My taste in music made me an audiophile, what about you?

Steve shares the music that formed his tastes, the most important music in his life. Please share yours in the comments!
------------SUPPORT--------------
Thanks for watching, this channel can be supported through Patreon
/ audiophiliac
-----SUBSCRIBE--------
/ @steveguttenbergaudiop...
----MERCH-------
Audiophiliac T-Shirts and Mugs! teespring.com/...
Twitter: @AudiophiliacMan
Instagram: Steve.Guttenberg
#audiophile #bestmusic
Looking for great sounding free music, check out these videos!
The Chesky Records/Audiophiliac sampler • FREE Audiophile Music ...
There are two MA Recordings samplers
• FREE Dynamically Uncom...
• FREE Hi-Resolution, Dy...

[@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac]

The video covers my journey, yours will likely differ! Please share your “greatest hits.”

[@karlhartwig3981]

Great picks Steve, in the vein of gloriously strange; there's the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Bird Songs of the Mesozoic and the, Canadian greats, the Rheostatics. Music is the crazy quilt that makes life worth living!

[@MrPeeBeeDeeBee]

Oh wow Steve fantastic! I got about a third of them..... And in no particular order these great sounding albums come highly recommended too: Bette Bright - 'Rhythm Breaks the Ice" 1981, Ex Deaf School. Right up there with the best Pop records ever. Dragonfly - 'Almost Abandoned' 1974. All killer, solid songs and state of the art unmessed with recording. Unfortunately the CD release has the track listing completely arsed about.....grrr. Can msg the correct order. Bonnie Raitt - 'Home Plate' 1975. Her younger voice and the emotion.... Her first self titled album is a beauty too. Jacques Loussier - 'Play Bach No 1' 1959 on Decca. The vitality and the nuanced drum sounds on this album still gets to me. James McMurtry - 'Too Long in the Wasteland' 1989 His first album. A lively and spacious recording. He kinda sounds like Lou Reed in his delivery. The first two David Sylvian albums 'Brilliant Trees' 1984 and 'Gone to Earth' 1986. Incredible flugelhorn solo from Kenny wheeler on the latter. Los Lobos 'Kiko' 1992. State of the art with each track beautifully, yet differently, mixed. Taj Mahal self titled 1968. Became a musician and formed my first band after hearing this!

[@stevebraxton5054]

Please do more of these. I watched all the way through with great interest. It reminded me of listening to Top 20 hits around 1966-67 on AM station WOWO out of Cleveland to songs such as Incense Peppermints, Nowhere Man, Born to be Wild, and others with a "new sound".

[@Niels133]

Curved Air - Second Album, Velvet Opera - Ride A Hustlers Dream, Wishbone Ash - Pelgrimage, Soft Machine - Third- The Moody Blues- In Search Of The Lost Chord, The Strawbs - Grave New World, Curved Air - Phantasmagoria.

[@tugboatamerica]

I have a wide variety from the 60's up to 90's its a disease

[@beaker1977]

“I could go on for hours but I don’t want to bore you guys”.... Please go on for hours! I love this. Enjoying music is what it is all about. I share a lot of your musical taste. It all started with the Velvet Underground for me. From there I got into New York rock in general - first Sonic Youth and then I worked backwards (Television/Talking Heads/Richard Hell). When I heard Aphex Twin, I got into electronic and ambient music - Susumu Yokota being a favourite. I generally work backwards when I hear someone was influenced by something else so through modern electronic music, I discovered older electronic/rock or “Krautrock” (Harmonia, Cluster, Can, Neu, Kraftwerk), minimalism (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Max Richter) and other weird pop/rock artists (Todd Rundgren, Pere Ubu, XTC). I also go through phases where I will get obsessed with a genre (Post punk - Chameleons, The Sound being favourites) or a record label (Flying Nun or Leaf). Maybe I shouldn’t admit it here but I also love the sound and inventiveness and humour of “lo-fi” artists - Ariel Pink, Cleaners from Venus, Sebadoh. Basically I am open to everything musical.

[@mysterycrumble]

I could listen to Steve all day. Maybe I'm a Steviophile?

[@MrMrpony]

Ariel Pink- The Doldrums, Worn Copy... right?! Before he had a band when he was making Rundgren in a cardboard box. Magical

[@murraysampson2501]

Steve, this is a great episode, thank you! I could listen to you speak on this topic more. Listening to you speak so passionately about your love of sound and music is inspiring me to check your suggestions out.

[@michaelmckenzie2031]

Wow, what a great conversation. I always go right to sampling the albums and got sucked in by The Residents. The music really sunk its claws into my brain. And Jamming With Edward by The Stones - what a treasure! Thanks Man!

[@williampaschall]

Love hearing you talk about music! Hope to see more videos of you talking about music you love!

[@outbackwack368]

I also enjoyed listening to music. My favorite band growing up was, and still is, Pink Floyd. And Steely Dan, Chicago, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Doors, Zeppelin ,Sly & The Family Stone and many more. Although I still really enjoy disco! Now it's mostly jazz and vocals. Once I was making a good living I went looking for better components. I wound up at Ensemble, a great audiophile store in NH, and John Rein took his time to take painstaking time to walk me through the various levels. Unfortunately, I was able to hear all of the subtle nuances progressing through all of the rooms up into the $20,000 room. Though I couldn't afford that yet, I still left with about $7,000 in components/speakers, which I still own and enjoy. I would love to revamp my system, but now that I'm retired the funds are better spent elsewhere since we now travel a lot. Thanks!

[@clasvirhodes4969]

My record collecting began in 1964 at the age of 8, with the Beatles 45rpm "I want to hold your hand". First LP I ever bought was the Beatles "Something New" which I played to death. The first 45rpm I ever bought that wasn't the Beatles was "Get Off My Cloud" by the Stones.

[@peteg.4121]

Steve, it is cool that you could actually experience all this music as it was created and released, in real time. So much of what we are involved with daily (science, commerce, art etc) comes from the distant past. But growing up with a band as they release new music adds an extra dimension, makes it more personal.

[@donaldchisholm9931]

Great show today Steve!! Music is so pesonal. Everyones tastes are different. Very interesting listening to your musical journey. Cheers

[@timgrogan974]

This is exactly the kind of focus on sound and music that I love about your show. Thank you

[@steveowens398]

I think it all started for me with The Nutcracker, The Grand Canyon Suite, and Peer Gynt, which my father would play for us on his old mono tube record player. Walt Disney had a hand in things too. This was followed at school by Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein and violin lessons starting in 1959. Exposure to, and being in an orchestra set the bar pretty high for sound quality. Then came that 6 transistor radio, Chicago DJs, and bands like Paul Revere and the Raiders - totally different but mesmerizing. The Beatles hit shortly thereafter and dragged my educated ears down the rabbit hole.

