the gateway product that turned you into an audiophile

First time I had the “I didn’t think gear could sound like that moment” was around 1980 with a pair of Snell Type A’s. Amazing! I could not afford them but I did get a pair of the original Type E’s that u used for many years. Now I have a pair of DeVore O/93’s which are to me a descendant of the E’s. Many types of speakers in between but I am enjoying being back where I started, so to speak.

In 1973, age 25, I inherited my Uncle Johnny’s Console, the 'Fisher President II’, all tubes, 4 way horn/15" woofer speakers, made in 1958

The drivers are all working (woofers re-coned several times)  inside this new Rosewood Enclosure

more about the ’President II’ here

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420

1974, 16 years old, walked into "Natural Sound" in Framingham, MA (where I grew up), sat down in their "high end" room and heard Quad ESL's, stacked two on each side, with Mark Levinson separates and a turntable I can't recall.  But I will never forget those Quad's.  The band sounded like they were playing right in front of me.  I mean, not just good soundstage, but literally, with my eyes closed, the band was right there!  I have chased that sound since then!  Couldn't afford anything close to that setup at the time, but got Phase Linear separates with Epicure Trilogy speakers in college and so began the chase!  I always wonder what those Quad's would sound like now . .  I occasionally see rebuilt and reconditioned ones for sale and I always wonder if I could recreate that sound that I remember from my youth!

Oh what a walk through memory lane.

@bdgregory 

Oh my! My roommate had a Phase Linear 400 in the late 70's... it was so awesome at the time... and such a cool name. Thinking back, wow... what a terrible sounding amp. I can still remember long sessions into the night... I can't believe any of the girls I dated stayed after hearing that system played loud. 

I can’t help but add my own to this one. My introduction was 1969 with my friends hand unit Dynaco 70 with a pair of 15 inch Jensen’s, as I recall, unmounted sitting on the floor. I heard my first taste of musicality in that experience and have not stopped my own quest since.

We are now much older and he has never stopped building and searching for life’s experiences in all aspects, including this speaker for a mono system he’s

As far as gear goes, it was either the used pair of Aragon Palladium II’s I picked up, or the moment I switched to a Dynavector 10x5 Mk II cart. 

Additionally, I was of age when CD players first came onto the market, and I remember playing my first CD and marveling at the clarity, the punchiness, the lack of noise and the ability to immediately scan to other tracks. I remember hearing my first SACD, and my first recording at 24-bit depth instead of using 16bit ADATs. 

I remember the first time I played through a proper DAC as opposed to a crappy consumer-grade one (I even remember the DAC; it was an old Universal Audio 2-192), or when I switched from mixing through old Digidesign 888 units to an Apogee AD8000SE...  I remember the enormity of the piano tracks that suddenly sounded real, and marveling at how the hell I could have tolerated the muted, dull sound I was getting on the poorer 888 units. 

As a teenager living at home I gradually bought myself what I thought was a high-end system: mainly Yamaha and a Denon integrated amp with a pair of Mission 707s. Later sold all that when I moved out and lived for years with one of those 90s mini systems (a Kenwood in my case). Then when I finally bought my first house I decided to get serious and one day hit a tent sale at one of the largest specialty audio shops in the city. Laid eyes on a used Proceed PAV and AMP 2 and knew nothing about them. But since they were “obsolete” (and affordable) and still pricey used I figured it was worth buying…had no idea about the Mark Levinson lineage either, and no listening session. Brought them home, plugged them in and that was it. Which made me then upgrade it with a used matching digital decoder/DAC (DSD) and an Amp 3 - wanted a be-all system for music and home theater at the time. Over time upgraded my modest speakers to some ProAc floorstanders and had my first real taste of what my system was capable of. Think that was finally when I realized why people spend large amounts of money on this stuff. Which has gradually led me to my current (again used) equipment which out of sheer curiosity now includes tubes in the form of an ARC preamp and C-J amp (biamped with my still-going-strong Proceed AMP 2). For me half the fun is the online research and shopping, but realizing for yourself what others write about makes it all worth it. Hearing is believing.

