Within my friends I seem to be the only one who even knows what some big audio brands are i.e. Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic etc. Admittedly, I fell into this through searching for the best gaming headset (yes headset) to buy and found z reviews about 2 years ago. I’m a 16 y/o senior in high school and I feel like im the only one whos metaphorical “eyes” have been exposed to this community. Is there anyone else around my age who is into this hobby or am I alone in this? 
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I just tuned 18, it’s hard for people our age, at least me, to buy quality gear as I have to mix a part time job with terrible pay with school work and socialising and find time to listen to the music I like.
Terrible first world problems
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I’m 45, my sister’s 33 and a 1/3 and me dad’s 78? Not young but dedicated 
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I also started my journey during my gaming years. Had a set of stereo Phillips headphones (can’t remember the model number). Then Logitech brought out this “gaming set” which put me off gaming headphones. My friends then bought these headphones that vibrated when the bass hit. That then put me off my friends…
I’m 31 but my mental age is probably 12 if that counts?
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Honestly my entire family enjoys this hobby and really since I was super young I really enjoyed this stuff. It feels like I have always been involved lol
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What’s the definition of young lol?
My first audiophile experience was when I was…13 or so. I was on the school bus listening to GnR on my Sony walkman with its super crappy headphones and noticed that there are actually 2 guitars!!! I was hooked.
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Like actually around 10 ish. My first higher end headphone the hd 580 precision was given to me at the time, along with a nice diy amp in an Altoids can, since my dad had decided to upgrade. But I was still got to listen to some really nice systems when I was even younger, but I don’t remember a ton before I actually started to care about the gear when I got my dads older headphones. Otherwise when I was younger I really liked pro lighting and midi stuff like controllers and synths and stuff around when I was like 7ish and younger but I can’t really remember
Im jealous haha. My parents kinda hate me just having a couple headphones. Although they don’t enjoy music the way I do. Closing my eyes and putting on a track is probably my favorite way to listen to music.
This hobby has forced me to get a job haha. Balancing school, band, and after school volunteering doesn’t help it either.
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I never said my mom didn’t get mad about spending money on this hobby lol (she still does sometimes when she visits), but most of my family has excellent hearing and really appreciates high quality sound, so they were the ones who originally fueled the addiction lol
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I’m a tad older than I previously mentioned 
and remember listening to Deep Purple Made in Japan in 1977 on a basic ‘record player’ through an old valve amp and a single pa speaker the local church no longer required…a happy musical up bringing 
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my parents constantly railed against me when I was buying my telescopes, binoculars, coffee equipment and now they can rail against me and my spending on audio gear. granted, most of my purchase has been budget-fi, minus the Stax SRS-2170 I got 5 years ago and have subsequently lost (the SR-207’s, I have the amp) in a couple of moves.
If it’s what you enjoy and you are spending money and time responsibly, I don’t really see it as an issue. I feel that if it was something else, my parents would have been not as accepting lol
34 here but I bought my first Sennheisers when I was, like, 18. Just 50$-ish open-backs, but I ordered the exact pair I wanted, and my jaw dropped. Never bought 10$ headphones again.
…Actually, yes. Panasonic RP-HJE120/125 are really good… for 10$. 
Often recommended in the “audiophile but poor” category.
Yeah I imagine less than 4% of people here would be high school age—lack of disposable income and what not being a factor I imagine. I’m 26 now and my first good headphone was the Sony MDR7506 which I got when I was 16 or 17.
Well the nice thing is with the price coming down so much, you can put together a killer setup that most high school kids could afford, complete with iems, headphones, and dacs and amps. I mean you see alot of high school kids with beats bose stuff that is around 200 usd or higher, for that price you could have a pretty great setup. I would argue its a fair bit higher then you think
Agreed. Also, hurray for chi-fi, KZ earphones, and good smartphones with great DACs and a headphone jack. 
I too am 16 years old and here in Italy Hi-Fi is kind of a niche thing, especially with headphones. I started interesting in audio just a few months ago, my dad is also an Hi-FI enthusiast and i often listen some songs in his speaker system…but i prefer headphones
Now you just need to convince your dad to get into headphones lol. You could get some nice hand me downs 
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I’m 40, going on 21. ABI 21 years ago sorta reset me. 