[@nikk1138]

What a great topic. I'd love to hear more! I took notes on some bands you mentioned that I haven't checked out yet. My background follows much of the same path with the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Nazz was a fantastic band from that time period too. I never thought I could ever pin down one album as my all time favorite but eventually I did and it's Frank Zappa's Hot Rats. That album gives me goosebumps to this day! I hope you'll expand on this topic again some time. Thanks!!

[@0258premier]

Hi Steve, really enjoy your channel. After hearing you talk today I’m surprised you are not a musician yourself!! Im a similar age as you and have had very similar experiences and passion for music as you .. I’ve been a pro drummer and saxophonist since the late seventies! Steve, Sydney Australia.😊👍

[@frederickjones4185]

Steve, thank you for this inspiring and obviously heartfelt retrospective. The musical life is full with discoveries and revelations! I share quite a few of your "greatest hits" and here are a few of my own, and comments: Me-too: Meet the Beatles. Not only the amazing music, but the British-engineered sound that really seemed new and different, especially that huge round bass that sounded incredible on the tube amps of that era. I am still haunted by that sound and wondering if a restored vintage amp would bring it back. Led Zeppelin I and II. Agree 100% -- sheer magic, which I finally realized at age 64! These were played to death on the "album rock" FM stations in the 70s which were so compressed that literally everything sounded the same. Ironically, these albums are themselves highly compressed but on more resolving modern equipment sound fantastic. Some others: V/A, Audio Fidelity Stereo Sound Spectacular. Blow your friends' minds, and maybe your speakers too. Blood Sweat and Tears (Columbia 1968). Early crossover jazz, super-tight and superbly recorded. Bloomfield Kooper & Stills, Super Session. Punchy recording with stingingly precise guitar lines from Bloomfield. Debussy, La Mer etc., BPO, Karajan. One of the more spacious-sounding DG-Karajan recordings. A delight. Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: Rite of Spring etc (2xLP Columbia). Amazing presence and clarity in these recordings. Miles Davis, Bitches Brew and many others. As a long-time Miles listener, the newer Columbia CD remasters were a revelation to me, to the point where I felt i was listening to the real music for the first time. They show the vast difference between the sound on the original tapes and the mediocre quality of some of the LPs and early CD transfers. Weather Report, Tale Spinnin'. This one stands out for dazzling blend of acoustic and electric instruments. Groove Collective, Groove Collective. Excellent recording of one-of-a-kind live gig. Jazz with beats, transcends genres. Roy Budd, Get Carter OST and many others. Innovative genius, top-notch orchestras, strikingly dynamic recordings. V/A, House of Loungecore. Opens up the esoteric world of British orchestral pop. And in Hi-Fi Stereo too! V/A, Unusual Sounds (2018). A generous survey of Library Music, another world reanimated by the internet. Obsessive record collectors: abandon hope all ye who enter here.

[@patrickmoore6159]

Excellent presentation. I’m slightly younger than you, so my beginnings in music started during the progressive rock era; however, we have found common touch points along the way. When I was in my early teens, the guys at Speakerlab (Seattle) would let me play records in their listening rooms, after hours. Curiosity is a big part of it, and the gear is there, so as to make it easier explore the depths (if they exist) in the underlying music and sound.

[@edgardoaleman8586]

Hey Steve! Congratulations on another great video. I just felt that I traveled in time with your memories. You should think writing a book about your personal musical trip!

[@davidparsons6517]

Born in 1963 my older brother took me right into Prog Rock and Rock and then the wave of the 80’s. But with streaming music today I have went back and many of the Lite Rock that we would never listen to has opened up a whole new world of music. For instance I would never listen to Jackson Brown. Today, how did I miss The Pretender. It has been great finding these classics that I have overlooked in my youth. Steve keep up the good work.

[@bloodonthesnow]

Hey Steve, just wanted to let you know that I find your videos to be very calming, and they help with my anxiety.

[@NaveenKumar-uh2gk]

Same here

[@stephenhylander9395]

Mr. Steve, It would seem that you are a real Lover of DRUMS!! Every album you have put up for an example, has/have some of the purest drum sounds in recording. Drums are the instrument that I judge a recording by, as well as the ambient room sound. Drums the most honest instrument when being recorded, and they dont lie to you! Thanks for the Video! Great opinions and passion.

[@geol7408]

For me it was the debut Dire Straits album at my friend's house when I was 17 (with lots of weed), and listening to Mark Knoffler play guitar like a surgeon. For me it was the notes he wasn't playing that seemed as important as the ones he played. Damn Steve, thanks for making me feel old this morning. Oh well I have a smile remembering back.

[@freekwo7772]

You can buy stuff, you can read and learn, but this is lived out and one of the best journeys in audio filmed. Today, most of those bands became brands, kids wearing their logos all over the world but never heard a song of particular band - like Che Guevara shirts. But this is an unique example how that music had been lived through from the childhood to today without trying to sell or prove anything. One of the best videos from Steve, as far as I'm concerned. Steve, it is good to have you and THANK YOU SO MUCH for filming!

[@woodstock480]

As a child of the 90s, I first really got into music with the grunge movement, but I got even more into the classic rock of my dad's generation. Ever since then, Jimi Hendrix has been my favorite musical artist. What he was able to do with the guitar--both the soundscapes he created by manipulating feedback and with studio advances, as well as his actual guitar playing, are still inspiring and amaze me to this day.

[@antigen4]

Can’t tell you what made me an ‘audiophile’ but reading an article in THE ABSOLUTE SOUND circa 1980 comparing ‘high end audio’ to large format photography made me choose a career in photography! Audiophilia had been the overwhelming force in my life, affecting all kinds of decisions!

[@supergranular]

Moving to London and falling in love with the new wave of jazz artists definitely lead directly to my current interest in sound and audiophile equipment. That, and Japanese listening bars.

[@carlitomelon4610]

Born in London, so Reggae.... Gary Numan, John Foxx, Joy division , Human League, Japan, Holger Czukay etc in the 80s.... Came to jazz thru Grover Washington, Earl Klugh... Then a Reggae friend of mine gave me a Monk pressing...loved it! Found the riverside LPS and fell in love with 1957 recordings. Miles, Sonney, Cannonball, Gill and KoB....More MILES! Ornette Coleman. World music. Reggae & Dub always.... Joe strummer... Became a bass player from some reason... Jack Johnson (family favorite:-) Ben Harper Fat Freddy's Drop Groundation JBB etc Tinariwen! Baroque in the morning... Now listening to Ibrahim Maalouf. The journey continues on Qobuz;-)

[@MangoZen]

One of your best. Thanks for sharing your journey Steve. Scary how much we overlap...