@jsalerno277 I did watch it. I did not know most of their story, especially that 3 of them were married and had a kid BEFORE Led Zeppelin was conceived. They are amazingly modest and sweet and also passionate and talented. Somewhat similar to the Queen story. 

What is stunning to me is how they (Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, etc.) were all born during the war and grew up in dire times and under circumstances straight out of a Dickens novel. My childhood was very modest with barely enough food, but still a step up from those conditions. 

Actually it was a complete system that did it to me...The original Marantz CD63,a Creek 4040 integrated amplifier and Celestion speakers in 1982 at a dealer in Mill Valley,Cali...
 Up until then I was blissfully content with my Pioneer receiver,Infinity speakers & some POC turntable..Even though I wasn't crazy about vinyl I hadn't been won over by CD either..When I heard that system I was instantly & irrevocably converted...

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.

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 😯

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

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.

@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.  

For me it started with my 1st car stereo.  I bought a Pioneer Supertuner, a separate power amp and 3 way speakers for the back window well.  I was on my way.  

For me, it was a vintage Bogen DB230a which I bought from a repair guy maybe 10 years ago. The way it reawakened my love for the music I already had started me on this crazy journey 😁

I cited my Infinity RSIIbs, but I must go much further back than that.  In the mid-1950s, my Dad owned a TV shop, and he also sold record players.  I saved my money from paper routes and working in the TV shop and purchased a Zenith “portable” record player with AM/FM radio.  It had two front firing 5.25” speakers that provided stereo … but not much channel separation for the ears.  My first two LP records were Tommy Dorsey with Frank Dinatra album and a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, by George Szell and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.   I was hooked then at the age of about 12 or 13. 

My late older brother, back in the ‘80’s,  bought ESS Heil AMT-1’s and Sansui AU-717 & TU-717…One listen to Steely Dan on his system and I was mesmerized.  Over the years I bought components I could afford but always wanted more. After many years of compromises, work, different priorities, $ demands…I now finally have the time and $ to realized a long lost dream.  

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...

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....

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!).

Led Zeppelin II always sounds amazing :)

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.

My love for audio equipment started in the late 1968 when my father upgraded from his Motorola tube console to separates (Large Advents, Pioneer SX 828, Thorens 161, and Stanton 681).  Soon after, with money saved from my gardening route of four neighbors on my block, I had my bedroom version (Small Advents, Pioneer SX 628, Pioneer direct drive TT, Stanton 681, and Advent tape deck).  This accompanied me through college.  However, the revelation came after receiving my MS with new affluence from a real job.   I was intending to drop my budget at the large discount box stores on Brooklyn and Long Island NY, Crazy Eddies or PC Richard’s.  Across the street and down the Boulevard I chanced on a  store called Audio Breakthroughs.  The sales staff sat me down in front of equipment brands never heard by me (B&W DM7s, PS Audio Separates, SOTA, Gram, Dynavector). I could not believe the timbre, dynamics, staging and imaging.   I was hooked and frequented another LI store American Audiophile  (Vandersteen 2s, Counterpoint separates, similar TT setup).  I ended up with my first low end/hi end system (DCM Time Windows 3, Amber Preamp, Amber Series 70 Amp, Nakamichi 680ZX, Walker TT, Dynavector Ruby).  I was addicted.  
 

PS My father’s Pioneer SX 828 and my DCM Time Windows are still producing music and retro sound enjoyment in a Vermont vacation home after 40+ years.  

Hello foggyus91,

Great subject to start a thread.  To answer your question my "gateway" into the audiophile universe was a Dynakit ST70 kit that I received as a Christmas gift back in the 60's.  As many know, David Hafler, one of the pioneers of "hi-fi",was the founder of DynaCo.  Although my dad and one of my uncles were hi-fi buffs it was the Dynakit ST70 that got my audiophile juices flowing.  Thanks for your question as it brings back some great memories. 

