What sparked your intrest in 2-channel?

Tony M

Inagoddadavida

Fly like an eagle

Dream weaver...oh yea..

And most important one probably....."Blackwater" by the doobies.

Jesus is just alright was an early reason to hear a good system too.

cnh

Some interesting life-stories above. But I can't really answer this question since nothing sparked my interest in 2 channel. I grew up in the period where albums came out in mono and Hi-fi stereo. My father, briefly having a mono Victrola? And by the time I was able to buy albums, well EVERYTHING was 2 channel!

For me 2 channel was not anything new or something I was led to, it was the way things WERE! I didn't get into surround until I bought my first Dobly Prologic AVR an 800 dollar Kenwood...when they could still make something? And I didn't really know much of anything about Dolby Digital and DVD sound till the early 21st century when I purchased my first Apex DVD player and a Pannie AVR. I was amused by the HT revolution, but I continued to pursue the purist sounds I grew up with and would always judge, even my AVR equipment by 2 channel standards (it fell short, of course).

Don't want to get into the history here. But, simply, that if you are of a certain age. Two channel is simply a default setting for you.

cnh

george daniel

the more you missed it, the more you tried to make it like home,,,long story short,,really got into 2 ch while I was overseas,,AR 2AX speakers,sansui 500x Receiver,Sony 366 RTR and then moved to a Teac 4010 IIRC

raffi

steveinaz wrote: »

1971, Santa brought me and my brother a Lloyds 8-track stereo.

+1...for Christmas in 1973 I got a Lloyds am/fm 8 track console and 2 speakers, and collected 8 tracks until...1977 my best buddy got a Pioneer turntable, Kenwood receiver and speakers. I quickly followed suit with a Pioneer turntable, JVC receiver, and Cerwin-Vega speakers and down the hole we went for the next 3 years until we ran out of $ (college).

Fast fwd to 1989 when I have a job and some $ to spend on a Yamaha cd player, Denon receiver (when they were pretty good) and Polk RTA 11-T's. Only recently am I back in the game, and I'm in for good this time.

Tour2ma

Cool old thread...

Fall 1970... freshman year of college... felow named Tim on the floor above me in ther dorm had a Fischer receiver - AR 3a's - Technics TT; all very shiny; all very articulate; often very loud...

It made my Sears Silverstone portable stereo record player wet itself...

Fall, '71 I had my first rig seen in this old thread... http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7347

lanchile

I have two ears LEFT and RIGHT, What else can I say eh?.Two channels is the way..not those gadgets with all that crab of DSP (digital sound processors). it is like having a good amp and using an equalizer lol.
Left and right is the way!. Right now I am using a Bryston B60R integrated amp,cd player, and two RTi Polk Audio speakers. Happy as a clam

Beta

In the early 70s my oldest brother handed down to me his 8-track/AM/FM receiver and speakers (can't remember the manufacturer). Shortly after my dad gave me his old Sherwood receiver and Lancer speakers. A few years later my mom and dad bought me a Pioneer SX-450 receiver. I still remember the price of $145.00. Next for a birthday my parents gave me a Technics SL 2000 turntable. Then for Christmas they gave me a pair if Genesis I speakers. Wonderful parents. Just took them to dinner tonight for my dad's 78th birthday.

Lumpwithgoodear

:redface:Sheesh! I'm going to feel like a complete jerk but.... my first experience was with a Sears turntable with detachable speakers! After the RCA black 45 player it was the cats meow! GODS! :eek:I'm showing my age! That was back 1960! Lmao!

Tour2ma

^ The speakers swivled on pin hinges and were held closed by magnets, right? I bet it also had a pivoting, drop-down record changer... That's the Silvertone I mentioned a few posts up.

I used to split out the speakers, sit them on the floor, lay down with my head between them and listen to "Sgt Pepper's"...

Lumpwithgoodear

:rolleyes:Tour sorry about that I didn't mean to steal your stereo experience ! lmao! I know what you mean tho , I used to lay of floor too and blast away! UNTIL my parents came storming in expecially when I started playing Dylan in later years! I really stepped up after that with my first high end stuff! Carver C1, Carver 1.5, and a set of RTA12's! OMG! The Silvertone ran out the door ! lmao! Now after that I started to buy more and upgrade! SHEESH!You wonder somedays where did the money go! IN MY EARS!

Tour2ma

Nah... you stole nothing. I was just relating... happy to see someone with similar roots.

treitz3

Lumpwithgoodear wrote: »

:redface:Sheesh! I'm going to feel like a complete jerk but.... my first experience was with a Sears turntable with detachable speakers! After the RCA black 45 player it was the cats meow! GODS! :eek:I'm showing my age! That was back 1960! Lmao!

No need to feel like a complete jerk as we all had to start somewhere. My first rig when I was 8 years of age consisted of a Scott receiver, a rather crappy TT, some sort of cheap tape deck and a set of Scott speakers. All of them, hand me downs.

Whatever it took to get you into the hobby apparently wasn't that bad.

thsmith

Long story but was about 14 and had saved up enough money to buy the stardard version of the Honda CB100. Well, I got a ticket for speeding and no driver license in a neighbors car.

I was working so paid the ticket myself without telling my parents, thats a no no for a teenager.

Judge called my dad on Saturday morning and siad if I was not in court in one hour there would be a warrent for my arrest. Dad woke me up shaking me say "what have you done this time".

Well, motorcycle was out at this point so I bought an integrated BSR unit with TT. First album was Janis Joplin Pearl and Jimmy Hendrix Are you experienced.