[@jimstamatic]

You should do more videos like this! Tell us about specific albums from both musical and recording-quality perspectives. Like what are the best Live albums in all genres? Thanks. As for my music journey, I am very fortunate because I have brothers who are 10 years older than me, so I was sitting on the floor of their rooms as a small child, listening to Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and The Who. Then as a teenager and young adult, I was listening to REM, U2 and The Cure. I was also exposed to a lot of classical music. And of course, I was a teenager when MTV was launched, which presented bands that the local radio stations would have never played. And for some unknown reason, I also became a massive jazz fan as an adult. So...Beatles Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin II, The Who Tommy, Frampton Comes Alive, Rush Moving Pictures, REM Murmur, Talking Heads Stop Making Sense, Radiohead OK Computer, Dave Brubeck Time Out.

[@joeburke9061]

In a similar vein as Eno, VU and Television, the Feelies are a very important band to me. Credited for inspiring the sound of early R.E.M., they are still active with a solid release as recently as 2017 and occasional live performances (when we still did that). From the experimental side of things, Laurie Anderson has created many interesting recordings, often with excellent sound.

[@mozartfx1]

I hope you do more of these. Enjoyed it very much. Thanks!

[@mr.george7687]

In the60's Dropping Acid & listening to In search of the Lost Chord By the Moody Blues was a out of body experience for me.

[@idolhanz9842]

FIrst live concert was Deep Purple 72 Machine Head Tour....they opened with Highway Star.

[@bebopredux]

I have so many memories. I'm 65. I always had my little Philco transistor radio with me. Had the black leather case around it. The BIG thing for me was getting a Radio Shack cassette recorder around 66 or 67. I was making my own mixes with cassettes. Positioning the mic at my designated distance. I then saw IT! This tiny wood speaker at RS. It was $9.95. I shoveled a few driveways and rode the bus in town to buy it. I could hardly contain myself. Used the headphone jack to new speaker and wow! I had (what I thought) a true stereo now! I spent hours listening to the local college station which played MC5, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Fast forward to my days in the service. I bought a pair of BIC Venturi speakers along with a Pioneer receiver and turntable. It rocked. I got written up several times which, to me, deserved a medal! 1985. I'm working (nurse) one night and my patient had several audiophile type magazines. We clicked. I knew the gear. He HAD the gear. He had a top of line Nakamichi cassette deck. A Sansui tuner (which didn't matter to me), Kenwood integrated amp (some kind of "Deluxe" or top of the line series) and.....a pair of Ohm Walsh 3's. He was terminal. Next night I come to work, he tells me he wants me to have his gear! I said no way! I am an ethical person. He insisted. He was moving to be with family. Of course, I ended up with them. I loved that Nakamichi deck. I bought a new portable Sony CD player literally off the back of the truck in 85. All of a sudden I was snobby. No CD's unless they were labeled "DDD" for me! Metal cassettes only. That Nakamichi though. I happened to like cassettes as it appealed to me via my earlier experiences. Now my setup is in my 230 year old farm house. I have AudioEngine A5+ powered speakers in bamboo and a Yamaha 10" powered sub (more on that below). I use a nfx cheap little tube pre amp as part of my "coloring" as I call it. I tell you, if you closed your eyes, you'd never believe it. The wide pine floors are uninsulated. The dirt floor is about 2 feet under them. (we've insulated the perimeter). This truly makes my setup sound fantastic. Subs should be used to color your sound. I'm big on that. I don't need to rattle the neighborhood. My t-levels have flattened out. I have the sub set at only 2. It seems to use the floor as a passive radiator of sorts. I personally feel that these powered subs (under a couple hundred) are a must. I don't think you'll notice much difference between say my sub and a $600 one. I don't. If you color your sound correctly, you'll never be looking for where the sub is located. Like when I do work in Photoshop, I don't want it to look Photoshopped. I want that special "can't put my finger on it!" response. It's just "something" like with beautiful sound. Let's not forget the most important part of the chain though. The ears! I've been onstage behind 25 foot walls of speakers and monitors. Where the sound pressure is very palpable. Your bones feel it. And your smallest bones are in your ears! Steve, consider a video on audiology. Why we hear sound differently and why. I find that stuff fascinating. Ok, coffee's wearing off....... I've now dived into the headphone club. With Schitt Modi>Loki>Magni chain to Sennheiser 6xx's. Using Quboz HiRes mostly. That snob thing again. Truthfully, I find the sound irritating to my ears. I barely move anything on the Loki as even a small move seems to irritate the DAC as far as the sound. I'm not blasting my head off either. Even a couple of hours of mild jazz or acoustic causes a bit of fatigue. I'll admit that I'm kinda disappointed in it really. Looking for reliable under $400 headphone tube amp. That tube warmth and magic is not happening here. Oh, have to mention my latest yard sale pickup. A pair of brand new in box Cambridge Soundworks Model 6's and a Cambridge Soundworks 8" powered sub (new too) for $75! I paid $35 for my Yamaha 10" above. But, the music? I was sick in bed for over 6 weeks in 5th grade. I had one of my dad's old tabletop tube radios. Loved that glow! Anyways, that radio was on 24/7. No TV. I listened intently. I wanted to be Roger McGuinn. Those shades he wore! My parents obviously saw I loved music. My first album (birthday gift) was The Cowsills album! I also got what I really wanted, Donovan Live in Concert. My parents, being technologically blind, bought me a 2 track tape player. I never liked it. Like you Steve, everything truly changed with the Beatles. I'd walk through a couple of miles of snow drifts to get a Beatles 45. Then, things kind of exploded. Loved The Monkees. Very much. Loved The Young Rascals. The Lovin' Spoonful. Paul Revere and the Raiders. But ultimately, it was Hendrix who flipped my world. I'd see the teen magazines (guilty, I bought 16 magazine!) and heard of him. So, without hearing anything by him, I bought Axis Bold as Love. I remember excitedly putting the LP on my little record player (yup, with RS speaker connected!). I heard You Got Me Floatin'. I thought "that's weird!". I was confused as to what I was hearing. I listened again. Again. And again. My taste in music began to really broaden. I still think the music of the mid sixties was the best. Harmony. All this harmony from The Beatles, Mamas and Papas. Simon and Garfunkel? Adored them. But Hendrix put me on a new journey for sound. I became obsessed with the Allman Brother's Band. I cannot begin to imagine how many times I've listened to Fillmore East and Eat a Peach. Side: you ever get the chance to go to Macon, Georgia? Do so. I visited the Big House Museum and Rose Hill Cemetery a few years ago.

[@MrPeeBeeDeeBee]

Great story man! For me dropping the needle on a brand new record became a drug.

