Yes, the first time I heard my dad's Ampex tape machine. He put on an Oscar Peterson tape and it was a wet dream. This was 1964. I was 8 years old and I had had my own Zenith Portable for 4 years. From then on all I wanted to listen to was that Ampex. This was playing through an H.H. Scott preamp, driving a stereo 70, driving Bozak B302A loudspeakers. These sonically were the best sounding speaker in the entire line. It was perfectly balanced and cast a really good image. The Zenith got very little attention after that. I was determine to get my own system and tape machine. It took 10 years and it was a Revox A77 with Dolby. This played into a used Marantz 7C preamp, driving a used Fuzz Linear 700, driving Klipsh Heresy loudspeakers. The Turntable was a used Thorens TD 124II with an ADC Pritched tonearm (wooden) and too many cartridges to remember. Nobody taught me about economics. Had I invested 1/2 the money I had pissed away on HiFi gear I would be very rich right now.
Decisive moments your your audio journey
Have you had any truly decisive moments in your time in this hobby?
I would have to point back to the first time I ever heard Magnepans, it was a “whoa what was that moment?” moment. That was in the 1980’s. It was the first time I ever truly heard reproduced music that got the midrange right, without it being squished