Single most impressive component you've ever heard

1980 NOS Ortofon M20FL 'Super' MM cart.

 

An audiophile friend of mine had this subwoofer that I mistook for the coffee table. It was a French brand and it had a built-in amp and four 12-inch, down-firing speakers. It was completely sealed and hummed really nice. He told it me it was from the 70s. I think the wood was oak.

 

They do have a very unique midrange but it's more of there specific flavor than anything.
I friend has several pairs of 57's as well as 63's so I hear them often. A blast of the past.

 

Probably an NHT Xd (2.1) system, properly set up in a dealer demo room. More than I wanted to spend at the time, and quite frankly, I thought they were butt ugly, but man did they sound nice fed with some great sounding CDs.

 

I had a VDH Grasshopper SLA on loan for a while, that was VERY special, better than my Lyra

 

Fully tricked out LP12 !

 

I have a VDH Colibri which is the successor to the Grasshopper, and it is indeed special.

 

I'd say it was DQ10'S The first time I had heard string section so pure ,the sound stage was like nothing I had heard .
Need to say this was run by a Stereo 70 Tube amp ... amazing to think that amp was able to power these things

 

No question, the original Sonus Faber Extrema. Those speakers are what started the high end audio thing for me. I still remember the system, the sound, everything. I've always wondered how they would stack up against more recent designs.

 

For me, the first and probably the only time that I was blown away was when I first heard the Quad 989 speakers. I have heard tons of speakers since then, most selling for much more, but none had the same impact on me.

 

After owning loads of hifi kit over the past 20 or so yrs, my new (to me) Basis Debut Gold Standard is the most impressive, finest component I've heard.

I know it's tricky to evaluate the sonic influence of the turntable when there's a tonearm, cartridge, phono stage etc to take into account. But I've owned the SME V before, and I've owned a Lyra Argo i (similar to the Delos I now use) - with the Basis, I'm hearing music that's not been revealed with previous turntables

 

A few years ago I was in a local high end store and listened to a pair of Proac 3.8 speakers driven by a big pair of Cary mono block amps. Was it the speakers? Was it the amps? Was it my mood? Don't know, but the sound was as good as I've ever heard.

 

Kyron Kronos. Though I guess it's not truly single item, since the whole DSP/digital amps work together with the speakers and can't be used without them. It was the most realistic, holographic sound I have ever heard with classical music. Just plain damn spooky.

 

Impressive? Klipschorns

 

They aren't bad with good solid state also.

 

Probably not, but when I heard them at AXPONA, they were pumped full of high powered Parasound amplification.

The sound was OK, they were going for large room filling volume to compete with the blades. Mission accomplished but at the expense of keeping their sonic brilliance under wraps. I left there not wanting a thing to do with them.
Then I heard them at a local dealer running a 20 watt per channel raven audio tube integrated amp and I was sold. The experience was transforming, then I knew what the fuss was all about.

 

I bought this player in 2003 and I still use it, I've read a lot of bad reviews, never understood why, in my opinion it's very good.

 

The Kronos turntable. The best record deck I have ever heard , even better than the Air Force One (and that was seriously good!)

 

Acoustic Energy AE22 Actives. Astoundingly good.

Closely followed by the SM Audio M-Patch v2 passive preamp. Paired with an AVI Lab Series CD player or a Cambridge 752BD, you're in an audio nirvana that's very hard to beat.