[@marce8760]

I think it started with my father requiring speakers that could faithfully reproduce organ music. Not that I liked the music but when playing my own music on it, it definately did something with me on an emotional level that I never experienced before or anywhere else. Then I started with headphones and it really took of.

[@morrismr1892]

I got my start on a cheap Sears stereo listening to my parents Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole records. When the Beatles surfaced my listening world exploded into the Beach Boys, Rolling Stones & almost any rock n' roll I could get my hands on. From Italian western movie soundtracks to Michae Nesmith & the Monkeys I couldn't get enough. Today I'm a total Tidal maven. New artists & music is still my life blood.

[@claptrap22]

The single album _the sound of which_ transformed me was John Coltrane's Giant Steps. I was a decent, young jazz musician in high school. I brought home the record from my teacher's collection, and from the very first 5 notes, my whole life changed. I mean, completely changed. As you say - that sound: the sound of the horn, the sound of those first five notes, the percussion section. It was revolutionary.

[@rdmeenach]

I think Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Byrds with Gram Parsons put hardcore country/honky tonk into the main mix for a generation of rockers who wanted to go in another direction and made C/W cool, especially by the major introduction of pedal steel guitar as a predominant sound in the music. I remember starting to listen to honky tonk radio stations after that, opened up a whole world of new music unexplored by rock bound radio heads. As Dylan said in Visions of Johanna about country radio stations....There’s nothing really nothing to turn off.

[@abccbc11]

My journey has the same timeline, but is very different. In 1954 I was in the first grade and we lived on an Army base in Japan. My mother played classical recordings. I primarily recall piano concertos by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. We moved to California for my second and third grade, then to Paris, France for grades 4, 5, and 6. When Van Cliburn won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War, my mother, who was a naturalized U.S. citizen and very patriotic, was so thrilled that I must have heard those vinyl In college in 1968, I read a review of Joni Mitchell's Song to a Seagull and bought what became my favorite record for years.

[@Borednlonely]

Steve these kinds of videos are very informative and educational for the younger people that missed out on some of the best music created. 👍👍👍👍

[@solomonstewart1025]

For me it was Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown and Dave Brubeck.

[@MrMrpony]

Jazz is the “gimme” definite path to audiophile. Adds so much to any analogue setup. Reggae/dub/soul is there but pressings are variable, jazz is where you get without a doubt audiophile step up to amazing

[@kjbiz]

Loved the journey Steve. Thanks for sharing it

[@chrisohanlon69]

Hey wow, I know Cosmo Sheldrake, I have met him and passed him the guitar at an after gig party. Great to see him mentioned here, he's amazing.

[@amb3cog]

Thanks Steve. That's a lot of new music to check out. I really appreciate you sharing it all with us. Have you ever heard Kitaro? He's a "Japanese musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who is regarded as a pioneer of New Age music." according to Last FM. I don't know much about him, or New Age music at all really, but I was looking for something peaceful to listen to the other day, and found him. While I was starting to enjoy it. The first thought that came to me was "this seems like something Steve Guttenberg would enjoy", because it's very much about "the sounds". And while some of it is more serious. There's a lot of fun sounding stuff too. ✌️

[@sebastianbachert9528]

I'm 36yrs old. Started with typical 80's Funk und Disco, Michael Jacksons Off the wall und Thriller, to Soul with Roberta Flack, some years with german Rap-music, back to Blaxploitation sound, Stax und Motown stuff. A friend of mine showed me after bis year in the US classic rock like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Allman Brothers, We kept on discovering the Blues and Americana. For some time I was deep into electronic music (Kraftwerk, Eno, some Krautrock). I listened to Dubstep, Deephouse. Actually I dig some great sounding Jazz (Hancock, Coltrane, Miles Davis) und classical records (Mahler, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert). I love the Beatles, I love Queen, I love David Bowie, I love George Michael, Grace Jones! In fact I'm interested in good sound. Anything that takes me deep in the grooves of my record/ CD-collection. Each day I discover great new and old bands through channels like yours, Steve, or John Darkos. Keep on, Steve. It's great, what you're doing. Throughout your channel I know, that I'm not the only music-crazy guy :D Thank you!

[@TimpTim]

A brief history of.....Wow, thanks. Great to hear your unbridled enthusiasm for music. Been meaning to write mine, this gives me a push, lol. I'm 76 so it's too long to post here!!

[@HouseofRecordsTacoma]

For a child of ten in '58, the wide STEREO console seemed like MAGIC. Didn't matter the music genre. My parents were Dixieland & classical, here lies the genesis of my audiophile journey.

[@William2005Ball]

I noticed you was filming by Barnes and noble and I’m from the area . I walk by there sometimes hoping to bump into you . I think you are so cool and love hearing your passion with music and stereo equipment. Thanks 🙏🏼 for your entertainment

[@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac]

Please say hi next time!

[@apvalenti]

Steve, I'm probably ten years younger than you but we have had similar musical journeys. My parents didn't have a quality stereo system and discouraged me from getting one. So my '60s music was informed by what I heard on the radio and TV and from older cousins. I am just old enough to remember The Beatles' first appearance on Ed Sullivan; My parents, cousins, and I were at my Polish Great Aunt's house and we watched their performance on her black and white 21" TV. You could tell from their faces that even the adults in the room knew something transformational was occurring. In '72, I bought my first "real" stereo system. Since I had no idea of what music I liked, my taste was at first shaped by the songs the local NYC FM radio station, WPLJ, declared were the year's Top Hits. Anyway, my tastes quickly matured and, like you, I was driven to the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Whereas your journey took you down the road to Led Zeppelin, my path took me to The Who. To my knowledge, you mentioned them only a few times: once when you commented on Mose Alison's "Young Man Blues", when you recommended "Live at the Isle of Wright", and their great "Live at Leeds" performance in this video. I'm surprised you haven't explored "Who's Next" or "Quadrophenia", arguable their best studio albums; both were hugely instrumental in shaping my taste. Anyway, in my NYU college years, I grew to appreciate jazz due to he school's proximity to The VIllage's jazz clubs. I was also quick to discover that cheap student tickets to the Metropolitan Opera or a Broadway musical was a great dating strategy. My NYU grad school office overlooked The Bottom Line, a well-known smallish rock and folk venue venue at which Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen appeared. NYU is also walking distance to CBGBs, the infamous club that gave birth to the NYC punk scene. I was privileged to see the Talking Heads before they became famous, and I saw Blondie performing in Asbury Park. Then of course in the summer of '78 there was the Dr. Pepper concerts at the Wollman Skating in Central Park which was a great venue for old and new acts: Leo Kottke, Jan and Dean, Dave Bromberg, South Side Johnny, Chicago, Elton John, etc. Anyway, Thanks for sharing your journey with us Steve! Your taste in music puts your equipment preferences in context. Since you and I have similar tastes in music this increases the utility and trustworthiness of your reviews for me!

