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How Did Your First Audiophile Experience Impact Your Audio Journey?

I am going to be somewhat liberal when choosing my first truly "Audiophile" experience.  In college I had a friend that had a pair of Definitive Technology BP2000 speakers that were by far the best speaker that I had every heard, but his style was mostly just blasting music which didn't appeal to me or demonstrate their true SQ.

My first true "audiophile" experience was visiting a local HiFi shop that appeared to be an almost tacky car audio place from the outside, but I had been told to ask about the basement.  The only thing that I remember was some Vienna Acoustics speakers that blew my mind.

When I was ready to dip a toe into the audiophile pool several years later, I went back to the shop and it had shifted it's focus to be exclusively home audio with Focal being their brand of choice.  Their main room gave me opportunity to audition  Focal speakers from the $750 bookshelf to the $180,000 Grande Utopia's.  What was cool looking back was that I was able to hear the most affordable speakers at their best because they were being powered by the huge Krell mono blocks that were there for the Grande Utopia speakers.  My favorite setup was Diablo Utopia speakers with a JL Audio Gotham subwoofer.  The sound that came out of a large bookshelf was mind bending to me.  As it turns out, Krell has continued to be a consistent amplifier that pulls me in whenever I'm around a system with them in it.  I also have continued to love the Focal sound and have never once thought about needing to upgrade mine even though I've heard objectively better speakers and know that there's a lot out there that are superior.

The thing that I look back on and laugh about from my auditioning and buying process was the pain that I must have put the salesman through listening to one of my Josh Groban CDs that I later discovered is a painfully poor recording.  Ironically, there was one song in particular that was used to make the final decision for which model to get.

I don't know how much my tastes are a result of being blown away with Focal speakers and Krell amplifiers being my first significant experience in the audiophile world or if I happened to be very fortunate by it also aligning to my taste.

- robot

mceljo
mg16's avatar
mg16
117 posts
 

Pink Floyd Umma Gumma and orange sunshine acid for me.  Made quite an impression on me, even to this day.

mg16

slbjbb
43 posts
 

My first audiophile experience was a dealer with Macintosh equipment driving Dahlquist speakers. They put on Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon and I was hooked for life. I think some of the numbers of audiophiles coming from that time period has to do with the incredible music that was recorded and released on an almost weekly basis. It almost begged for great reproduction capability

gabor2525
24 posts
 

I lived in Toronto in 1983-84.That period saw the proliferation of the Canadian speaker "boom" from the then new speaker makers like Energy,Paradigm,PSB etc..

Andrew Marshall, editor of "Audio Ideas guide" magazine was the audiophile guru in Canada.

I attended a industry sponsored event in Toronto moderated by Andrew.

Although all the amps were Japanese made, the sound produced by the systems with the Canadian based speakers was fantastic.

I was hooked and proceeded to build my own systems.I still prefer the warm sound of the Japanese class A/B amps...

 

 

jfuquay
107 posts
 

During summers at home during college, I worked with a guy who lived on some acreage outside of town. At some point during the season it would be time to cut and bale his hay, and I would help Perry, a wiry little man with a withered leg who nevertheless could outwork me. At the end of the job he invited me in for a drink. In his living room was his stereo — a pair of large Electrovoice coaxials, tube amp and FM tuner, and a big Elac Miracord turntable. He put on an LP, probably classical, and we relaxed into our seats. Being physically tired is a good way to really just listen. Turned out he had built the speakers and electronics and had a deep understanding of sound, all self-taught. My folks had the usual ‘60s Magnavox console stereo and my dad liked to play good music, but Perry’s setup was something else entirely. He sold it all to me a couple of years later, and when I was working and ready for a “modern” system I think I had a good idea what good sound was. 

gents's avatar
gents
113 posts
 

Impact? No.

I wasn’t quite sure what it was I was looking for or what was even really available. I read a piece in New York magazine on Michael Kay and Lyric HiFi in Manhattan and whatever I read inspired me to visit a real live audio salon. I headed to Lexington Avenue in search of ’I don’t know what’. The sales guy figured me out in a couple of minutes and just steered me right into the room where they kept the receivers. I had a couple of CDs in my pocket because I read somewhere you should bring CDs. One them being the very horrible sounding Sinatra album Francis A. & Edward K. He switched between a Proton receiver and a much better Nakamichi receiver...then he took off. Eventually I found a great spot on Northern Boulevard where a cool guy showed me the splendor of Rotel separates. I jettisoned the Cerwin Vega speakers I was dicking around with in favor of some lovely and affordable Vandersteen 2Ci’s and it all went from there.

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