When did you realise that you are ‘an audiophile’?

I really don’t like that word. It sounds like a condition, an abnormal affliction. What’s wrong with you? Oh I apologise… you see, I have audiophilia. I prefer to call myself a music lover but there have been moments in my life where the importance of the sound quality took on epic proportions, moments where I just couldn’t concentrate because the sound was rubbish, moments where a little voice inside me said ‘Oh… I think I’m taking this too far… I may have a slight problem…’

To other strange people like me, I ask the question… when did you realise that you had ‘a problem’?

When I think back, music is involved in some of my earliest memories. My father was a professional guitarist and my mother loved to sing. A typical night of guests visiting our home or our family going out to see friends would involve singing & dancing to the early hours of the morning. Although the music was predominantly Greek folk music (played with passion!), I remember enjoying the melodies and rhythms… and many a night drifting off to sleep surrounded by loud music, singing, dancing and fun.

My mother used to look after children at home for a living. One day when I was around ten years old, one of the mothers came to pick up her little daughter and inexplicably handed me a box of audio tapes titled ‘The Beatles Collection’. She said that she would like me to have it and that she hoped that I would enjoy the music. This was the first selection of music that I ever owned and I cherished these tapes. Listening to the Beatles was magical and it really influenced my listening tastes from that time on. I listened so much to these tapes (I wore them out!) that to this day, I can recite most of the lyrics to the famous Beatles songs.
Was this a sign of my impending ‘condition’?

One day when I was fifteen years old, I heard a piece of classical music on an old transistor radio that I kept next to my bed. I couldn’t explain why, but I had tears in my eyes. The music touched me in a profound way… it was so full of beauty and hope. When the announcer mentioned the details of the piece, I scribbled it down on a piece of paper. A few days later, I looked up ‘Antonin Dvorák’ in the local music store and purchased my first music tape titled ‘Dvorák: Romance in F Minor for Violin & Orchestra’. To this day when I hear that original piece of music, it moves me powerfully.
Was this a sign of my ‘problem’?

I became a music addict and naturally, I wanted to hear it louder, clearer and ‘better’. This led me to become fascinated with stereo systems of all kinds. ‘Ghetto blasters’, walkmans, headphones… I wanted to have all the good stuff. The problem was that I had no income, no pocket money and no savings. I started working some odd jobs and saving. One day, after having saved $67, I walked past a Brashs store in the local shopping centre and froze… there in the window was a brand sparkling new AIWA all-in-one stereo system with two separate speakers. I was mesmerised by the flashing lights, the bells & whistles and the promise of great sound in my bedroom…… so much, that I gave all of my $67 as a deposit and placed the system on ‘lay-by’. When I told my father that I had placed a deposit on a $700 stereo system, he spilled the drink he was holding, gave me a scolding, drove me to the shopping centre and made me ask for my money back. The whole affair was very humiliating, especially trying to talk to the salesman while my father was twisting my right ear off my head…
Now doctor, I get the feeling that this isn’t ‘normal’…

As I moved into my twenties, I began to buy various stereo bits and pieces. I was always in the process of ‘upgrading’ something. My stereo system would always be the centrepiece of my living space and it would get plenty of use. I began to take the hobby seriously and embarked on a mission to find the ‘perfect sound’. What an amazing journey it turned out to be! In the ensuing years, I met many interesting & often eccentric people, listened to hundreds of different systems, experimented with a multitude of different sound presentation philosophies, joined some audiophile clubs and bought & sold a multitude of components. I travelled to Germany in 2004 and met with Keith Aschenbrenner of Auditorium 23 (an audio guru and a true gentleman) as well as many others who assisted me to gain some knowledge. I also became good friends with Jeffrey Jackson of Experience Music in the US who taught me about horns and SET amplification. Hours of phone conversations and emails.
OK, at this point I should just admit that I have ‘an affliction’…

In the ensuing years, there were many moments where I suspected that I had become an extremist. I churned through hundreds of components and frustrated my wife to no end. I would seek out audio discussion, debate and auditions with my audio friends given any opportunity. Was that my moment of realisation? Or perhaps the time where I spent five weekends in a row listening and comparing 30 different cable brands? Or perhaps the many times I got frustrated, decided to get out of the hobby, sold my whole system only to start buying new components the following week? Or the countless times I called my (very tolerant) audio friends and told them about the latest ‘holy grail’ obscure product I’d discovered?

Actually… no. I think that my personal ‘moments of audiophile realisation’ are the many times where I feel sheer unadulterated joy while listening to music, moments where I turn and high-five or hug the person next to me while exclaiming “How good is this!”

What are your moments, your memories where others thought you to be ‘a bit strange’?

I’ve now come to realise that this journey is OK. There are many worse afflictions in life than having a sensitivity to the arts. Music is not only an art form & human expression… it is a gift from the Gods. I honour my journey that has bought me to this point but now, there are plenty of songs, artists, genres, albums waiting to be discovered…