Enjoy the music.

My migration to the "other" side originated in a pair of Bud Fried R speakers sourced by a Transcriptor T.T. with Grace 707 arm with a Denon 103C cartridge powered by a Threshold 400A class A amp back in 1977ish...Preamp was a Luxman...Moved up from these to a Threshold 800A, then a pair of Dayton Wright XG8 MKIII electrostats and a Dayton Wright SPA preamp...Dave Grusin "Discovery" was the "demo" disc of choice back then...

In 1972, A $200 Sanyo phono/radio/cassette/speakers integrated stereo I was gifted at age 13.   That was a big step up from the portable tape players and radios I owned prior as a kid.

5 years later I was working at Lafayette Radio selling the good stuff and graduated to a 40 watt Criterion (Lafayette brand) integrated amp, turntable and speakers with HEIL Air Motion Transformer tweets. 

Then to infinity and beyond..

I loved music and had an average receiver/turntable/speaker rig. Nothing special. I was only making @$1.25 hr so...

I did enjoy recording FM music on my Sony 7" Reel to reel but playback and finding tracks was a pain. So, I started buying used lp's. What bothered me about them was the surface noise. I was reading my copy of Audio magazine when I saw an ad for the SAE 5000 Impulse Noise Reduction unit. Supposed to remove clicks and pops from playback. As luck would have it the audio store in town was an SAE dealer. I won't get into how it worked or didn't but it was good enough for me to cough up the $ to buy it. It started me down the path. I have no regrets except for wishing I kept some of my "stuff". 

when i bought my first turntable as a teenager that came with a ceramic cartridge and spherical stylus, then upgraded to an empire moving magnet cartridge with shibata stylus after much research.   wow what a difference !  

For me, this proved to be a somewhat a tricky question.  I first asked myself when I first realized that I had fallen in love with music.  Then, I asked myself when I first started to really care about the sound quality of the equipment used to play the music I liked.

I started buying my own 45s when I was around 7 or 8, after using my aunt's portable tabletop 45 record player for a few years.  The first 45 that I bought was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton.  I was around 7 or 8 years old then and happened to be at my grandmother's house.  I must have played that 45 ten times in a row, if not more.  My grandmother never said a word; never asked me to give it rest!  God Bless her!  That kicked off my 45 record collection.  Wish I still had those things!

Sometime around 1960 or so, my parents bought a Grundig stereo console.  It had a turntable, AM and shortwave radio built into it, as well as speakers or maybe it was just a single large speaker.  That's when I began my LP collection.

Sometime in the mid 60s I became much more aware or concerned with the sound quality that the equipment I was using could deliver.  That's when I bought a stereo in a box type thing that came with 2 small bookshelf speakers and an amplifier with built-in 8-track tape player.  Can't remember the name of that thing.  However, my friends and I thought it sounded pretty good.  That kicked off my 8-track tape collection.  Soon thereafter, I bought a Craig reel-to-reel and started recording music from AM radio stations and, later, from FM when that became more popular.  I'd have to say that was the spark that started the audiophile fire.

In the late 60s, one of my high school musician friends wanted me to listen to a new stereo system that he had just purchased.  Can't remember the model numbers but it was a Sansui integrated amp, Thorens TT and a pair of bookshelf speakers.  I think the TT cart was a Shure.  He loved Chicago.  So, we played their new album and the sound from that system just blew me away!  I have to say that's when the audiophile bug started, for me.

In 1972, I had finally saved enough money to purchase what I consider to be my first entry-level audiophile quality two-channel stereo system.  This very same friend, much more knowledgeable about stereo equipment than I at the time, took me to Tech HiFi in Cambridge, MA.  That was a kid in the candy store moment for me!  After spending money that I really should have devoted to college expenses, I walked out with a Sansui 2000X receiver, Phillips 212 TT equipped with a Shure cart and a pair of Studiocraft speakers that I eventually upgraded to Ohm C a year later.  The rest, as they say, is more history.    

