Audio for Kids

[AudioKeith]

My son (3 years old) loves to watch me play with my collection and loves to go to garage sales and thrift stores with me. I have started to teach him how to operate and respect audio equipment. He will defenitly be getting his 1st real system to replace his JVC boom box before I did (at age 14).
The question is at what age did you buy a real (non boom box/Disney "stereo") system for your son(s)/daughter(s)?

[Billfort]

My daughter's room had a stereo (Marantz receiver, PSB speakers, Sony SACD/CD changer) in it before we brought her home from from the hospital.

She seems to love music - especially spending time in the listening room - but my main system is all exposed tubes, finicky vinyl, DIY projects (in progress) and such so I'm REAL careful with her in there. She'll get to learn about and use her system as soon as she is directly interested but it will be a while before unattended visits to the real listening room happen. :)

[Andyman]

Well, my 14 year old daughter got her system of odds and ends a few years back when she started to want to listen to her own music. Nothing fancy, just a collection of yard sale pieces not worth selling, but too good to toss (Pioneer SX-450 receiver, EV 7B speakers, Sony CD carousel and JVC TT), but it still whips the snot out of what most her friends have! :yes:
Plus, she's the family musician and in her HS band, so I think it's nice for her to have something decent to listen too.

My 12 year old has a Pioneer BPC CD system, but that's what she wanted. Her taste in music is mainstream teen (hip hop, Brittany spears, you know the dreck), so that's fine by me too. Gawd, I hate it when she's on her computer down here playing that stuff!! :puke:

[MarkAnderson]

In the kids room:

Technics SA-5550
cheap-ass Magnavox DVDP
Optonica RT-3300 tape deck
Pioneer DT-510
EPI M100's
some old Emerson VCR
and your basic 19" Sanyo TV

Works great for Disney Movies and crap.

[Celt]

Had my first record player by the time I was six. Used it up until I began high school. Kids should be encouraged to appreciate and even learn how to play all kinds of music.

[dr*audio]

I bought my girls a nice MCS receiver and AR4's when they were 10 and 12. They used it for a few months but then they asked me to remove it from their room. It had "too many buttons on it and the speakers were too big." Now they have a Sharp all in one system they got from a friend. Yet they have no trouble at all working my stuff. :scratch2:

[ozmoid]

My daughter (4) has a little Heathkit amp, a pair of 4x's, and a cheapo DVD/CD player. The Heathkit has simple controls, and the DVD as well. If she is not interested in what we're listening to, she goes in her room and fires up whatever she wants. :)

[whyaskit]

Current system in my daughters' room

Yamaha CR-620
Sony 5 disc CDP
Sony Playstation 2
iPod
Paradigm Titans

It really is a good sounding system and it is used every night. When I was younger I remember playing my radio untill it signed off (around midnight) and then going to sleep with a cassette playing. They do the same thing (not exactly, no station sign-off), but with 5 discs spinning and it brings back memories of my youth.

I say let the kids listen to great music, it can only help them live a better life.

[jpdylon]

I think its cool that you guys are getting your kids into the vintage gig at an early age. Assuming I get the chance to have kids, I would like to get them into appreciating gear and repairing it when they find it. I'd be pretty proud of my kid if I heard them enjoying some good tunes on gear they found and fixed up.

[thedelihaus]

Started my niece off well- she likes the Ramones, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Leslie & The Lys, The Gothic Archies, The Magnetic Fields, and a few others. she just turned 6 christmas day, and I've been at it since she was a baby, though I'm sure besides the smiles it produced she really wasn't "getting it" until 3, maybe 4 years old.

anyhoo, I do have to compete with the kid-centric stuff like the "Spongebob" soundtrack music, and that CD of kids singing current pop hits (not the "new" Mini-Pops, but bad enough) as well as some other stuff I don't like too much.

But it makes her happy. And as long as they aren't covering Eminem yet, I don't mind.

40's Jazz musician and experimental 40's electronic instrument builder Raymond Scott did a 3-record set called "Soothing Sounds for Baby". It was interesting, early electronic stuff, covering ages 1-6 months, 6-12 months, and 12-18 months.

here's Amazon.com's blurb about it-

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Alongside apple-cheeked watercolor paintings of infants, the original cover design for the Soothing Sounds series of records bore the charming inscription, "An Infant's Friend in Sound." Composer Harry Warnow was already legendary (as "Raymond Scott") for his whimsical electronic and big-band novelty musics. With this 1962-63 series, Scott turned his astonishing array of invented and modified keyboards and recording techniques toward pure electronic music with an infant-friendly spin. Intended as "aural toys" for the nursery, Soothing Sounds' deceptively simple "tic-tocs" and unthreatening seesaw melodies play on the calming properties of repetition--much like music boxes, Fisher-Price's mobiles, and the comforting "Again!" video mentality of the Teletubbies. Despite endorsement from the Gesell Institute of Child Development, the records sold poorly. But they had a curious afterlife, prefiguring such "adult" descendents as ambient music ("invented" by Brian Eno in 1975) and the mechanical pop-tronic textures of Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. --Gil Gershman

[Justen]

My daughter (9) loves music and the way her system sounds- a HK340 Receiver, HK CD player and Polk Monitor 4's. But she has no interest in buttons and stuff although she admits it has a pretty "champagne" glow- no, I don't know where she got that term...I don't drink the stuff!