Tour2ma

So the judge sentenced you to life in audio??? :cool:

BlueFox

Since I was born in 1949, growing up at home there was only mono radios and record players, and later, in the 60s, a stereo, which is sometimes referred to as two-channel. Anyway, my father was really into recorded music, Big Band, and when he bought a Sears stereo my sister and I were given detailed instructions to not get anywhere near it. The stereo was a cabinet monster with a radio, turntable, and left speaker. The right speaker was in a seperate cabinet. To me, it seemed to work great, and was a technological marvel with beaucoup knobs and settings.

Anyway, after learning how to work the stereo without getting caught (leave settings in exact original location, don't break it, etc.) I would come home after school and play my Chubby Checker album with my favorite song, "The Jet", cranked up. I loved that song, and really rocked out to it. Since both my parents worked, this was not a problem.

So, one day I came home, was rocking out, and my mother was upstairs in bed since she left work early for being sick. Leason learned. Check to make sure nobody is home before messing with the stereo.

But ever since then I have always wanted my own system to use, abuse, and enjoy. Of course, I am not married to two-channel. I love my 5 channel HT/SACD system just as much. They both have valid purposes, and both do their job.

leftwinger57

I thought it was the ultra modern way to go. Wrong,even w/ my KLIPSCHS' there is no comparison w/ watching movies.How many times beforethe movie becomes so played out. On the other hand w/ 2-ch you can have so many variations that you would never run out of tunes which can be played multiple times ,ie; Dead stuff w/ more coming out every few months.I went from H/T to 2-ch and couldn't be happier and I think prices arer lwreflecting this lwthread...

cristo

Stereo was a good improvement over mono.
HT - not so much - unless I grow more ears.

Ricardo

cristo wrote: »

Stereo was a good improvement over mono.
HT - not so much - unless I grow more ears.

What does this mean? Are you saying wthat with your two ears you can't distinguish if a sound is coming from in front of you, your side or behind you?

So when you are listening to your stereo speakers everything seems to be coming from the speakers themselves? You would need a third ear to hear the center image?

michaeljhsda2

Tour2ma wrote: »

...Tower by Angel. My dad walked in the room, saw me laying on the floor, shook his head and walked out.

arun1963

The desire to get the sound in my car close to perfection drove me to upgrade my home audio to:

CD Player - NAD M5
Pre : Naim NAC 252
Power Amp : Naim NAP 300
Speakers : Totem dreamcatcher
Cables : Cardass

My car is really close to this setup, all I need is a processor in the car and then we will see.....:biggrin:

cristo

Ricardo wrote: »

What does this mean? Are you saying wthat with your two ears you can't distinguish if a sound is coming from in front of you, your side or behind you?

So when you are listening to your stereo speakers everything seems to be coming from the speakers themselves? You would need a third ear to hear the center image?

Personally, I find left/right separation (and that includes a full continuum,
not just one left and one right point) to be much more important than
front/back and above/below separation in terms of sound imaging.
Two speakers and two ears can do a pretty good job with this*.
There are reasons related to physics and physiology why this should be so as
well, in addition to my personal feelings on this.

To answer the last two questions, no, and no.

*can do even better with SDA speakers or signal processing that does practiacally the same thing,
but that's still essentially two speakers and two ears.

treitz3

Tour2ma wrote: »

So the judge sentenced you to life in audio??? :cool:

You say that like it's a bad thing. :biggrin:

Tour2ma

Could be worse...


(... and then goes into a Young Frankenstein flashback...)

How?

Could be raining...

disneyjoe7

Polk Fest 05 at Troy house with those Amazing Caver speakers, and a CJ07 pre amp. And now I have that in my house more or less.

Fongolio

In the early to mid 60's when I was still a toddler my parents bought a beautiful console stereo. It was a Fleetwood with a Garrard turntable and tube amp. It sounded incredible and they played The Platters and Chubby Checker, Johnny Horton and Hank Williams Sr. records on it all the time. When I became a teenager and they were out of town, I'd have parties and just rock the house out with that unit. Then about 15 years ago it was given to me. I lived in apartment and didn't have room for it inside so it sat out on my covered deck for about 5 years. It took some major water damage after a storm and the beautiful wood (teak I believe) was ruined. I was thinking about restoring it but just thought it would be too much work so I hauled it to the dump one day and off loaded it. Now 10 years later I think about what an idiot I was not to salvage the tube amp out of it. I know it was very powerful and could play loud without excess distortion. Even the old Garrard turntable is somewhat collectible now. I scour garage sales, classifieds and Craig's list for another like it now. Now I'm restoring a 1961 Eico ST-70 tube amp and it has that beautiful liquid sound I remember so fondly.

Flash21

steveinaz wrote: »

1971, Santa brought me and my brother a Lloyds 8-track stereo.

Heh, yep, my folks bought me a Lloyds 8-track when I was in junior high, and I have been upgrading ever since :biggrin:

vmaxer

ben62670 wrote: »

You **** did it to me! I want my money, and my life back!!!

Me too.....It just keeps getting worse. Like drug addition:redface::eek:

SCompRacer

Reported post 152 (spam).

leftwinger57

I went back to 2channel gear after buying into the whole theater experience.
At first I was impressed w/ the seperation and all the effects but there is a limit to how many movies you can own and even watching tv does not need
total suuround if your amp is decent enough. I gew up w/ stereo and always apppreciated quality over some schlock stuff. One can mix and match and I do that all the time,but music goes through the2-channel rig.
H/T
Yamaha rx-v665
Toshiba au 37
Klipsch ht/500 w/ 8insub
Denon 1940ci cd
Yamaha ysd-11 dock
2-channel gear
Adcom gfa555
Onkyo 301 pre
Infinity sm112s
Denon 1940ci cdp
Dual 1229 turntable

Ricardo

SCompRacer wrote: »

Reported post 152 (spam).

Why do you report yourself???