My brother had a HH Scott Stereomaster 342 AM/FM Stereo Receiver,  Acoustic Reasearch (AR2) speakers with a Garrard turntable in the early seventies. What a great sounding system.

I had a hand-me-down Onkyo rack system I got from my dad when I went to college. It was good but then my roomate and I discovered separates when visiting Second Sound in Boulder way back in the early 90s. I found a used Adcom GFA-2 amp and pre-amp there. I traded in the Onkyo system for that set-up. It was a "step up" for me in sound quality. Then I bought an affordable Sony 5-disc changer. My speakers were some Advents (can’t recall the model). I had a great sounding system for what it was back in my ramen-eating college days. My dad gave me one of his reel-to-reel decks, and I would make 3-hour-long mix tapes for our house parties as well. 

Great thread!

I took a class at Colorado State University in 1980 called something like "Audio Physics." It focused on teaching physics through the practical application of science through a stereo system. Shortly after the class ended I purchased my first stereo system which included a entry level Luxman 2040 integrated receiver, a Phillips 777 turntable, with a shibata type stylus, a Sony tape deck, and a pair of big speakers.

The speakers actually bugged me and I sold them and purchased a Three D Acoustics pair of satellites with a subwoofer. I knew something was up when a year later I had a local guy (Harms Labs in Fort Collings) build a custom sub for me. (I ran into Steve Harms a few years ago and he was still building and repairing speakers.)

Ten years later, I purchased a used pair of Acoustat 1+1 speakers for $350 from a friend who was disappointed with the bass. I added a Vandersteen sub and the friend couldn't believe how much better they sounded than his expensive new B&W speakers.

The original Three D satellites are part of my 7 point surround system in our small TV room, with a B&W center and four B&W surround and rear speakers built in, plus a small SVS sub. Great for TV.

The Acoustats are thirty plus years and I am researching completing a rebuild on them. They still sound better than almost anything out I have listened too. It helps to have good electronics sending the signal to them. It has been a fun journey.

I bought a "used" Linn LP-12 on March 30th 1995.  Still have the receipt.  Still have the table.  Many upgrades,  Bass got better, background got darker, detail improved but it never lost that musicality and pace that I fell for the 1st time I heard it.  

My Gateway product was the ADS L810 speakers in 1978. They were so good, I eventual had two pairs used. By this time I had the the other components of my system, Phillips GA-212 turntable (with Ortofon cartridge) purchased in 1974, SAE MK30 Preamp, Mk31B amplified, and my fantastic Sansui TU-9900 Tuner purchased in 1976!

I still have my originals ADS L810s (in storage) and my Sansui TU-9900 (in use). Up until I purchased the ADSs, I had mass produced Jensen speaker, but decent Superex studio headphones.

Maybe my true gateway product was the Phillips GA-212, I knew early on, the first thing I wanted to do was to be kind to my vinyl!

I have been into music listening since an early age starting with a transistor radio in grade school.

My first real audio component journey began in 1980. I don’t remember whether the  speakers or amp and preamp came first. I’ll start with the amp and preamp. Luxman c-120 preamp, and m-120a amp. Then DCM Time Window speakers. All of those were with me until 2015 or so. Added a Mitsubishi LT-5 turntable a year later. Don’t remember the cartridge - I think an ADC MM. Unfortunately that turntable was stolen around 1987. Replaced with a Thorens 160 MkII. The Luxman m-120a is still with me and has ben refreshed recently. The DCM Time Windows are now with my son. They just didn’t work well in my present apartment in spite of working well in 6 other environments of various sizes and shapes.

There is something about that Luxman M-120a amp that is just hard to replace. It can compete with most modern amps very well. I am surprised at what it can do to the sound even with cheap speakers. I guess it just hits the spots of what I expect in music presentation. 