[@finscreenname]

Boston's first album for me. A lot of 70's rock was just so much more cleaner then the past but that album took it to another level. Not saying there was not clean great music before but imho Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles Little help was sacrilegious. He turned a great song into a mess and that was my impression of music up to that point. Play it loud and proud then clear rock and roll perfection came out and I was hooked into the audiophile world. I didn't know it at the time but I found myself listening to more and more acts like Clapton, Dire Straights, Rush, SRV, etc. Acts that were more then the average 3 minute song. At the same time I also gravitated to female singers because of the harmonies like B52's, GoGos, Blondi, Pat Benatar. Another thing I have always liked is Bluegrass and fell in love with AKUS which always sounded so good on my system.

[@sounddoc]

Me too. From age three on. My father had a jukebox and I got the records that I wanted when the records were cycled out by vendor. But the first record that grabbed me was Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Oscar Levant. It came on four 78 rpm records. Later, about 1954 in was issued on a single microgroove LP. . In 1959 a neighbor gave me his hifi system because he knew that I was interested in stereo and he wasn't going to double his system and hated that my "stereo" was a Columbia record player with the second speaker built into a detachable lid. I augmented his amp with a Sherwood channel and a half integrated amplifier and added another similar speaker. It's been add or change or start over ever since. I'm building a new system now around the Denon integrated amp that you liked so much - that high-current design has that amp punching well above its weight.

[@jerryjazzbo2845]

I already had quite a few records by the late 70s, and my friends had better systems in their homes. They convinced me that I needed a system to compliment my (already growing) collection. Through A-B listening tests, they were right. Never looked back ever since.

[@jetlagfrias]

Made a list to all the artists that you have mentioned and will be listening to them on my Kef LS50 wireless 2. Thank you. Actually just wanna tell you that your channel is amazing. And you’re the reason why I am starting to turn into an audiophile. And I’m also excited and have been waiting for your review on the Kef LS50WII, although I already have them. Haha. More power to your channel and thanks again!!!

[@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac]

Thanks

[@jlmain5777]

Terrific, I made it all the way through. Having older sisters and an older brother growing up our house was filled with 45s of the early Beatles, Stones, and the latest Motown releases. I was transfixed with the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys record which turned out to be his last before a deluge of post death recordings over the years. Made it through all the 70s rock as it grew to arena sized proportions. A favorite from that time was Love You Live by The Rolling Stones with the Warhol cover. From the punk era Never Mind the Bullocks by The Sex Pistols stands out and Sandinista by The Clash. The Scary Monsters record by Bowie was in that time. Lately a lot of electronic music and ambient seems to have captured my attention.

[@billbones1000]

Steve, as a child in the early 80s I started with grandmother's collection of grand ole opry, elvis and willy Nelson 45s played over a portable record player. Started learning those tunes on guitar at age 8. Then jumped to mother's cassettes of classic rock, zeppelin, hendrix, stones, airplane. Learned that stuff on guitar. Teenager went full metal, the more extreme the better and learned all that stuff on guitar. Late teens I fell on john Zorn through his collabs with metal guys.....twenties and thirties went DEEP down the jazz path, started learning Bebop guitar playing. Mid to late thirties got heavily into Sufi and classical Indian music and started learning that on guitar. Now early 40s I'm in full seeker mode! My listening is all over the place, as is my guitar playing.

[@HareDeLune]

Wow, that's awesome! You ever heard of Jon Hassell?

[@billbones1000]

@@HareDeLune ya he is cool, found him down the Eno path! Nice to hear from you friend!

[@HareDeLune]

@@billbones1000 Thanks! Would love to hear you play. Do you have any recordings?

[@billbones1000]

@@HareDeLune ya a bunch of stuff but nothing I'm super proud of. I'm a social worker by trade, playing music has always been my passion but it doesn't put much bread on the table. Keep telling myself one day I'll get an album of original material together but that day never seems to come!!

[@HareDeLune]

@@billbones1000 I hear ya, man. I've been playing Irish Traditional music for thirty years. In all that time, I had *one* offer to cut an album with another musician, but I was out of town at the time and missed my chance.

[@salmonline]

The '70s were transformative for every genre` of music. And just about anything from '77 is gold., as it were.👍

[@MrDaduh59]

One of your best videos! More like this please.

[@williammay8413]

It all started out for me was , BTO,Elton John, Steppenwolf,many more until led zeppelin 4 I heard around 76 and fell in love with them and today still like putting on their music . Now I like jazz and blues music more than ever , just yesterday I found 4 of Jeff beck albums and one of them was with the yardbirds for 9 dollars and the album was vg+ . Iam still a 2 channel lister and just sit for hours going back in time with my foot tapping and head bobbing.🙃

[@DrGregC]

It's like we are having a conversation. We are about the same age. You in NYC, me in Philadelphia. I am nodding my head in agreement to almost everything you say. I saw The Who perform Tommy live just after it came out in 1969 at The Electric Factory, so Tommy is indelibly etched in my brain. When you mention early Neil Young, I would have to add the epic 3 albums recorded by Buffalo Springfield and the incredible influence they had on all music that followed. Yes... The Beatles. I would sit by my Dad's "German radio" every night and listen to WIBG in hopes of hearing a Beatles song. It's impossible to over estimate their place in modern music. Brian Wilson? You covered the rest pretty well, except for leaving out Spirit - or maybe that was just a personal favorite...

[@flintmonz]

King Crimson, of course

[@ChrisJones-ri2jx]

I was lucky to have been bought up in Dorset... King Crimson was the local band saw them so many times.... A real eye opener

[@flintmonz]

@@ChrisJones-ri2jx Chris, got to see King Crimson and Peter Frampton at the Chicago kinetic Playground in 1973. It was memorable ! You were sure fortunate to grow up in Dorset with King Crimson.

[@downhillblur708]

It was AM radio and whatever dross they forced me listen to until I discovered my mom's radio that had that mysterious FM dial. One evening I tuned into WNEW in NYC and found Allison Steele "The Nightbird". The doors were flung open and I've never looked back.

[@socaljmac7720]

The siren call out made me smile. Great survey of your musical journey!

[@axelfeiss1130]

A live brass concert as a child entered myself into music, listening and playing. The first serious earthquake hit me in the 80s as a young teenager when I heard Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc. A few years later I was introduced by a brother in arms to classical music and the next musical shockwave hit me. The talent, finesse, artistry and melodies fazinated me deeply. Again a few years later my first time contact with Miles Davis Kind of Blue. Lightning stroke again and opened me to Jazz which I discover since. During an accidental visit of a collegue I heard Eric Clapton on a very good Hifi system and the audiophile bug catched me and made me realize that everything that I thought sounded great was only the tip of the iceberg. Here I am today, having a wonderful High End System, listening to all music genres I discovered over more than 40 years and still getting excited when a new album hits me light a lightning strike. Nothing can touch you like music does.

