Sequerra (FM tuner), Jon Dahlquist (speakers), Tom Holman (Advent & Apt) and many others. J Gordon Holt, Saul Marantz, the McIntosh brothers.

It was also there that I became something of a gofer/mascot for a small group of audiophiles who later started the magazine, "The Absolute Sound."

I've posted elsewhere a couple of anecdotes from those days. Assuming there is interest, I'll post more here. And I'm hoping that others will chime in with their own memories of Audiophile History.

 

[RetroStereo]

I won't repost these anecdotes; however, in the interest of gathering some of my memories in one place, I'll link to the posts I made elsewhere. In the future, I'll try to keep my ramblings in this thread.

From the mid '60's: Before the Bose 901, there was the Bose 7x5.
From the early/mid '70's: My 1st exposure to ESLs - the Dayton Wright XG-8 and also here.
From the mid '70's: Non-blind tuner comparisons, or, how I lost my subscription to TAS.
From the early '80's: An attempt by #2 to usurp #1 in the snake oil wire industry.
From the mid '80's: My introduction to MartinLogan Monoliths.