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.
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.
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.
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...
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
I was in first grade and had collected three clock radios. I would plug them in , tune to KQRS and wait for “ Roundabout” by YES. Surround sound baby.I would alway become fixated on ant audio system I came across. I would make my rounds to Audio King, Sony Sound Center…. One day I came across Audio Perfection, a stand alone brick building in South Minneapolis. I walked in and was breathless as I was surrounded by STUFF and an opposing figure that was ignoring me. I wondered around for a bit not seeing anything I recognized ie. Fisher, Scott, Aiaw…then a tap on my shoulder by the opposing man (I thought I was going to be asked to leave) and he asked if I would like to listen to a system? He slowly walked to this room, Sat me in a nice chair in front of this rack of STUFF and said listen. The sound was captivating, I hated classical music but not anymore.
Mr. Opposing leaned in and said he could hear a fly fart a mile away, as I looked up I noticed he was blind. The curse was then upon me, four years later with with cash in my pocket ( then in Mr. Ominous pocket) I had a real system.
I had a wine customer walk in one day looking for a really good Cabaret Sauvignon.
I asked "like the Liza Minnelli movie" and he replied "exactly".
I replied "we have a few in various price ranges, but they are all good wines".
I showed him a few cab's in the $5-$50 price range noting that I drank a $10 one @ home (2nd label for a killer CA Vineyard and this was in the early 90's - 1990 vintage had just arrived).
At that point my wife walked up to ask me a non-work question (we worked in the same store for 6 months, or so, before I, as a new hire, was promoted and transferred due to us being married).
He asked "was that your wife" and I replied "yes, she's great isn't she" and he asked "does she drink it" to which I replied "no, she doesn't drink alcohol, but she married me".
He purchased the $10 bottle with a smile on his face.
Early to mid 90's in college, no money, but roommate and I would spend countless hours at B&M's and the big box stores listening to systems. When I heard top series B&W speakers, which blew away the Pioneer/Kenwood/Boston Acoustics... stuff at Best Buy, even though they were way outside anything I could afford at time, I knew that when I started working that would be the brand. By early 2000's the HT Dolby movie surround phenomena had hit, and my new bride could justify a great HT but not so much a 2ch only, so my first system became a dedicated HT that doubled as 2ch. B&W indeed was the choice, and they are still used in my HT. 20 years later, I don't care for the B&W sound for 2 ch any longer, but those early days will always leave a soft spot for the brand.
@waytoomuchstuff ....Yeah, the descriptions get muddled within the wetware. *L*
First ran into an SAE paraeq when working with friends at an antique refin/repair shop in Oakland. Steve had struck a deal to store some gear for Graham Central Station, a funk band of the time. Head roadie Chris dropped off the 8 band version which I got to play with v. the 4 band I own....
You could target an annoyance in the fq and do with it what you willed; 'needle it', smooth the bumps, all sorts of wonders for the time...
I've kept it since, nice for making *meh-ish* speakers in the shop system more tolerable for the late-night work that sometimes occurs and one's not using digit removal sort of tools. ;)
Of course, now I've got 2 digital 'stand-alone' eq's and a pre that can do the same and more...
Put 'em in-line to each other and create a sonic 'black hole'....see if anyone notices the vocalist sounds like they've been huffing helium..*L*
Not so cheap thrills.... ;)
"If you don't know what it is or how to pronounce it, Point @ it...." ;)
We had a customer walk in one day and ask for a Paragraphic Frequalizer. I can’t remember the name of someone I met 5 minutes ago, but 50 years later, the term is still stuck in my brain.
1982 - definitive audio, north seattle. forgot what brand of refrigerator-sized class A monoblock amps [doubled as room heaters] powering [barely] a giant pair of magnepan tympani III speakers that dominated one wall of the [acoustically perfect] acoustically treated listening room. a direct-to-disc recording [this was before CDs] of a bach organ piece recorded in some big church in SoCal [garden grove?]. simply magisterial. the whole room [aurally/psycho-acoustically] became that cathedral. funny thing was the record disc surface noise seemed to float in mid-air about 3-6 feet in front of the speakers, in an almost palpable cloud of coarse hiss, while the music seemed behind and beside the speaker panels. btw i've never gotten to hear an actual "silent groove" in any LP, there is ALWAYS some noise there. i would have loved to hear some rock on those speakers. it made me invest on the spot, on their baby brothers, the SMGs.
Freshman year of college. Enhanced. Lady Land. Thorens 125 (?) S.M.E. arm, a Shure cartridge. Mac tube pre-amp with a 275 and a pair of VOT A7s. It was the beginning of a glorious journey!