[@stevec3526]

The first album I bought as a kid was James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James". Still a great album. My parents played a lot of classical music when I was a kid. Such as Leonard Bernstein conducting "Peter And The Wolf" and "Scheherazade".

[@thetravelingkites]

The earliest music memory I have, perhaps sparking my life-long love for music, was listening to Peter and the Wolf on a cheap record player in the unfinished basement at our house when I was in second grade. High school was when music exploded for me: Led Zeppelin, Kansas, Rush, Styx...

[@roberte.andrews4621]

I had an old Victrola console - all mechanical, no electricity - from my maternal grandparent's furniture store. There was a handful of RCA Victor classical 78s with works by mostly Russian composers. I was six years old and fell in love with Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and other Romantic European masters. A cup built into the top of the phonograph cabinet held an assortment of well-used needles and I would search through it to find the less dulled one. A few turns on the spring winding crank, the sliding of a lever, a careful lowering of the massive tone arm and, voila!, I heard scratchy, low-fi symphonic music for a few minutes before the platter had to be turned over and the whole procedure repeated. This was 1940 and we were in our new $10,000 two-bedroom Cape Cod home, after living in a remodeled garage through most of the Great Depression. I was born in the very bottom of this awful period - 1934. In 1948, I heard my neighbors' big console playing the music from "Oklahoma" from nearly a block away. I recognized it, because my grade school teacher played "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" on the classroom phonograph a few months before my neighbor blasted his recording from the hit show. In 1952, as a college freshman, I often listened to a console with fairly decent amplification, but it wasn't until I959 when I was stationed on governors' Island in New York harbor that I had experience with high fidelity equipment. I was library assistant on post and, after hours, would play vinyl on a sturdy Rek-O-Kut studio turntable connected to a upscale mono amp. The Frank Sinatra hit "Only For The Lonely" had just come out and I fell in love with that album and still love it today, along with millions of other fans around the world! After I left active duty and returned to my Midwestern hometown, I began the audio quest for the 'perfect' sonic system that remains with me to this day. I started with an antique acoustic horn console and ended up with a fairly high-end (for me) pair of Klipsch Cornwall II speakers in American oiled walnut veneer powered by a vintage Marantz 2220B receiver, a Technics SL - 1401 turntable (only made one year) and a reliable Sony CDP-C545 disc player. The FM broadcasts in my area (Southern California) are so powerful and the Marantz's FM section so sensitive I only need a little dipole draped over the equipment table to pull in great signals 24/7. Los Angeles is nearly 100 miles away but I have a straight shot from my beach studio to the transmitters up north. Local San Diego jazz station from City College is right next door, so to speak. It's like listening to a hi-res CD, they use such sophisticated equipment. The only things I've done to the gear in all these years is replace the crossovers in the Cornies with Bob Crites' big, beautiful hand-wired circuits and switch-out the phenolic diaphragms on the tweets to Crites' titanium ones. Marantz still has all its original caps(!) but it's been periodically dusted-off inside and the pots spritzed with de-oxider. Every few years, I run a cleaning CD through the Sony, if it starts to sound fliffy. That's it. I keep hearing things on my recordings I've never noticed before with the Klipsch. Brushing all my old LPs with the Discwasher periodically makes a big difference. I try to keep it simple. My old ears aren't keen enough to benefit from DACs, bi-amping and expensive cables, etc. I'm lucky to be able to hear most of the bandwidth. My younger brother is deaf and can't even hear the phone ringing. He worked around noisy cars and machinery and was a gunsmith. As you say, we are in our "horn stage" and I know I will die horny.

[@robertdavis5714]

10 years behind you so it was the early 70's when it started for me and my 1st stereo @ age 12. It was Steely Dan for me and the song "Do it Again" to me was a collaboration masterpiece that got me started and is why Contemporary Jazz is #1 now in my Life and Yes I like Monk. And 1975 Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti would listen to over and over.............................Pink Floyd was the album "Wish you were Here" was the one that got me and remember vividly 1976 when it started.

[@ProjectOverseer]

When I was much younger, I started to listen to music outside the popular chart music genre's of the time and discovered a whole new world of music. This happened about 5 years after buying my first basic HiFi ... I just wanted to hear things better so started buying audiophile level HiFi ... Bug bit and that was it. It also opened the door to the world of recording technology (early 80's) which eventually became my job. Still just as excited today, but a lot wiser 😅

[@HareDeLune]

Amen ta that! I remember going into record stores as a teenager, looking over all the bins and bins of records, and thinking, Who are all these people, and why have I never heard them on the radio? After that, I realized that if music were a skyscraper, what you heard on the radio represented the carpet on the first floor.

[@idolhanz9842]

Such an impeccably good taste in good company, Steve!

[@tunesearch4490]

Thanks for the list. First I've heard of Television. Really liking the Marquee Moon album. Jammin with Edward and Thelonious Monk are next.

[@KG-pt4gb]

As a trumpet player, I always loved: Bill Chase - Chase (Side B is amazing) Blood sweat and tears Miles Davis Bill Evans Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 Tower of Power From there I really listen to a lot of 60's and 70's rock and then moved on to more obscure stuff too like: Eno Klaus Schulze Aphex twin Tangerine dream Now I am listening to: Flamingosis - Bright moments (or anything mixed by Flamingosis) I agree with @Steveguttenberg that audiophiles should love sound and tone for the character that it is and can be. Music is a lovely additional layer, but not always necessary to invoke emotion.

[@jackwezesa1081]

Is that the Chase band that died in the airplane crash?

[@jackwezesa1081]

Tower Of Power is amazing!

[@themastroiannis]

what did it for me?? joao gilberto (the voice and the guitar of the famoust getz-giblerto album from 1963). his confessional, absolutely intimate, understated delivery of jobim's songs still brings me to tears. as caetano veloso would say: "gilberto is the composer's composer".... meaning that despite the fact gilberto wrote so few songs, all his renditions of the bossa nova classics, particularly jobim, acquire an intimate revelatory meaning, full of "saudade" , making the compositions even more poignant and personal. you must check "live in tokyo" , i believe from 2003 or 2004 . it's hard to believe is a concert! the renditions of all these bossa nova classics still feels like an assault on the senses...is an intimate dialogue with your inner self. it's a zen experience in music! another one to check out is his "joao gilberto" from 1973, also called "the white album". again, intimate, revealing, raw in its most beautiful poetic way....