My son (7) is a total gearhead- big Sony receiver (2345? I can't remember), Sony 5 disc cd player and Sony turntable, which he is currently complaining about because the return cue isn't right. Big Johnzer speakers. He was madder then heck when I bought and flipped a Dokorder RTR because he thought it was unbelievably cool. He loves to help me test stuff I buy, so I guess all my gear will end up with him!

[Retro Stereo]

All kids are different. My son, who is very respectful of audio equipment, has had his Pioneer SA-9500 integrated amp, Pioneer CDP, and Polk RTi25 (we've actually mixed in a few different pairs over the years) speakers since he was around 9 or so. My daughter (who isn't so respectful of audio equipment), on the other hand, didn't get to trade in her BPC-all-in-one for a Pioneer SA-7500II integrated, TX-5500II tuner, CD/DVD player, and Celestion 1 speakers, until she went off to college just this last fall. Now that she knows the difference, she is much more respectful now.


Retro

[Strawman]

I voted 12, probably started him a bit too early, he always had the all in one type systems. I brought him to the last 2 AK fests and now he he has a Kenwood KA-5700 amp/5300 tuner in his room, don't take up much space with the small footprint, He has a PS-one for CD olayback, with an A/R TDS-202 thru a pair of Infinity Qe's and RS-2001's. Spoiled kid!

[ponderbear]

My currently 9-year-old son began performing elaborate dances to the CDs I made for him around the age of four. Before then he boogied to different kinds of music. He really liked big band I seem to recall.

My currently 6-yr old son loves the idea of growing up and being an elvis impersonator. he serenades us with wacky narratives about his day and power rangers and underwear at the top of his lungs, all the while banging on an old practice guitar.

The princess, currently 3.5, likes disco. She seems the least moved by music, though she always asks for the bedtime CD i made for her.

The boys share a room and a decent Philips shelf stereo system. They've had it since before the younger son turned four. It has a few nice features and could be cranked, but they are pretty responsible with it. I just bought a portable record player to make their garage sale trips more interesting. They also like to hook my synth up to their shelf system and bang away on the thunder and siren presets.

When my eldest son becomes a tween, or sooner if he seems to be ready, I have no problem hooking him up with a second hand set if he agrees to not blow his eardrums out. I think a classic 20 watt receiver, a set of decent midsized speakers like Boston A-70s, and a turntable or CD (his choice) would be quite appropriate. If he needs to refoam the 70s, all the better.

When I was about six, my mom and dad finally gave me my own record player. I think they didn't want me to tear theirs up. I remember feeling very ready for it, so i'd say i could have handled a player before the age of 5.

[Duffinator]

My five year old twins will get the following systems this fall when they get their own rooms:

Son: Sansui 9090DB, ADS S700 speakers, Sony DVD player, Technich SL-1700 MK II TT.

Daughter: Sansui G-8000, ADS L420 speakers, Toshiba DVD player.

I've already been teaching them how to turn equipment on and off, always turn the volume off when turning off the power. And also how to switch inputs and use CD/DVD players. They dig it. :yes: I also make CD's with pop/rock songs I think they would like and put their names on it or whatever they want me to call them. One is called Thunder Mountain/Space Mountain after their favorite rides at Disneyland. :thmbsp:

[ozmoid]

My daughter (4) has a little Heathkit amp, a pair of 4x's, and a cheapo DVD/CD player.
UPDATE: The daughter is now 5, and is still running the AR's, but with a Stereomaster amp and a Kyocera DAC-710cx CDP.

[titanstats]

My guy's just turning six, but can navigate the Mac system no problem. Can switch between computer, DVD, CD, change speakers, etc., and thinks the whole great big vinyl record thing is pretty neat. Heard myself saying, "Don't, don't, don't" too much one day when he was two, so I started teaching him how to use the stereo properly instead. Worked like a charm, and I've never worried about my stuff again.

He's learned to operate more vintage gear by six than most people ever will. :D Doesn't seem to share my speaker fetish, though. Oh well, there's lots of time still...

[ozmoid]

Doesn't seem to share my speaker fetish, though. Oh well, there's lots of time still...Don't lose heart, it'll happen! :D