This may sound crazy, but I'm listening to David Bowie for the first time.

This is a really cool thread and good vibes do resound throughout. For that I genuinely want to thank you because the premise you've offered everyone here is quite fascinating. However, in terms of my own personal interest, I gotta state that what dwarfs my fascination with your new musical introductions in terms of your own reactions to the artist, is why you have such a high level audiophile grade set up, and yet have never heard what are these old iconic ear mark rock classics. Your set up is nothing short of seriously BA. What inspired you to get such an awesome system? It's obvious that you are no beginner. Was there a different type of music that saw you progress to this level of audio excellence, or did you just decide to spend a modest 10-15k as an entry level investment (in a treated room no less!) into basic audio appreciation? (I seriously doubt the latter)

Have you been a long time film score, classical, or jazz fan?

 

Station to Station has to grow on ya - like all his best albums. Next time use a good headphone .... for the guitars on TVC15 (and train on the title track of course) and from then on every time you walk into a sunset you'll do the Golden Years whistle, while thinking ... never look back ... walk tall ... act fine

 

I played the 2001 compilation "All Saints: Collected Instrumentals 1977-1999". Bowie filled many of his songs with his wonderful voice but he was capable of making interesting instrumental music as well. My only complaint about it is that it's a bit too long. I think it would have benefited from being double where you had to go and change discs and get a break.

 

I wonder if listening to Ziggy for the first time in 2016 differs from listening to it for the first time in '72. It was so fresh and otherworldly back in the day that it blew the top of my head off and remains my favourite album to this day. So toddrhodes, did it remind you of anything you've heard before, or did it sound as fresh and original as it did to me 44 years ago?

You started with the best. I envy anyone experiencing Bowie for the first time.

 

A great question, one that may deserve it's own thread but I'll do my best to keep it short and to the point.

My main musical interests, for the longest time, have been rock, metal, and I guess pop/electronic music. I have some Jazz, I have quite a few film scores, and at least 5-6 classical pieces I like (Bach, Dvorak, Rachmaninov mainly). I like - nay - love loud, clean, clear music. Music that is dramatic and moving and full of life and rhythm. I was always a little put off by some of the "glare" that music seemed to possess at high volumes and so I set out to create a system that was dynamic and with excellent "life" and "snap" but that didn't ring or get harsh.

So the dedicated room was kind of a compromise between my wife and I We have a toddler, born in 2014, and she rapidly outgrew one room and her stuff started to occupy my then-office upstairs. So, I said hey, she can have that room, I'll build out the small space downstairs and use it as an office/den/audio room. I got the thumbs up and I think we were drywalling a week later I don't necessarily consider that an "audio budget cost" though because when I eventually finish and move out to the bigger space downstairs, we'll use the current room as a sitting area/den. I DIY'd all the room treatments, much of the cabling, and of course the speakers.

I did buy the amplifier brand new, but the preamp, phono preamp, and turntable/cart were all great buys on the used market. Trust me when I say, I have far less than 5 digits in my room and hardware. Now, with how much I've spent on vinyl recently? Well, no comment

And I've achieved what I set out to! Whether analog or digital (although the former is my preference now), I get loud, dynamic, full range, enveloping sound.

Once I hit a point where I didn't have a "sweet spot" in the room (very, very difficult in such a small space) and everything fell into place tonally and dynamically, I started to wonder about new music. I mean, there's only so many times I can crank up Tool - Vicarious or Supertramp - Crime of the Century (would you believe that there is bass in If Everyone Was Listening that quite literally shakes the entire room? And this is with my subs dialed up about 15% from flat) and so I've started to branch out in as many directions as I can. Generally I'll try to listen to stuff at work on Spotify through cheap headphones and if I feel the inclination, I'll buy the record soon after.

My system is not really meant to be polite. It's meant to kick your ass. And I mean that in the nicest way. I'll have friends over who "like music" but who walk out of my room shaking their heads. I never talk about how much it cost or how much time it took to achieve what I have, but I get a lot of pride from it. I also listen to it constantly. At least 2 but sometimes 4-5 hours every night, so long as the wife and kid are asleep first. I won't take time away from them to devote to my stereo but once it's lights out for them? It's lights out for me too, but the volume goes up

 

I can't say anything really jumped out at me as "hey this sounds familiar" until a song on Hunky Dory that honestly reminded me quite a lot of The Killers. It was a mixture of his inflection and the melody, I think, that prompted that comparison at least in my head. Both Ziggy and Station have, to me, sounded very unique - which is good! I'm not necessarily well-versed on a lot of the music from that era but for some reason I do get the slightest hint that Queen may have been influenced by Bowie? But that's just a guess, really. Maybe it's just my bent for considering the art and showmanship (which I know is apparently a curse word around here vis a vis Freddie) that went on for each artist but it doesn't seem like too terrible a leap.

 

For the love of god, you can't be serious? Next you're probably gonna tell us you're 36 and have never heard of the Pixies or Pavement. lol

The good thing is that you get to experience this new. Then again there's something to be said for hearing music the first time during your formative years...

I'll add the Band's brown album as a must listen since we're talking about the classic rock genre.

 

I listened to the classic albums (70-74) years ago and dismissed him as overrated. I heard Station to Station for the first time last week and now realize that he was a genius.

 

If you like that piano sound of Ziggy then also check out Transformer by Lou Reed. Mick Ronson plays excellent piano on it as well as all the piano parts on Ziggy. As well as all the guitar on both!!

Thats Alan Wakeman on Hunky Dory.

 

Dont know where I got Alan from

Its Rick Wakeman of course

 

Time for The Laughing Gnome me thinks!

 

This might be the most dangerous sentence I've read this month.

Or in other words: whatever you do, Bowie newbies, DO NOT PROCEED TO TONIGHT OR NEVER LET ME DOWN UNTIL YOU HAVE EXHAUSTED ALL OTHER OPTIONS.