I think I was just born into it because of my parents. We always had big speakers, big tube amps when I was young. My parents partied every weekend..they both played guitar & most their friends played too. As a young kid in the 70's I did kinda gravitate to the multiple reel to reels we had. I certainly didn't understand equipment then so I was more just drawn into the loud music. My mom was a housewife & it was loud music all day everyday for a good part of my childhood. 

This just carried over into the rest of my life. By the 90's though I was starting to realize that there are levels to this sound quality thing. 

Building a GAS Ampzilla in 1975. I was 18…

When I first heard Balanced Audio Technology equipment in a listening room at Glenn Poor’s Audio in Champaign Il.  Next was when I bought Nola speakers.  I was hooked.

In 1978 working as a carpenters helper I sold my soul for Klipsch LaScala, Mac 2500 and Mac preamp, wish I still owned that system.

As already mentioned hearing the Magnepan Tympani speakers producing solo violin was the start for me.  I was using Ohm Walsh speakers with SAE and Phase Linear electronics.  I wish I still had room for that system.  The Lafayette KT-550 tube power amp also blew me away.  Still have that sucker! 

i gotta say it was probably an 80s nad 3300 integrated--not a great piece by objective standards, but considerably more "hifi" than the mass market stuff i'd been listening to previously. expensive hobby in any case.

12 yo me....Hitachi receiver, technics? tt, ?speakers, but it was the Capitol Record Club that was the clincher.

18 yo me....Nad integrated, Thorens TT, Bose speakers

60 yo me....Kef LS50 clinched it along with time and modest funds.

My father’s HH Scott 222 integrated amp, a Garrad turntable and a pair of 15 inch full range drivers of unknown origin listening to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in the 8th grade. The local hifi shop had a pair of Klipschhorns that were so spooky…now I have four pair of Klipsch speakers driven by a host of tube amps.

Merlin speakers were a game changer for me.  It was as much the man as the product, but being introduced to designer Bobby Palkovic, along with all the wonderful gear they used changed my audio tragectory permanently.

My gateway product was my alto saxophone. Started playing in grade school through high school including a jazz quartet. Have loved music ever since. 

Mine was a pair of Infinity RSIIb speakers, which led me to seek better amplifiers, which led me to seek a better preamplifier, which led me to …. And here I am almost a half century later with what I think is a decent system that produces, IMHO, excellent sound quality, assembled over the last four years at what, in today’s prices, seems “reasonable.”

The ESS Transtatic (pre-Heil AMT), Infinity Servo-Static, Decca Blue pickup.

...been at this for nearly 6 decades, starting with what was at hand for little and building what I could for speakers....

Overtime and over time, the selections improved....but any other than spouse  to hear the changes became less of a event to share....still true, more pronounced of late, but 'tis what it 'tis....

I can't hear your gear....Some names change, some remain the same even if morphed into a larger organization, some improve, some become unheard ever again.

Specs got to the tipping point where the differences became subtle to the point of a sort of 'confidence in the system', the numbers don't seem to matter anymore.

Nuance becomes ALL....the cables, the details, the 'analog/digital divide' yawns and the SS+Tubes get tossed into the maw....happened with stage amps awhile back, did you notice....?

Awhile ago, I opted to switch to BFTB over COG....been happier since.

The 'puters have their 'gigs'....sources, monitors, programs of interest and use....Then the 'typ' TT's, cass decks, cd players of various flavours...

"CD or DVD?  ...and all the digidomains as seen..."   (...a pun too far...)

A matrix or 2 stirs the brew....
...and I haven't even got to the speakers, my take on the Wall of Sound.
All pairs 'cept subs., but a pair there is in the offing.

...and there's all the other including the Real Other, but some will know of what that is....but it's obvious I've got IT bad...

...just a different variety....

I've got the Poison....I've got the Remedy
...and it's not Over until I say it is... ;)

Play louder, the weekend pends, J

In 1965 a friend positioned our Altec A7's VOtT PA speakers in my warehouse space and connected them to his Fisher receiver. I heard KJAZ in stereo FM for the first time. By 1967 Tom Donahue began broadcasting on KMPX FM between 6pm and 7am.