[@apparaoapparao]

Dad had had huge floor standers with a powerful amp with all these knobs and lit dials. He’d play all kinds of great music; Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, Pink Floyd, and ELO were played the most. He had Are you experienced? and Electricladyland, and after hearing those, I bought every Hendrix album I could find. I worked at a dry cleaners in high school with some musicians, and after hearing Sonic Youth’s Sister and Daydream Nation albums, my love for music became a passion. I’m pleased that my love of music has been passed on to my children. They have record players and own Kanye, Lana Del Rey, and Childish Gambino albums that I appreciate.

[@berkut6313]

Great insight ! Came late in the Pink Floyd, Genesis, LED ZEP. Going backwards, but also looking for new stuff...

[@williamcraig4205]

Great show Steve. I had a similar musical journey, but i picked up some new music ideas from your show today, as i usually do. I really dig the uncompressed playlists you made available as well. I do lament, however, that music, which was a huge part of my life (although I'm not a musician) has somehow become less important and influential...less special. I think it has to do with the steaming services that make anything and everything instantly available. No more hunting things down in old record shops. Okay whatever...time to tune up my f&*king wheelchair.

[@williampearson4968]

I am a product of the same era as Steve growing up in the 50s & 60s & 70s. Van Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the cold war and was the only musician to come home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, and I believe, the only muscian to ever have this honor and the first classical musician to sell a million copies of a LP.... and.... Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Beatles, Rolling Stones, CCR, Poco, The Animals... and... back to pianists Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris, Vladimir Horowitz, Alicia De Larrocha, John Browning and could go on and on... and.... then buying the gear $$$ to enjoy a lifetime of music ----- never ending! No regrets! Only the Joy of Music!

[@jmad627]

While not considering myself an audiophile like a lot of you here, I’ve become more interested in audio gear after watching a video here, by chance, of the Reisongg A-10, and purchasing it. Now I always had a lot of vinyl. Now I have a better system for listening to them. Thank you Steve.

[@gen-X-trader]

Same. The raves and nightclubs in the early 2000s just had this amazing sound. I went out of my way to recreate that experience in my car and in my home. I could care less about 60s or 70s music which oddly enough is what I find most audiophiles are into

[@EnpuerKT]

I learned about Wilco because of your recommendation. Wilco’s song “at least that’s what you said” speaks to my in many levels

[@laardvarkzilllions7955]

I've been blown away by Brazilian-American guitarist Fabiano Nascimento's albums recently. His talent and the creativity and sound of his records are just amazing. Well I just got my first Planar Magnetic headphones (lcd-2 classics) and listening to his music through them took my appreciation of his recordings to a multitude of new levels. Tears in my eyes. Also, these headphones are incredible.

[@Aswaguespack]

For me Crosby, Stills, & Nash was a new awareness of fine songwriting and great vocals. I grew up with Southern Black “Soul” music. Percy Sledge was an artist I enjoyed listening to and many years later I got to play those tunes sharing a stage with Percy himself. I got interested in jazz from my high school band director who had a really fine collection of jazz albums and introduced me to Ellington, Miles, Johnny Hodges, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. My late college professor Paul Mathis was my mentor and he introduced me to Monk, Horace Silver, and Bill Evans and Quincy Jones. The journey was now beginning.....

[@miguelbarrio]

Love these videos where you talk about your favorite music. Just wanted to mention something I found a short while ago: “James Brown plays James Brown”. It’s him playing his song but there are no lyrics.

[@arthurwatts1680]

Steve, you are looking pretty damned good for someone who was born in the *1850s* ;) Seriously, if having a broad appreciation for different musical genres is one of the criteria for being an audiophiles, then once again I have to bow out. I consider myself a child of the 70s (b. 1959) and it was the era of punk vs disco - lets just say that I didnt hum along to the Bee Gees. Metal really kicked in from the late 70s, further narrowing my tastes and about the only mainstream artist of the day that captured my attention was The Boss. If Springsteen sat down to compare musical influences I expect that you would find a lot of commonality, but I cant lay claim to those same influences. Thanks for the video.

[@cosmonaut9942]

I was a huge Grateful Dead fan as a kid and they were all about perfect sound reproduction at live concerts. It rubbed off on me. Given the impact that the GD has had on live sound reproduction I'm surprised that Steve never mentions them. Obviously, he was not on the bus.

[@docdeens4030]

I'm with ya....my first time machine stop would be the Dead at one of the Fillmore East shows!

[@michaelware1649]

The good; the Dead's sound system, state of the art. The bad; the music sucked. A friend went to see them, after someone told him you have to see them live to really appreciate them. He went to a concert of theirs, TRIPPING, and fell asleep! Now, that's the band for me! Ok, Deadheads, you can attack me now, I'll be listening to Zappa, Todd, w/or without Utopia, Mahavishnu Orchestra, you know, REAL musicians!

[@cosmonaut9942]

@@michaelware1649 yeah that's why they're still going strong after 50+ years and that's why most music schools with any esteem teach courses on Dead improv. Maybe Zappa will be remembered in 100 years. The others you mention aren't even remembered by younger people even now. they are nobodies in the history of music. The Dead will be appreciated like the classics FOREVER. I guess that ignorance is bliss. So, rock on with your appreciation for technical, busy, high gain fusion oriented, and contrived music.

[@bradkava2175]

The Dead also cared about sound, more than most bands. Their recordings are mastered with HDCD, which if you have the player, sound like hi-res. Their music is timeless and well-written, as much so as any band ever, from country like Workingman's Dead, to experimental jams as inspired as any jazz musician's.

[@edjackson4389]

You know an artist or band is great when you go thru entire phases when you discover their body of work. I've gone for weeks or months at a time listening to nothing, but one band. I remember in my younger days going thru my Dire Straits phase, AC/DC phase, Zepplin phase, Stones Phase, Doors phase, etc all lasting for weeks on end before moving on. Now I just put all that music on shuffle and listen to what pops up.

[@andyanderson3352]

Steve, Everything you say is so true you’re the best. I love all the albums you are talking about.

[@observerstation]

All your choices are right on the money. You have exquisite taste Steve!

