My audiophile life was quite lonely the first 5-6 years (I started in the mid-90's). The closest thing I had to audio cuckoo company were the Brit rags Hi-Fi Choice and What! Hi-Fi.
Things took a turn when I discovered the Internet. From there, I discovered sites like Home Theater Forum and of course, Audio Asylum. I was the quitessential lurker then. From out of the blue, my wife suddenly gave me a Sonus Faber Concertino for my birthday (or was it Christmas? or both!).
I knew it was something special and I never even dreamed about owning one (I was saving up for a KEF Coda 7!). But when my Tinos were home, I started a quest for making the most of it. If you have a Sonus and are an Audio Asylum inmate, you probably have reading comprehension problems if you don't bump across this feisty, opinionated, utterly subjective guy who goes by the monicker Hyperion.
When I found out Hyperion was Pinoy, I started having visions (or was it illusions?) of a grand Filipino (and Philippine-based) audiophile community where people can talk about, listen to, and learn from each other especially about the things peculiar to Philippine audiophilia such as the gear and music available here, the folks we can easily get in touch with for set-up tips and tweaks, etc.
I was hitting blanks though. Aside from Hyperion, I only remember FrancisS as the other Pinoy on AA. I recall some posts about foreigners visiting Manila and asking about audiophilic must visits but I can't even make 5 Pinoy audiophiles.
Then I found PinoyDVD in mid 2001 after Googling for my dream Pinoy audiophile community. I must admit it was extremely interesting at the start as people started to share their experiences, listening notes, etc.
I know some PinoyDVD mods are on Pinoydiophiles so please don't take what I'm about to say as bashing. Perhaps better to look at this as a critique to make the HT and audio community better. Here goes:
But then PinoyDVD got filled with volumes of inquiries about my favorite (to diss) Home Theater In a Box and worse, those PhP5k 5-channel amps at Quiapo. Not that I had anything against cheap gear. In fact, those HTIAB's prices can get you a pretty decent 2 channel or even 5 channel rig.
So that led me to look for PinoyDVDers who I felt were actually serious about their sound. I set up a Yahoo! groups and invited folks like MShoeMaker, Racio (long time no post, bud, how are you?), etc. I also continued looking for Pinoys in other audio forums like Rajan from Headfi and Headwize.
Those early Pinoydiophiles never left the forums I "recruited" them from though and continued to share good, solid insights and knowledge for members in those other forums to read. I think this built Pinoydiophile's credential immensely.
Some critical mass of membership and activities was reached. Crucial turning points were those first sessions at Racio's that led to sessions at JM's, Ike's, etc. Likewise crucial were those visits to Rene's place and the other stores like Sonny Tuazon's or the launches at AVDI where Pinoydiophiles built relationships with other folks who share the same interests.
I think one of the most crucial breaks Pinoydiophile got was when the DIY community started getting active in the forums. This opened a whole new world. And I guess with this, I can say, the rest, is history.
I gotta go for now but I'll come back to this thread once in a while as I remember more historic tidbits and in an effort to articulate some form of vision and perhaps core values for Pinoydiophiles. All Pinoydiophiles are welcome to contribute to this exercise as I may have started Pinoydiophiles but what Pinoydiophiles is today is completely all you Pinoydiophile's doing.
Cheers!