Music More Important Than the Gear
By Walter Schofield
I'm tired of hearing that because iPod resolution with MP3s is so bad, that it will never result in a new group of music and movie lovers.

When I was a kid, I listened to my GE AM radio under my pillow at night. The soothing sounds of Nat King Cole, Del Shannon and the Everly Brothers lulled me to sleep.

At 3, Mom and Dad got me a little Decca record player to play my 45s and I was hooked. Fast-forward to 7 years old and I graduated to an Emerson 8-track with a turntable built in, and I was in heaven. I worked a "double" paper route from age 8 through 12 and saved my birthday money every year to amass a small fortune back then, which I had to convince my Dad should be spent on a HiFi rig.

Perhaps it was my dismantling of his Bradford HiFi (I tried new tubes, speakers and wires … Dad was not happy, until he listened to it) as I tried to get closer to the musical truth that caused him to acquiesce. As I walked into Lechmere Sales in Cambridge, Mass., I felt on top of the world. I remember going up to the sales person, knowing exactly what I wanted to purchase … and being told to "come back when you have the money kid."

My Dad pulled the wad of cash from his pocket and the sales person changed his tune, but we were soon out the door and heading across the street to Tech HiFi anyway. I got my first "real system," which consisted of a Sansui receiver, two pairs of KLH speakers and a Pioneer belt drive turntable.

It wasn't about the gear, it was about getting closer to Alvin Lee, The Beatles and Derek and the Dominos. I would come home and my Mom would be blasting her music through my HiFi while vacuuming the floors and dusting. Music was always on in our house.

And back in the 70s and early 80s, listening to music on a good HiFi was considered cool. In Playboy magazine, caricatures featured a well-dressed gentleman with a martini in one hand, a beautiful woman in his arms and the reel-to-reel deck in the background.

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