Your first component that was "special"

In 1972 I discovered J. Gordon Holt and his little digest-sized "quarterly" magazine Stereophile. After reading for a year about the exotic hi-fi I had never seen in Northern California (high end seemed to be an East Coast phenomenon), in the Spring of ’73 I learned of a new high end store that had recently opened in Livermore. So I paid the store a visit and met it’s owner/proprietor Walter Davies, who now makes the great Last line of record care products. Also arriving at the shop that day was none other than Bill Johnson of Audio Research. Oh, the luck!

Bill had piloted himself to Livermore in his own plane, loaded with a full Audio Research system, including the SP-3 pre-amp, Dual 51 and 75 amplifiers, PC2 crossover, and new Magneplanar Tympani T-I Loudspeakers, which ARC was distributing. He was at Walter’s shop to inaugurate him as an ARC dealer, and to set up his system, which also consisted of a Thorens TD-125 Mk.II turntable, prototype ARC pickup arm (a flat wooden "plank" about an inch wide and maybe 1/4" thick, sort of the like the old Grado), and a Decca Blue cartridge.

What a sound I heard! Sure the ARC electronics were part of that, and great for their time, but I feel it was hearing both a Decca cartridge and the Tympanis for the first time that was responsible for drastically changing my perception of what reproduced music could sound like. I bought myself that exact same system from Walter shortly thereafter.

The prototype ARC arm was never put into production, but I again now own both Decca (London actually) cartridges and Tympani (T-IV) loudspeakers ;-) !