Which pair of speakers changed your Hifi life?

OOPS! The date of that first pair of Magnepans should be 1979! I'm older than I remembered!

In the fall of 1975 I listened to a pair of Dayton Wright XG-8 Mark III electrostatic speakers.  They were being demoed at an audio store in Rochester, NY, Baez's 'Diamonds & Rust' was playing.... I thought on I was on a different planet.

The speaker that changed my hifi life is the speaker that changed my wife's attitude. 

For 25+ years she was tolerant of my hi-fi interest. Sometimes we listened together but mostly she used the system for background music. A couple of days after John Rutan of Audio Connection installed my Vandersteen 5A carbons I came home to find her in the sweet spot with the lights dimmed and a candle going. She then proceeded to tell me about all of the music I just “had to hear on these speakers.” No previous upgrades *ever* elicited *anything* like that kind of interest. And it stuck.

I settled on Vandersteen's aftere three years of attending trade shows. I had to unlearn what I thought I knew from reading reviews and deal with the overwhelming number of choices. I waited until something caught my ear. I recommend this method - only you know what you will like ....

I don’t know of another full range speaker (other than the model 7s) where the rear of the speaker could be 18 inches from the narrow wall in our 11x22 foot living room and produce what I’m hearing. By that I mean unbelievably good bass all the way down without DSP and a holographic presentation that sounds alive with a good recording. The 11 band analog equalizer evens out in room bass response and the powered subwoofer gives the impression of unlimited headroom. The balsa wood midrange is super low distortion and it gives you a taste of the model 7 or an electrostat. The key thing is that I didn’t think I could get this kind of performance in a non-dedicated listening room without DSP given the limited speaker placement options. John assured me it could be done and boy was he right!

Your wife's reaction to the 5As is a true testimonial. I've head those and they are great.

I lived in a small apartment so I purchased a pair of Monitor Audio GR 10’s. They sounded good with an NAD integrated amp. Eventually I was able to afford my dream stereo and bought a pair of Quad 2905’s. I now live in a house and have the upstairs arranged just for hifi listening. There’s no comparing my Monitor Audio bookshelves to my Quads but the Monitor Audio’s are what put me on the path.