Interesting history Jim
My journey into Pro Tools and home recording gear was a bit different. I'll try to make this anecdote as brief as possible
Mine interest started out in song writing, I really did not have an interest in home recording per. se.
I was more interested in trying to find a pro studio to record some demo songs I had written. I had never been in a real recording studio and had no idea about the process
In January of 2002 - I ended up spending almost 18 months in NYC on a big remodel job of a mansion in Scarsdale NY I was practicing 2-3 hours a night 5 and 6 nights a week, and was also hitting the open mics all around the NY area
I ended up becoming friends with an engineer in a high end Post Production studio in midtown Manhattan.
He took me down to the studio one Sunday afternoon when it was closed and he did not have to charge me . We recorded 8 songs in about 4 hours
He put me in one control room put two Neuman U87 ai's up in front of me (one for guitar and one for vocal) fired up his Pro Tool HD TDM system and by the second song I was hooked on recording
He told me Digi Designs had an LE version of PT for home recording and suggested I look into the Digi 002 mini console/interface ( I agree the pre's were marginal ) I bought a Studio Projects LDC (also marginal and kind of shrill in the top end) That was in 2003
From there I bought a Focusrite Blue ISA 220) single channel combi pre and eq but sold that and got an Apogee Rosetta 200
Got a pair of Shure KSM 44 (kind wish I still had them) , and then saved up enough for a Brauner Phantom V and a few years later a single Schoeps CM6 -MK4 (sold that wish I hadn't)
Then made the jump to a Pro Tools HD Native and an Avid OMNI and an A Designs MP2A Then a few years later got a Bricasti M7 and few years after that the IGS Tubcore 3 U
Now I have the Avid Carbon and added the ADK Z -Mod 251 and the pair of AEA N2's and thats the journey ( so far
)