What has been a favourite moment in Audio?

What did Hugh have to say about it?

DeKay

@dekay (that feature hadn't worked before) I might be embarrassed to not know who Hugh is.  I have a cousin named Hugh.  I will assume it isn't him and I have not talked about this with him.  He has nothing to say about it.

Next you'll be telling us they were real live rabbits. 

@bilateral ,

That would be Hugh Hefner.

@thecarpathian My bad.  That is funny!  Cheers dekay.  Not those kinds of bunnies.  But I reckon you could blow the hat off one of those bunnies with the correctly calibrated sub.  We need a different funny story.  We have all the imagery required for my one.

I’m not a sub-person (really), but I imagine that it went something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DHGjFdnGT_Q

DeKay

@dekay I like.  Possibly a joke about garbage in, garbage out.  Good use of a wheelie bin.  How do I post an image of the de-hatting?  Does it need to link to where it is already online?  It seems that way.

I’m flying by the seat of my pants when posting pics/links these days, but yes - unless you have a storage site the "already" works if it up for public use.

Not about in/out from my side, but curiously funny as far a subs go, IMO.

I enjoy "entertaining" Youtube videos - even more-so in this day and age.

DeKay

Thanks for the story and now imagery I’ll never forget.  It made me remember when I went back to a 2 channel music only system a couple of years ago.  I was listening to Who’s Next, my favorite and go to 1st play/test album.  At the end of the 1st song, Baba O’Riley, when Keith Moon’s drums come up out of the background and build over time.  Put goosebumps on my arm and a smile on my face.  That’s a favorite audio moment for me.  Not very bunny but it’s what I’ve got to share.  

I saw two very funny things in an audio store in about 1980 in Cambridge, MA where my brother worked. The NAD 3020 Integrated amp was the new “hot” thing in very affordable & good sounding amp but had limited power & quality/ reliability issues. While listening to a demo & the salesperson’s hype on how good it was, it literally burst into flames filling the room w/ a horrible smelling smoke.

Then another time I heard a salesperson explains to a customer when it was taking so long to set up his new to the market NAD turntable because the tech doing it was very meticulous & it would be perfect & sound amazing ! I then walked into another room where I could see someone bent over the turntable saying “ what a piece of crap!”. It turns out the geometry of the included arm was wrong & a cartridge couldn’t be properly aligned ever. So funny! He became a good friend & went to design & build high end cables first for Audioquest & then his own company.

My first stereo, purchased in 1973.  I had to save up for "half" the cost as my Dad provided the other half.  I was 13 then.  Radio Shack "Realistic" shelf system.  I thought it was the greatest thing in the world!

@lrlacosse It was probably around 1976 that I got my first real stereo. I earned the money by helping my grandfather on the farm and erecting irrigation pivots. An older cousin sold electronics and he let me finance it.  A big Panasonic receiver with built-in 8 track.  Altec Lansing speakers, and BSR turntable.

Your mention of Radio Shack reminded me of a funny story. My first job out of college was working for Tandy.  Anyway, one night there was nobody in the store except me and my manager. Small store.  A lady walks in and is browsing the next aisle over. I get a whiff of some awful smell, so I blurt out "geez, Chuck. What did you do? Sh*t yourself?".  He slowly shook his head and mouthed the word "nooo".  Needless to say, we did not make a sale to that lady. Lol

Playing my mother's Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and James Taylor records on her Gerard turntable,  Kenwood receiver out to her AR speakers drinking Pepsi doing pushups in front of the woodstove on a zero degree F night.  

@jonwolfpell bursting into flames is funnier than a bunny de-hatted.  Both together would be wonderful.  If I saw a bunny's hat blown off (not Hugh's type of bunny, nor a rabbit) from a a sub, and the whole lot burst into flames, I would consider "It doesn't get better than this!"

I have a 1/2 size commercial fire extinguisher in my hifi room.  About $100?  Spend the money - buy one.  It is good for most fires extinguishable.

I had an oven that 'had an issue'.  The RCD kicked in straight away.  The electrician came round and we flipped the RCD, set the time on the oven, and then an extremely nasty electrical sound from it with the RCD flipped again.  We both instantly jumped back.  It had that smell of fried equipment.  When we looked at the circuit board - we could see - the oven was finished.

Watching 2 new in box GEC Gold Lion KT88s red plate and flash and die in a Michaelson & Austin TVA-1.

$1000 gone in a few seconds.  

Putting in my first hearing aid after years of needing one. Brought tears to my eyes when I turned on the stereo.

I have another moment.  It might take longer to get there than necessary.

About 7 years ago, I hadn't had much of any hifi for 15 years.  On this part of the journey I started with an RME ADI2 DAC and a B&W Zeppelin - I think there have been 3 models - this was the middle one which has analogue audio in.  I use it as a sound bar.  I bought a Cyrus CD transport.  TV, sound bar, music - all good.  I liked the Cyrus - quirky - sounded fine to me through the Zeppelin.

A year or 2 later I visited 2 hifi shops to listen to Cyrus and B&W.  The Cyrus amp was underwhelming.

So onto the place with B&W.  I listened in their intermediate room to 7 series speakers - OK I thought.  Now let's listen to 'the big boys'.

I didn't hear the speakers.  I heard the amplifier.  It was McIntosh.  I was blown away.  I had never heard anything like it.  Nearly ten times the price of the Cyrus.  This was my audio moment.

I have kept it really simple.  It is McIntosh and B&W for me.  There are so many choices - it could be endless comparing.

