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
Purchasing a s/hand Esoteric Audio Research 802 pre-amplifier started me on the valve path. Inserted into my system which at the time was a Marantz 72SE CDP with variable output, into a Quad 405 and then Dynaudio Finale kitset speakers.
The 802 tightened the bass, improved imaging and detail, put more presence around elements of the music, and overall sounded closer to the real thing.
The biggest revelation was the impact of the pre-amp vs connecting the power amp directly to the CDP.
I ended up selling the 802 many years later for more than I paid for it.
First time was hearing Dave Brubeck Take Five on a 45 RPM on my cousin's mono 45 record machine, around 1958. Second time was hearing big band and other good music on a real stereo. I think that was around 1962. The next time was hearing Dahlquist's DQ-10 with two Dahlquist subwoofers at Jerry's Audio in Phoenix. I was way deep down the rabbit hole by then.
When I was a very young (many many moons ago) I listened to a GE Trimline portable record player with my head positioned between the removable speakers (like headphones). It was then I decided to one day get a high end audio system.
6 years ago, when I started shopping for my bucket list audio system, a pair of GoldenEar speakers introduced me to “3D soundstage” which I didn’t know existed.
It was about 1960 and my grandfather came over the house and gave me a transistor radio. I was in elementary school. Every night from that moment onward I went to bed listening to music on that little radio. That is when my love of music and this hobby began. Later in life it was when I realized how important the preamplifier was. Prior to that I thought it was the speakers and source. Now I realize yes they are important but once you can afford a really good pramplifer things can really wake up.
Easy. Dad's living room system 1952. Large JBL corner horn ... two 15" woofers and horn mids and highs. Driven by 25wpc tube Newcomb Amp w/Preamp. Rek-O-Cut studio TT with Fairchild arm and cartridge. First ever audiophile discs (Cook's "Sounds of Our Times") and Audiophile's Jazz disks. "Live" harp; "Live" percussion, "Live" jazz right in our living room. Built my beginning system in 1956 and have been hooked ever since.
In 1973 I heard the Bose 901s...and was ready to buy.....of cause I got a almost new pair with stands and custom made lower based for $350 bucks.....SOLD.
Go to your doctor and have them clean your ears. Especially, if your an older person. I thought mine were clean. Nope, not even close. My stereo sounds the best it has in a long time.
1965, I was 4. Big truck arrived. Parents didn’t have $ for furniture, HiFi took priority. Dual 1019, Shure, MC MX-110Z, MC240, Bozak B-305 ( half a concert grand. in cherry cabinets )…
It was in Ogden UT at a store called LaBells. They sold higher end audio. They had a large pair of cerwin vega with the 15”. It was Christopher Cross “sailing”. It had me hooked. That was 1981 I think.
Great stuff here many of which I can relate to. I've had many different revelatory moments listening to music along way. The initial one was hearing what good, tight & defined bass can sound like on stacked large Advents in too small a room that I covered all the walls w/ thick Karastan carpet samples I got from a friend to absorb unwanted reflective sound. My friends & family thought I was nuts but I loved it!
Next was building first one & then a second Hafler DH - 200 power amp to power the Advents which was great but then I heard ProAC EBS speakers & understood what midrange & high end detail was about.
I heard & bought a Conrad Johnson Premier 4 power amp w/ EL 34 tubes & along w/ a Jadis preamp & heard real depth & imaging for the first time which was a game changer along w/ my ProAc's . I've been hooked on tubes ever since.
Very recently I heard how great a quality, modern horn speaker can sound w/ tubes & bought a pair of Volti Audio Rivals. "Live" music sound as opposed to accurate "hifi".
For those of us who still listen loudly to rock, blues or jazz, tubes & horns are awesome!
My friend and I went to “Natural Sound” in Framingham, MA in 1975 or so and listened to their high end setup, which I vaguely remember had Mark Levinson amp and preamp, and I think Dahlquist speakers. I think the speakers were big squares mounted on stands. I think the whole thing at that time was $30K or maybe even more. It sounded like the band was right in the room with us, it was so real. Maybe its just a golden memory, but I have chased that type of sound since then. That was a formative experience with equipment.
With music, hearing Electric Ladyland on LSD was pretty impressive, too, LOL. :)
My first blind amp test in the 80's. At the time I was lusting after all the expensive stuff the magazines were pushing ... until it was proven without bias that I couldn't pick out any differences, much less the expensive amplifiers. Neither could the other three audiophiles participating. It has saved me a lot of money over the years.
I visited Audio Innovations (soon to be Audio Note) factory in Brighton, UK. Listened to the Voyd turntable and some AI monoblock tube amps through Snell E speaker. Joan Sutherland materialised in the big room.
1970. The Allman Brothers live at the Tea Party in Boston. My first rock concert. Blew my brain away. I have been chasing that sound ever since. I had been to several Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts at Boston Symphony Hall but none of them made the impression on me that the Allmans did. Greg's Leslie still reverberates in my head.
Around 1976 when I accidentally pressed the FM button on my dad's quality Grundig radio. At the time there were only 2 (pirate) stations broadcasting on the entire band range. But the SQ over MW was spectacular. Hooked to High fidelity ever since :-)
I forgot to add that I had a similar experience with my son, although he didn't continue to build amps into his adulthood, helped so much to showcase others that autism is not a bad thing, and although sometimes very difficult, is just a different way of going about life and living.