My first gobsmack moment was hearing a K-Horn mono tube system around 1959 in a large room playing X-MAS music and popular vocalists of the time.
My second GS moment was hearing 2 K-Horns in stereo (same room) the following year (think we were invited over for an impromptu indoor Halloween party as it had started raining around dinner time and it was cold).
I don't remember exactly what my parents played music on @ the time, but I do recall a foreign short wave radio and I had a Red/Yellow Tiny Tim crystal radio with an ear plug (still have it).
In the 60s my folks had the requisite Sears console stereo. Big hunk of wood. One day at 12-13 years old I plopped down on the floor and happened to be centered between the two speakers. A Tijuana Brass album was playing (probably Whipped Cream And Other Delights - frequently on the Jr HS boys’ playlist. 😉) At the end of one track the trumpet ping-ponged from side to side. Whoa! That was cool!
Graduating HS my folks gave me a pair of B&O 2 way sealed bookshelf speakers, I guess because I was headed off to music school. I bought a used 60s Fisher combo, hooked up to a Garrard TT with whatever “needle” came with it. Bass! Who knew??
In college, the drummer in a band I was in had a relative who was a Klipsch dealer. He’d bought a pair of Cornwalls. I was at his house shortly after he’d unboxed them and he’d hooked one up to an Onkyo something-or-other and a TT. He put on a Pentangle album with just a female singer and acoustic guitar. It sounded like she was there, inside the speaker, playing and singing. I was dumbfounded. And hooked.
Took recording and mixing later on to understand about imaging and soundstage.
Now, one of my favorite things is to have friends over to hear my Sound Lab M1s driven by an MC352. Their jaws literally drop.
… and echoing a previous post, it’s beyond me why every musician isn’t an audio enthusiast. But I’m constantly amazed at the equipment some truly world class musicians listen to music on. A boom box would be an upgrade. One respected jazz piano player I’ve worked with for 30 years goes so far as to wonder why I would spend my money on this stuff. 🤔
When Blonde on Blonde was released I was 17. I bought it on the day. In mono, because I was using my father's rig that featured a Collaro turntable with downforce applied to a turnover mono pickup with an enormous stylus and what must have been about 5g of downforce. I played the album over and over and after a couple of months it started making mid-range graunching sounds over the music. I looked at it through a magnifier. The groove damage could be seen as a grey mush. We both had other records but did not play them so many times.
So I bought my own rig. Rogers pre and power. Garrrard 4HF. All used and cheap. I couldn't afford speakers so borrowed a Goodmans and a Wharfedale from my father. The Goodmans sounded good. The Wharfedale not. I bought a new Blonde on Blonde. In stereo. I still have it.
I started off with one of those Pioneer all in one systems/stacks when I started work in my late teens/late 80s, early 90s. Apart from cheap record players and tape players though my childhood and early teens.
The Pioneer I thought was the bees knees until I was introduced to a friend of a friend who shared my love of music. We quickly became friends, and he invited me around to his house (he was a few yrs older than I, I was still living with my folks 😊) and this was my first OMFG HiFi moment.
He had a full Naim Chrome Bumper set up. From memory I’m pretty sure he had 4 power amps, 2 for each channel, driving tweeter and woofers (quad-amped?)
He had a Linn TT - I think it was a Sondek? I’m not a vinyl guy so forgive my ignorance 🙄😁. I can’t remember the speakers - but definitely Epos or Linn. They were big, black monolithic things sat on his floor.
Anyway, I remember he played me Aja by Steely Dan and Nightfly by Donald Fagan and I was absolutely, well and truly blown away. I’d never heard anything like that. I had no concept prior, of what was achievable with music reproduction.
As I was a single young man, with no responsibilities, a decent job and disposable income, he introduced me to his dealer in Liverpool, UK. About 2 weeks later I had a nice Naim Olive bi-amped system, Epos 11 speakers, Arcam Alpha CD Transport, and an Audio Alchemy DDE v1 (this may be in accurate, it was a long time ago 🙄😁, but it was a DDE)
...littered with all manner of items within that trek....Rabco SL8 on a Marantz table, SAE parametric eq for 'needling', misc. stuff that came, went, or got dragged along....built cabs with drivers of various...
"White punks on dope...." *LOL* I thought there ought to be some acid fanciers 'midst y'all....;)
Personally, I refrained from using a TT in that state....since mine at the time were 'hand cued' and I didn't fully trust self to be accurate or distracted by the process.... ;)
Grew up with older bro' who had what was at the time better than average but minimal gear. No real 'fi fanciers' in my social circle for most of my life, so was left to my own devices and tastes to bend to my finances.
Still basically stuck in that vein, which leads me to y'all....