First the headphone amp.  Then 805D3.  The amp - and as wonderful it is to have an ability to drive speakers - it was underpowered.  At 40% it would run out of ability.

I ordered an MA8900, but then heard a review about the largest Mc integrated.  Even though this integrated is barely any difference in price to similar separates, the reviewers said get this one.

It is amazing how well it drives these poor little speakers.  Depending on beverage level and music type - 40 to 60%

A friend and I tried Oxygene at 70%.  It sounded fantastic!  Possibly too many beverages?  I cannot remember if this was the time when the amp started giving warnings "Whoa slow down lads!"

Way back in early 1990 while living temporarily in Honolulu I went to a local retailer who played an old Sinatra tune via turntable into a pair of decent bookshelf speakers. It was amazing sound and I never forgot it.  I'm sure it propelled the following 30 years of upgrades...

Moments! Buying used gear at great prices!

In the late 80s early 90s auditioning a full Cello system, I could never afford it but still in love with the cello pallete preamp. Fast forward to my financial reality 3 years ago, spent the day in LA auditioning speakers and was almost ready to give up in disappointment until I auditioned the Legacy Audio Focus XDs.  

One of my favorite moments was back in 1977 when i read about and then implemented a "Hafler Hookup" adding two small speakers in the rear--hooked up in series--to create a mock surround sound.  It was amazing with live recordings and made you feel like you were in the audience--wowed a bunch of friends until the day i was demo-ing and my buddy jacked up the volume and blew the rear speakers' tweeters...oh well, back to 2 ch...

One of our favorite reps came out to give us a spiel on some floor standing speakers. I can't remember the brand but, as he was doing his demo he cranked the volume and one of the tweeters leaped about five feet from the cabinet. He looked down at the smoking tweeter and said "let's go eat. End of demo". Everybody was on the floor rolling busting a gut. True story!

Unbelievably hilarious!  Wish I could have been there.

Now I am left to wonder how in the hell that is even possible.  Forgot to screw the tweeter in place.  Curious minds want to know!

The rep came from the Twin Cities and the store is in western South Dakota. We thought maybe the tweeter was loosened up in the drive or not tightened up at the factory. He unboxed them at our store. He would leave product at our store to demo. He came in the next morning and boxed them back up again and took them back. We would give him a hard time about it whenever he would  start a hard pitch on some "new thing" he had. He got a raft of sh*t about for years.

Hearing my first Audio Note UK system at RMAF abour 2005 or 2006? "this system sounds like music"....what a concept....

Another favorite RMAF story...Demo in the conf. room of a new SACD recording...The expensive French made SACD player would not play any of the discs the presenter had on hand to play. After 15-20 minutes of trying the guy says;

"Well what do you expect for a $30,000 player? You want it to actually work?" Massive laughter fills the room. A few minutes later he returns with a Japanese made disc player I think it was an Esoteric..."This one is ONLY 18K but it's made in Japan and works"  or something like that...Great memory...

Definitely the day I first visited the new high end shop in the Bay Area, Audio Arts In Livermore California. It was owned and operated by Walter Davies, later gaining notoriety for his LAST record care products. It was the spring of 1973, and the day I visited was the same day Bill Johnson of Audio Research Corporation had arrived to install a complete ARC system in the shop. Bill was a pilot, and flew to every new shop he took on as a dealer, bringing all the gear in his small plane.

I watched and listened as Bill and Walter conversed on all things hi-fi, getting myself a hell of a free education. Here was the system I heard that day:

- A Thorens TD-125 Mk.2, with a Decca Blue pickup mounted on a prototype ARC tone arm (which never made it into production. I remember it looking somewhat like a modernized version of the Grado Labs Micro Control Tonearm from the 1960’s).

- An ARC SP-3 pre-amp.

- An ARC PC-1 passive crossover (1000Hz, 6dB/octave high and low pass).

- A Dual 51 power amp (for the midrange/tweeter panels of the Tympani T-I’s).

- A Dual 75 power amp (for the woofer panels).

- A pair of Magneplanar Tympani T-I loudspeakers (which ARC was then distributing).

Walter’s listening room was about the best I’ve ever heard, easily big enough for the huge Tympani’s, with excellent acoustics.

I had already heard the Infinity Servo-Statics (powered by early SAE electronics), but that didn’t prepare me for the sound of the Decca/ARC/Tympani system. Walter put on the Boult/New Philharmonia Orchestra with Chorus recording of Holst’s The Planets (EMI ASD 2301). At one point in the playing of "Mars" (iirc), after a loud climax the sound of a tympani and triangle may be faintly heard, and on this system they sounded about 30’ past the wall behind the speakers, and elevated above the rest of the orchestra, just as Symphony Orchestras are arranged on stage. Depth and height, a new experience for me! Next he played Gordon Lightfoot’s recording of "Me And Bobby McGee" (a MUCH better version than that of Janis, imo of course), on his fantastic If You Could Read My Mind album (Reprise 6392). As the song played, I could see Gordon’s acoustic guitar right there in front of me, and his voice about five feet off the floor, just as it should be. Bill said, Hey, that IS a great sounding recording. Walter gave him the LP.

Well, I just had to have a system like this for myself, and a few months later did. Waiting for the ARC arm, I was using the Decca arm. And so began my dislike for unipivots. Sold it and got myself an SME 3009 Improved.

Hearing Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus by Spirit for the first time in 1970 when I was 11.  My big brother brought it home. My friends and I thought we finally made it as hippies.