the gateway product that turned you into an audiophile


@foggyus91 suggested/pushed/encouraged me to start a thread about this. It was related to Darko's post about 12 audiophile misconceptions. One was that we are all about music - vs gear. I think that subject has been chewed up already a 100 times. I am not sure anyone has anything new to say. 

However, that made me think about the day I turned into an audiophile.

It was when I bought my first "gateway" product that was affordable but audiophile quality and led me to explore more and tweak and switch and experiment and never be fully content but always be smiling when I turned the power on. It's been about the sound and not the music and that's fine. But I realize now that those Monitor Audio speakers I bought from craigslist were my gateway drug  devil

Were you always an audiophile or was there such a moment and a piece of hardware that made the difference?

 

(Lastly, I am very uneasy and on the fence about this forum and starting a thread - for my last correspondence with the moderators. What I learned should bother anyone who cares about fairness or even the appearance of it. I can't discuss it because it will get removed - I tried, my comment lived for less than 5 minutes, )

 

gano

@gano ”Led Zeppelin II always sounds amazing”

Agreed.  Off topic, and I assume you have, but if not … did you watch “Becoming Led Zeppelin”?  Real good documentary with excellent concert footage and sound quality. I never researched their beginnings so it was new to me.  I never knew Jimmy Page was so involved with the production and engineering of the first two albums.  The amazing engineer effects on ll were his planned artistic vision.  

The gateway product which turned me into an audiphile in 1977 was definitely the front door of the house those guys were renting at the time. Yep. That was the gateway product.

Infinity Monitor IIa speakers, Phase Linear 400, Marantz 3200 pre, Pioneer PL12dII, Stanton 681eee.   My college system in 1975.

It started with JBL L26 loudspeakers for me.  Than I added a Crown preamp and it was off to the races!  That was 50 years ago 😯

My experience also involved paper route money :)

I got wrapped up in reading Stereo Review magazines when I was a kid. Starting buying audio equipment (can’t remember all of it). I think I had a Proton integrated amp, can’t recall which speakers, and a Technics turntable and Shure cartridge. But I kept reading about this new technology that was the perfect source component that was going to revolutionize audio - the CD player.

So I saved and saved and saved. And I read about the different brands and models. And I finally had enough money to buy a Technics SLP8 CD player. I was incredibly excited.

So I spent my savings and got the Technics. I bought a few CDs and was thrilled. I put my turntable away since why was I ever going to need that ancient thing again. And I kept buying CDs as I could.

At some point though I decided to get the turntable out again, probably to listen to some particular LP. I hooked it up and was shocked. It sounded better to me than the fancy and expensive CD played. Just more “real”. It was then that I realized that my trusted source for audio information couldn’t be trusted as I had thought. And I also realized how some components made such a big difference in the presentation of sound. Obviously the turntable stayed in the system and the journey really began.