Back in the early 1970s there were very few people I knew without a pair of speakers, a receiver, a turntable. and a stack of records either on the floor or lining wooden planks balanced between two masonry bricks.
That's just what you did.
As the 70s were closing out and heading towards the 80s, those DIY systems were beginning to be replaced by packaged setups from a new type of retail outlet: the HiFi store.
No longer did you have to cobble together bits and bobs of odds and ends to enjoy music in your home. A few visits to your local HiFi dealer would result in a shiny new setup, hand curated by an expert.
And then, with the advent of multi-channel home theater in the early 2000s, it all changed again. Audio dealers became home theater dealers and pushed 2-channel audio to the back of the store.
Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.
I think, in the end, learning enough about our wonderful passion for high-end audio and music to assemble a world class system has been the biggest boon to great sound in my 50 years in the sandbox.
With all the resources of the internet and community at the touch of a finger, we've made more progress in the last few years than just about everything we were able to build combined.
It's not really do it yourself anymore.
Not with our wonderful community of fellow music and audio lovers.
Hooray!