Spent inordinate amounts of time in Pac Stereo and other B&M's in my CA years, listening to all manner of this 'n that.
First notable system: 2270 Marantz, Bose 901s2, AR tt w/Stanton 681s2 cart.
Bose later replaced w/Infinity Towers with the Walsh 'ice cream cone' super tweet.
All gave way to Kenwood L07 tuner, pre, and mono amps, Technics SL10 tt w/it's mc cart, Sony cass player, Sony VCR (cd level recordings on video tapes), Revox A77, a pair of ESS AMT1B's, and a 11 band LED'd eq w/calibrated mic for early room eq (forget the brand, but It Worked)....
Very clean, Very loud....closest to nirvana I could manage at the time and era. *G*
I was 27 years old in 1970. I had always listened to AM rock and roll stations and 8-Track in my 69 Chevy Malibu. One could hear the Beatles on AM radio. One night I tuned into the local Philadelphia FM “head” station and the Band was playing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. I was hooked. I spent the next year and ½ reading Stereo Review, Audio magazine and a Radio Shack manual explaining (i) the concept of how inaudible harmonics enriched the sound of audible music, and (ii) how tape recording worked. In 1971 I walked into a local hi-fi store and walked out with a Kenwood Receiver (20 watts RMS per side), a Dual 1215 turntable with a cartridge (I don’t remember the brand) complete with little RCA cables, a pair of KLH 17 speakers and zip cords for speaker cables, all for $500 total. My first two records were Cat Stevens’ “Teaser and the Fire Cat” and “Tea for the Tillerman”. I was blown away.
In the 1990’s a friend showed off his system, Yamaha amp, Infinity Kappa 9’s.
He put on The Rolling Stones, Jumping’ Jack Flash.
I had heard that song ten thousand million times by then, but I never heard it like I did that day.
It was stunning holographic and no rational mind could defeat the illusion.
You could look right at the speakers knowing they were the origin of the sound, but the sound was everywhere and the ‘aural’ mind could not square what was seen by the eyes and known by the mind.
I could ’see’ exactly to the inch where each band member stood, could identify exactly where Keith’s pick was hitting strings, could hear the scratching of his guitar pick, could tell exactly where Mick’s mouth was at the microphone, could point out the exact placement of Charlie’s snare drum, could hear them drawing breaths.
To this day, that memory is the standard by which I consider audio.
I was maybe 14 or so and my neighbor who was a talented trumpet player in a Chicago tribute band invited my older brother and I into his home and there it was. Thorens table, Carver cube amp, Klispch speakers. It opened my ears to a new level of sound I had never heard of. A few years later I’d start my journey buying a NAD 7155 receiver and it went from there.
Dropped a hit of red dragon window Payne on way to Ozzy concert when Randy Rhodes was his guitar player. I remember being frozen in place I mean I could not move I was a statue staring at Randy play. The only other thing I can recall is Ozzy constantly shouting “clap your fucking hands” in his British accent.
My journey started with a Bose Soundbar, I was so disappointed by the sound I started looking for a better option. Then came the youtube recommendations ended up getting a Micca RB42 and Topping MX3. Down the rabbit hole I go.
Not sure it was audiophile quality but it was the moment that started my never ending love of quality audio reproduction. Mid 70s and everyone had those horrible all-in-one systems - all being 8-track, tt, and am/fm radio. I was ~13 and a friend of mine had dug up his dad’s stereo from ~20 years earlier. His parents had immigrated from Germany in the aftermath of WWII - his dad was a world class scientist who had been forced to be part of the Hilter Youth. Though his experiences were different I imagine he was a lot like us (restless and testing all boundaries) when he was younger. I have no idea what any of the pieces were - not SOTA but so much better than anything I had ever heard and I was instantly fixated. A tt, a receiver, and speakers - I believe all German (or Austrian) made. Just so much better and I knew it instantly and I’ve been chasing it ever since.
Funny thing - I am still friends with the guy but have had to recently come to grips with the fact that he doesn’t hear what I do. We spent high school using our money to buy audio components. I remember he bought some big infinity speakers. A few years later I heard someone refer to “listening fatigue” and suddenly I realized I hadn’t imagined the headaches I’d get when listening to his system for more than 10 minutes. He recently heard my system and then compared it to his $250 all-in-one Bose system (“all systems sound so good these days”). I love the guy but that’s when I realized I had always assumed he had an appreciation for well reproduced sound because he was the one that introduced me to it but in reality there is no point in demoing my system for him. Still I am truly grateful for that initial listening session that had a huge impact on the course of my listening experience.
In the late seventies/early eighties a friend of mine took me to a little joint in Collinsville Illinois called Audio Musical. There I heard the Snell A’s and fell in love! That was my start. Oh and I did end up buying a pair used a couple of years later.