It has been an incredible journey, life without music would have been entirely different.
So many...which date to the late 69-early 70 when my father bought me, I was 5 years old, a tube amplifier that needed a LOT of restoration, and after 8-12 months was ready to be plugged into my father's Tannoy. Still bring chills when I remember the tubes lighting up, this alone was probably among the most influential things ever happened to me. I am autistic so at that time autism was not all well understood, still isn't understood but we are making progress, it help me to connect to something, and without knowing all of the sudden this little boy found a way to connect and be more "normal". My dad recognized this and soon I was restoring radios and amplifiers in my town. My path into electronics, music, turntables, records, computers, math and physics was now set.
Second to that, when my father introduced me to Hiroyasu Kondo in 1991, that same year, I sold my car, and pretty much everything else so I could afford my first Kondo, OnGAKU which I still have, and started generous client-owner relationship Hiroyasu Kondo. Now I have 4 of his amplifiers.
Third might be the first TechDas TT and the darTZeel nhb-458 which was my first serious SS amp purchase.
For me it was in 1999 when a dealer brought a pair of Soundvalves mono amps to my home to demo. That was my first exposure to tubes and I was gobsmacked. I had a pair of Von Schweikert VR4s at the time and I had never heard them sound so good. Fast forward to today and 30 or so tube amps have been through the system. Guess I’m a tube guy for life.
About 8 years ago I bought my daughter one of those all in one record players, one that comes with little speakers that plug into it. Cheap thing, maybe $100. As I listened to her playing records I realized that it actually sounded much better than my phone, computer, and car. I said to myself, "This is good but there must be better". Thus my journey started.
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.
Late 70's, I was still in high school, sharing a joint with my friend in his house, and he put on Baba O'Riley from 'Who's Next' LP. The rest is history...😀
In 2002 I and a friend of mine a couple time a week visiting different audiophiles homes and listened different systems.
On day we visited a man who had a strange system with Lowther PM4 in Oris 150 horns and 15 inch EV mid-bass woofers plus subwoofer. Lowethers were driven by Bottlehead 2a3 SET monoblocks. When we listened this setup we can believe what such sound is possible. All other systems we had listened before sounded like toy boomboxes compared to this system.
We were like a medieval knights who suddenly saw modern combat aircrafts and tanks.
Since then the direction I choose in audio is high sensitive speakers with SET amplification.
1) The first time I heard electrostatic speakers: they were KLH 9's. I was still in college.
2) The first time I heard a Direct to Disc record: it was Lincoln Mayorga " The missing Link." At the time I believed all records were very high quality. As soon as I heard that Sheffield Lab recording, I knew that most of my records were crap.
Great post, OP. Enjoyed reading these interesting stories.
Like everyone on here, it’s an incremental journey. There have been seminal experiences and some good rigs thru the years. But the latest increment was, on a whim, buying a pair of ESL63’s three years ago. Had to sign up on AGon to buy them. Got them home, hooked them up, and my jaw dropped. I never imagined recorded music could sound like this.
When I opened my shop in 1974, I had Audio Research and Magneplaners there. After listening to them, I then put every other speaker we sold (about 16 different high-end brands) on the same electronics and some others (McIntosh, Phase Linear, Crown, etc.)
I learned that ALL boxes and horns and electrostat's distorted the recorded music. Only the Maggies did not.
And, while the other electronics were OK, they were not as accurate as those from Audio Research, even on boxes and electrostat's.
Eye-opening time that helped me continue to educate myself so I could bring the best possible (most accurate) products to our customers.
Not much has changed, although some boxes are getting better, and some electronics are much improved. Still, Maggies are the most accurate when set up properly with the best electronics.
On a busy in store weekend in the mid 80’s I was picking up my rebuilt Quad 57’s and the store owner was demonstrating them with a Spectral amp. The sound stopped the entire store, went quiet. Two customers pulling the trigger on loudspeakers stopped their purchase!
Great post OP! Most definitely I have had 2 such moments. One was back in the late 80's. While listening (under the influence of some damn good pot) to Yes "Parallels" live from the Yesshows cd. At one point I was so into it and the music was so clear (Advent speaks) and powerful I felt like I was on an amusement park ride. It was truly an out of body experience but ever since then when I hear the term "moved" when it comes to music I think back to that moment when I literally felt like I was actually moving. It was amazing!
The other moment was the first time I sat down for the first session after bringing home my Dynaudio Audience 82's back in 2002. Lights out, 24x24 room with 12 foot vaulted ceilings. As soon as I played Diana Krall 's "This Can't Be Love" the second I heard her voice on that very first track I was just awed. Awestruck. Goosebumps and this overwhelming feeling that I could not believe anything could ever sound this good. It was in that moment that I actually said to myself 'this is it it can't get any better'.
I can clearly recall visiting one of the hi-fi shows in the late seventies/eighties and being blown away by a system featuring a Michell Gyro Dec and tri-amped Proac EBS speakers. Subsequently, just had to buy the deck when I could finally afford it (1992), now upgraded with an Orbe platter and DC/HR PSU. The John Michell room was always a must visit along with Max Townshend, both sadly missed.
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