What piece of equipment started it all for you?

jdjohn wrote: »

I went into a long incubation period with marriage and children.

same here

Funny to see others talking about the Bose 901s. For me it also started with my Dad's 901s. He changed the components a few times, but always kept those 901s as a prized possession. I recall a Yamaha receiver at one point, but he's final pieces were all Sony ES. I think the top of the line Sony ES 300 CD changer might have been the only piece he loved as much or more than the 901s. Everything was perfectly cataloged and he kept a nice binder to make is easy to browse and reference. We were allowed to use the stereo as we got older, but we were never allowed to touch the actual CD player unsupervised. But seeing the care and attention that he put into that system really rubbed off on me.

At a very young age I had little boom box, and I got into a pattern very early of saving up money all year, and after my birthday every year (my biggest financial windfall) I would take my birthday money and buy a bigger boombox. I remember three big steps in the process:
Getting the first boombox that had speakers that could be separated from the component body for actual stereo separation.
Getting my first "separates" with a Sony CD changer and Sony Receiver, paired with Pioneer speakers.
And getting "the" Sony studio headphones.

That gear treated me so well. I even have considered getting the Sony MDR-MV1 just for nostalgia really.