I listened to a system with big monoblock amps and Infinity speakers with the newly introduced EMIT tweeters. Listened to the Doobie Brothers loud and long and left the showroom with a splitting headache. 15 years later, I bought the Adcom 555 II and some Dahlquist DQM9's on my old AR turntable. Better sound... and from there it went.
I've mentioned my audiophile history several times on this site, but I can't help but tell it again --
My dad was an audiophile/tinkerer. I watched him solder together Heathkit mono components on the kitchen table, including a tube power amp and an AM tuner. As my dad continued on his audiophile path, he'd give his old stuff to me.
I stopped caring about hi-fi when I got more interested in girls, but hifi came back into my life when I went to a buddy's apartment and heard his B&O(?) mini speakers. It got me going to L.A. hi-end stores and before long I had a NAD 3020 Integrated and KEF Corelli speakers.
Walked into an Audio store in Providence, heard large Bozak speakers with a pair of 30 watt Mac tube amps, Thorens turntable and a Shure cartridge. It opened my eyes and ears and the next year, 1971 right after I graduated high school, I used my graduation money to buy a Sansui 20wpc receiver, Rectilinear bookshelf speakers and an Empire 598 Troubadour turntable with a Pickering cartridge. I was so thrilled and proud and thought it was the best sounding system. My girlfriend and I spent a lot of the Summer listening to music in my room and smoking pot. Luckily mom and dad both worked during the day. Unfortunately, my girlfriend dumped me 2 months into college. Broke my heart and still remember like it was yesterday.😢
My LSD memories include...hmmm...wait...what was I thinking???
In reality, I first heard high end audio when a guy I worked for invited me to his home for a meal and music. He had 2 Klipsch Horns powered by 2 huge tubed McIntosh monoblocks, McIntosh preamp, and a top of the line Thorens TT (circa 1978). We listened to a lot of Grateful Dead which I did not care much for but after that day I fell in love with the band and this guy's stereo equipment. A few years later I bought a B&K ST140 and Pro 5 preamp, Mirage M760 speakers, Denon CD player, Dual TT, NAD Monitor Series 6300 cassette deck, and a Rotel tuner. A local shop was going out of business and I got one hella deal. He even threw in speaker cables and interconnects. Other than the tuner I still have all of the original equipment. Now I have Rogue M-180s, Rogue RP-7, Focal Kanta No.2s, Thorens TD-1601, Hegel V10 phonostage, an Ortofon Cadenza Blue, and an AURALiC Altair G1.1 as my main rig.
My LSD memories include Don’t Crush..., American Metaphysical Circus (Mr. Natural) and Lord Love A Duck (windowpane) with colorized playback.
The repro equipment was inconsequential.
First real HiFi was Servo-Statik-1 with Arnie at CES Chgo. I stuck with ESL ever since even though the freind I went with had original Klipschorns in his corners ar home.
Electric Ladyland and LSD were a combo that I enjoyed with friends a number of times with friends back then. Wonderful memories. We were using a Pioneer PL12D 'table with a Marantz 2225 integrated and Jensen 3-way speakers that were far too large to be called bookshelf speakers.
@jasonbourne52- My dad actually has a pair of Large Advents and is just giving/selling his pair of Small Advents to a friend. Both pairs on in mint condition (other than drivers needing to be re-foamed) and he still had the original boxes for the Small Advents at least. I was home a few weeks ago and thought the Large Advents sounded great considering the quality of the receiver that was driving them. I’ve never really listened to them critically even though he’s had them my entire life.
On another note, I’m kind of disappointed in you because any audiophile journey that begins with taking acid should include a strong belief in cables!
By 1976 I had my first good corporate job at a publishing company. I had funds to spend on my first high end system: AGI 511 preamp, GAS Son of Ampzilla, Empire 698 TT/Dynavector 20B homc cartridge and Infinity Monitor 1A speakers (Walsh tweeters). IC's were Dishwasher Gold Ens, speaker cable was Polk Cobra. As the esteemed Jackie Gleason said "And away we go!"
Summer of 1970. I was 18 and had just graduated from high school. A friend from school (John) asked me to bring some LSD so several of us could trip. His family had a college student (Todd) staying over for the summer doing indoor painting. So we all took acid and we all ended up in Todd’s room listening to his hi if system: Kenwood integrated amp (with meters), Thorens TD125/Shure cartridge and Large Advents. Two LP’s really stood out: Its A Beautiful Day and Electric Ladyland. White Bird and 1983, Moon Turn The Tides and Burning Of The Midnight Lamp sounded amazing! This experience set me on the road to better hi if sound!
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