I certainly wasn't much of a music listener - certainly not a critical one - until about 1991, when I first started University. It wasn't until then that I bought my first stereo, or actually my first tapes. In about 1994, I bought a stereo with a CD player - I had a bit of money so I tried to buy a reasonable quality stereo.
In 1999 when I left for Scotland, I burnt everything I liked at that time to MP3s onto CDs. Then minus a stereo and busy with work I didn't really continue collecting… Luckily Edinburgh/Glasgow is well placed for tours, and I got to go to a few awesome performances!
The major early “steps” in the evolution of my musical taste:
My tastes are not exclusive to these artists, it just that these are the ones that I tried to collect - especially Klaus Schulze.