First intro to the audiophile world: age 5?

I grew up with my parents record players, first a homemade console with one full range driver in the box and a Garrard turntable on the inside, and then an stylish Clairtone with DUAL turntable.

home made console


Clairtone (I'd set up the orb speakers on the ground facing each other, and put my head in between them.)


Pioneer. (My college sound machine paired with the turntable below.)


Pioneer


I used my parents equipment and LPs to death but my own foray into the audio hobby was with  the purchase of a Pioneer PT4 turntable and a Pioneer boombox with a cheap Radioshack Phono preamp to go in between. 

After high school - after college actually, I bought my first set of external speakers.Koss isn't generally known as an AUDIOPHILE speaker company, though some of their headphones are held in surprisingly high regard. And SEARS was not known as a place audiophiles would look for equipment. And yet people are still asking, in 2021, whether these KOSS M/90's are worth re-coning, or a viable speaker for the cabin or whatever.

I loved mine until one day in 1988, when I was out of town for the weekend, one (or both) of my room mates played the music a little too loud, and blew the paper cones to smithereens.



After we got married we spent some of out gift money on new speakers... the Boston Acoustics A-60 bookshelf speakers.
They sounded good enough for us, and lasted until about 1995. Six years is not long for a pair of speakers, but that they broke down is not their fault:
Our Onkyo TX-82 had a fatal flaw: When the power tripped and the receiver restarted it always reverted back to Radio mode. The levels of radio were a magnitude or three higher than the levels coming from the CD player. So if we were last playing CDs, and the power turned off and back on, the radio would start playing at insane levels. More than once did I have to jump out of bed in the middle of the night and run downstairs to turn off the stereo. One day we were not home when this happened. The Electric company turned off the neighborhoods power to do some work. It was a Sunday and we were out of town. When we got back, all I heard coming from the stereo was a bunch of buzzing. The woofer cones on both speakers were tattered, and one voice coil was seized up. We replaced those speakers (insurance actually paid) with some Boston Acoustics CR-9s which were bigger and better. Those are still going strong now in 2021+, and I think they are audiophile grade speakers (no matter what you say).
Boston Acoustic A60


Boston Acoustic CR9 (still going strong but not my main speakers)
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