the gateway product that turned you into an audiophile

I think I was 13 years old and did some babysitting to make some spending money in the Montreal suburbs. One of the couples I sat for were pretty cool and worked in downtown Montreal, and drove an old purple Volvo fastback. They had an incredible stereo set-up, I have never seen anything like it. It was my first experience with listening to an excellent turntable, tube amplifier and large 3 way speakers, I don't remember the names of any of it, but boy did Led Zepplin II ever sound amazing! I was hooked.

Led Zeppelin II always sounds amazing :)

I think I was an audiophile as a teenager with my GE portable stereo. That doesn't mean you can't go from something like that to a revelatory experience based purely on sound.  I had built a Dynaco SCA-80 integrated and had the Dyna A25 speakers that were so popular, also an ancient Thorens TD-1something TT on a wooden unsupported base.  Now when I moved back to Texas it was time to move up, and I was actually making some money.   I found a very good audio store and that was my gateway to the real thing. I got Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers, a better Thorens, the Threshold 400A amp Nelson Pass made, the the Apt Holman preamp that was the bees' knees in High Fidelity and elsewhere.  That's pretty good stuff and I liked it but the revelation came when my audio dealer offered me a Spectral preamp. It was so cool and had a pexiglas top fitted to it so you could see the insides.  Having "built" things before (some of which worked the first time) I couldn't believe how that thing was put together and wired. I bought it.  The revelation came when I got it home and replaced the Apt Holman with it.  I suppose that was the audiophile moment. The Apt was a high rated piece of junk next to that thing, and now the full impact of the Threshold was revealed.  That's the fun of being an audiophile. Just see how many posts we have here on this topic in a short time.  The bottom line is that are myriad ways to hear your music, so it's not just about the equipment (but it doesn't hurt!).

This was an amazing and unexpected experience....

I already had my college dream system.  Marantz 2285 amp/preamp.  Heathkit equalizer and graphic processor that I built, monster cables, Sony linear tracking table, and JBL L65 speakers. 

I bought a Conrad Johnson PV 10A preamp off of Audiogon.  It wasn't very big or impressive looking, but it used vacuum tubes....

Luckily, my Marantz allowed me to plug in the PV 10A into it and thus bypass the internal preamp within it.

OMG.  Night and day difference in the quality of the sound coming out of those wonderful L65 speakers!  I was blown away!  Then my quest began to upgrade my entire system to what I call 'entry level high end'.  I'm very pleased with the outcome, although it took many years to configure and it did cost a lot of money!

I eventually sold that PV 10A to another Audiogon member....

Rush, 2112.

made me purchase my Carver Receiver, Cerwin Vega's, JVC Tape Deck, ADC Equalizer. It was great until I heard the B&W Matrix 2 speakers...