Although he owns a primo home stereo system, Thomas Lee doesn’t consider himself an audiophile. After all, he bought his first stereo system out of a JCPenney catalog.
“It had a cassette deck, amplifier, speakers and a turntable, and that’s how I started. I bet I was 15,” he says.
In the decades since, he’s gone through multiple upgrades on such components as amplifiers, speakers, receivers and CD players and now has a high-quality system. He would like to upgrade into one with a true “oh, wow!” factor, but could never bring himself to take the leap into buying one, he says.
“I would consider myself a guy who loves music, and I wish I had more time to sit around and just listen to it,” says Lee, one of the owners and creators of Sockwell socks in Chattanooga. Melodic alternative rockers such as Edwin McCain, Pat McGee and Joshua Kadison are on his list of favorites.
While home theater systems are all the rage these days, with some people spending dollars in the five-figure range to outfit a pitch-perfect system, there are those who still want a separate stereo system just for music.