Your first audio epiphany?

For me that's easy- replaced an inexpensive cartridge- can't really recall if it was a Stanton or an Empire, with a Shure V15 Type III which cost me about $70 at the time.

Next audio epiphany- hearing Magnepans for the first time.

 

room treatment/acoustics. Nothing else has come close.

 

My parents couldn't get a baby sitter and took me to bridge night at the home of their friends. Luckily for me, Mr. Hogan was a hifi nut. So that they could enjoy their night out as adults without worrying about the conversations coming back to haunt them, I was introduced to some Koss headphones and a stack of LPs playing on a Dual turntable through a gigantic Sansui receiver.

Life changing experience.

Thank you John Hogan.

 

Hearing a pair of tiny Rogers speakers in a hifi shop - filling the room with glorious music. No more need for gigantic monkey coffins!

 

Bernie Krause


My Dad's Garrard TT, Realistic receiver and Design Acoustic D-6 loudspeakers. Opened my eyes, Then I bought all the original vinyl release Fresh Air albums...

 

My dad had bought me the low end model of te Pioneer SX receiver line circa 1976. It lasted until I was 22 in 1985. I replaced it with a $200 Yamaha receiver and noticed immediately that the sound was inferior, thin overall, lacking the body I'd been used to. But I was stuck with it for many years and got used to it. Today I use a 1976 Pioneer SX-850 and am happy with the sound quality.

 

A) the crystal sound and the incredible efficiency of a horn-loaded Klipsch speaker

B) the bass extension of a subwoofer; had to save for a whole year to buy it at the very same store. I got obssessed.

 

I should have been studying for finals but instead I played records all night.

In December of 1971, I was a freshman in college. Totally overwhelmed by the experience, I asked a family friend if I could get out of the dorms and use his house to prepare for finals. Married, he lived nearby and I'd been over to Jeffrey and Shelly's house for refuge and dinner. For studying, they graciously offered me their basement, which had a couch if I needed sleep plus a table where I could study.

With cramming in my future, I showed up that night with a textbooks and class notes. In the basement was also their stereo, a really good one for the day. A Philips GA-212 turntable had a Shure M91ED cartridge mounted on it. That fed a Harmon Kardon 430 receiver which powered a pair of Larger Advent speakers.

Jeff and Shelly had a great record collection and I thought it would be perfect background music for classwork. I remember starting with Deja Vu. It sounded wonderful. Crosby, Stills, Nash and especially Young had never sounded wonderful on my Zenith compact system. Their vocals were always weak and unimpressive. Not on this stereo. Deja Vu had body. Its tone was authoritative. Pretty frickin' cool.

While I played many records over the evening, the only other one I remember was Humble Pie's Rockin' The Fillmore. "I Don't Need No Doctor." Heck, not this night. My health was mighty fine, especially my hearing. Steve Marriott sounded like he was in the basement with me. Did he know anything about Descartes, Rousseau, or Western Civilization? I wished I could ask him because my class notes were getting forgotten in favor of album jackets and inner sleeves.

I grabbed the couch for a couple of hours of shut eye but mostly I stayed up spinning records, worried more about waking up Jeff and Shelly with loud rock 'n' roll than passing my classes. I fell in love with my first stereo that night.

Later, I bought a Philips GA-312 turntable for my sister. She absolutely loved it. When it was time for my first component system, an H/K 430 was not powerful enough and instead I ended up with a big Pioneer integrated amp. My favorite stereo store sold ESS speakers with their Heil Air Motion Transformer. Within two years, I had a pair of AMT-1 Towers. They got me through college. But my system, while good, was quite analytical. Instead, Jeff and Shelly's hi-fi was warm and involving. It took me years to own a stereo with those qualities.

I can't remember how I did for finals although I did get a letter from the dean a few quarters later warning me that I better focus on my studies if I wanted to remain a student at the university. I blame all my problems on Jeff and Shelly's stereo.

 

A quadraphonic setup with four Bose 901's playing quad reel to reel tapes driven by Mac electronics. Blew my mind.

 

The Pioneer SX receivers of that vintage were awesome. I wanted an SX650 so bad, but didn't have the $ so I bought an SX450. Meager 15 WPC but it was glorious. Don't forget the SX1250!

 

The first time I listened to my vintage Klipsch Cornwalls and heard the clarity, soundstage and efficiency.

 

very early 1980.

I had what really is more of what I consider a pa system. Klipschorns driven by crown amp and pre-amp.
Then I heard some Beverage speakers driven by Mark Levinson amp and preamp. The gap between the 2 systems was such a magnitude. No comparison and got me off that opinion that I had a good stereo.

 

Agree. It trumps everything once your equipment is has surpassed the Yorx/Sound Design/Electrophonic level.

 

Yep. I still think the single biggest upgrade you csn make .paticularly cleaning up early reflections and low end decay.

 

Visiting a teaching colleague of my dads in the mid sixties and he had these two bronze heaters which made this pure, gentle sound?... Then I was sat in "The Listening Chair"!

 

I think it was the day I walked in to Wilson Audio in New Orleans in 1976 as a high schooler and walked out with my Kenwood KA-3500 and a pair of Epicure 10's. Just loved them. No one in my family or circle cared about audio at all so I was on my own. Fed them with an old Garrard TT and from the line out on my Panasonic Dynamite 8 portable until I could start adding better sources. Funny that 40 years later my latest amp and speakers were bought from the same guy!

 

Listening to solo cello played through my new Pioneer turntable and amp (c. 1973) and some Fisher speakers. The Fisher speakers were replaced fairly quickly thereafter by Large Advents.

 

I was given a $100 Sony turntable for Christmas when I was 14. I was frustrated when I listened to Atlanta Public Radio's Saturday Night Jazz program, because the disc jockey played vinyl all the time and it sounded fantastic, yet mine sounded too high pitched and buried. I saved up my allowance and got a $400 turntable with adjustable speed and interchangeable cartridges, and haven't looked back, 15 years in.

 

My Mom & Dad's 'ol school, vacuum tube, 15" woofer, three-way, furniture grade cabinet, mono sound system (circa 1955), blew away all my friends, plastic and chip board stereos!

Dynamics and resolution made us feel the music.

 

Probably my uncle's stereo setup, back when I was around twelve or thirteen. Never heard anything like that before. Nothing high end, just better than the record player I was using at the time.

 

When I switched a crappy receiver for a Dynaco. That was massive. Also, when I got more into building, swapping tubes and capacitors and being shocked at what a difference the details could make in some instances.

 

Not the first, but memorable:

Visited a high-end shop around 20 yrs ago, looking to hear the new cd player from Linn. Store owner demoed the player, then asked me if I had some time. He then went in the back and retrieved a vinyl copy of "Rumours". Surely the Linn table he used as the source was a LP12 with the latest upgrades. I left without buying a new cd player and shortly after got back into vinyl myself.

 

Hearing my Beatles 45s on my friend's parents' Magnavox mono HiFi console (1964). Man, that unit had dynamics and wonderful all-there sound!

And then, about a year later (1965-66), hearing those same records on my 7th grade music room system which consisted of a Dual turntable, Heathkit AA-21 amplifier, Heathkit AJ-43? tuner and built in speakers in the wall above the component shelves. Another revelation!

Doug

 

Most likely it was the very first time I got to hear music I was familiar with played on a stereo set-up. That was when I first registered the existence of proper bass frequencies; to say that it changed the way how I perceived music would be a gross understatement.