[@janscholing8136]

I more or less followed the same track, one album that still is one of my all time favourites is from The Golden Earring - Eight Miles High (1969) and especially the title song that struck me because of the bass guitar solo of Rinus Gerritsen. I still get the shivers when I listen to it. No wonder, if the rumour is true, that Jimi hendrix asked him to join his band, but he declined. I was lucky enough to have a father that had a mom and pop recordstore, so a steady flow of new music. Another favourite is ELP and especially Take a Pebble, jazz, pop and classical combined and performed by great musicians. I never was into classical music, until I discovered Reinbert de Leeuw playing Erik Satie, his playing really touched me. Another band that caught my attention is Gentle Giant, I never heard anything like it and still love it. I worked for about 10 years in a recordstore and worked for 30 years in the record industry. I was very lucky to have seen many bands live and for me that is the way to really get the music. If you want to know what makes me tick, check my playlist here: Secret Society of People with Great Taste in Music

[@rasardo1]

Hello Steve. It's been a long journey for me in the Music world. I've started in the early 80's with my dad record colection. An Aiwa turntable and a seventies Marantz system (integrated amp + cassete deck + radio + loudspeakers). I started listening to Pink Floyd "The Wall" on vinil when I was 6 or 7 years old. Because my dad borrowed many friends records, he recorded them on tape, so, when I was very young, I've heard a lot of records on tape, from The Doors, Frank Zappa, Genesis or David Bowie. Then, when I was about 14/15 years old I felt in love with The Cure, the 4AD movement (Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil) and bands like Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode or Bauhaus. Them I moved to british pop acts like The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, Duran Duran, Soft Cell, Human League, Orange Juice, Pet Shop Boys. Then I've jumped into the universe of Japan and David Sylvian (that I still love), and with all the great new wave bands like XTC, Talking Heads or REM , and them discovered Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Kraftwerk andTangerine Dream. Then I've went deep into folk and progressive rock, listenning to Caravan, Gong, Sandy Denny, June Tabor, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Gentle Giant, Van der Graff Generator, King Crimson, Magma... Punk came latter with, Ramones, The Clash, PIL, Wire and Au Pairs. Then soul, with Marvin gaye, Al Green, Otis Reding, Stevie Wonder, then funk with Parliament, Funkadelic or James Brown. I love portuguese artists, like Sergio Godinho, Zeca Afonso, Fausto Bordalo Dias or José Mário Branco and the huge contingent of brasilian excelent artists and performers, like Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina, Tom Zé, Milton Nascimento, Os Mutantes, Marcos Valle, João Gilbertp, Erasmo Carlos... I love music and I'm an audiophile :)

[@twilwel]

My major musical revelations which went way beyond just loving it: In 1986 I heard Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the first time, being played before a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar (it was a school outing). It was a modern symphony that went on and on, completely different from the usual 3 minute singles on the radio. This was for me the start of looking beyond the obvious radio hits and got me into classical music as well. The second major revelation was overtone singing. I was 35 years old and very depressed with a related painful digestion disorder. By pure coincident I heard a live performance of an overtone choir in a church. It literally moved my stomach, my soul and ultimately led me to cure myself through the practice of overtone singing and generally changing my life for the better. The most inspiring overtone songs were from Michael Vetter, a musician who developed the European style of overtone singing from scratch after being commissioned under supervision of Stockhausen to learn and sing overtones. This episode led me to listen more into the beauty of single sounds (with all the richness of the overtones) and focus less on all the notes that come and go in quick succession. Although I enjoy a wide variety and like to explore ever more music, it is overtone singing that has remained a constant.

[@raulvaladez8854]

Please more of this content. Maybe a weekly Sunday thing or something it’ll be great

[@Nigel-nar53]

Nice one Steve. We're a similar age and enjoy much the same stuff. 👍

[@2ChukBuk]

Excellent picks Steve, oddly parallel mine as well. Regarding Lucinda Williams CWOAGR is excellent but so is World Without Tears. Also in the late 70s when I acquired my first stereo, my buddy and I were obsessed with Pat Metheny Group's first album. Still have it in impeccable condition. I can remember as a young kid going to bed at night with my ear glued to a cheap radio and hearing KGO fade in and out from 600 miles away and drifting off to sleep. I thought that was so cool. Motown RULES.

[@tccincrj2866]

Long talk, great talk! Thanks Steve! "Mule Variations". Incredible album, and recording! Just listened. Didn't know. Conceptual. Almost an "anti-music" stile. Great tip! Fancy some MPB? Try João Nogueira's "Espelho". This album helped me became an audiophile. You got it on Spotify, perhaps also on Tidal. Thanks again!

[@krypto_9872]

I'm a young guy(22 years old) but 10+ years ago I started listening to Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Genesis, Dire Straits after I discovered my dad's old cassettes/CDs and that really started the audiophile quest.

[@astolatpere11]

Remember walking into Gramaphones and Things in Monterey their opening weekend in very early 70s. I was 14 and never heard hi end systems. Heard Gabor Szabo Magical Connections on big horn speakers in this 2-story room. I was fascinated by the lovely sound, like nothing I ever experienced.

[@francescas6026]

Motown girl groups on my 45 records. Family friend Pete Seeger would have concerts to save the Hudson River. The roster of folk singers of our day were playing with Pete influenced me greatly. Then came the British invasion of the Beatles and Stones. Living near a college town the college concert circuit was another big influencer. Part social event and music exploration. Music was a vital part of your social life.

[@logiman]

Thank you so much for sharing. For me, Rush changed my taste in rock music. I played drums in the 70's and 80's and was also in the high school band so I could appreciate technically difficult music. For me, Rush was a step beyond Led Zeppelin. Like LZ, they were tremendous musicians. They loved experimenting with odd time signatures. But, for my taste, they were more musical with better lyrics. After Rush, I just couldn't be satisfied with rock music that took very little talent to perform. Beyond that, Supertramp Paris was a fantastic album. Very talented group that broke up way too soon. Paris was a live album that I liked much better than their studio albums, which were very sterile to me. Little River Band's First Under the Wire album was terrific. The recording was exceptional (for my ears) and the vocal harmonies were just awesome. Also a Toto fan. They are/were a kind of pop/progressive fusion with excellent musicians. Sadly, I believe only one original member, Steve Lukather, remains.

[@ryanherrera9171]

Very cool video Steve, love it.

[@pandstar]

For me, it sort of started with the Beatles, but very quickly diverted into King Crimson, Genesis, YES, PFM, Banco, Gong, National Health, Mahavisnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Universe Zero, Art Zoyd, and a myriad other progressive musicians from all over the world. And that lead me (via Universe Zero, and other avent-prog) to 20th century, avant-garde and contemporary classical. All these types of music, have a lot of subtlety, which is inly repealed with high quality audio.

[@crichta]

Thanks Steve. Loved it. Duke Ellington, Dylan, Bach Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, John Martyn, RIchard Thompson .......................

[@Reteph58]

After some early Stones, Beatles, Who, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, i went on to be fan of Yes and Genesis (at age 15), music with a lot of classical influences. After buying my 1st classical record when i was 22, and after working at an electronic organ factory my taste went broader. then after living in a students house and started working in several venues (i saw Yes concert at 1997) my taste broadened to worldmusic also. My hifi went with me. From a Pioneer 500A and Wharfedale Denton II's to Artephonos Energa (tubes) and Peitho 303 (semi open baffle speaker). Next thing? Typical: this record of "West Side Story" is from 1957, same as the Quad ESL 57.