What were the most important days of your Hi-Fi life?

Six weeks ago...I finally bought myself the Devialet 120 to go with my B&W CM9.

 

Still one of the best small speakers ever made IMO.

 

When I first heard one of my Dad's jazz recordings on a record player through vacuum tubes, into horns, tomorrow, or when Tom Waits released Orphans box on vinyls.

 

AMC really had some sleeper gear, the 3030 was one of them. I purchased an AMC CVT 1030 preamp (with Phono and optional tube sockets) from University Audio in Madison, WI, back in the day. It held its own A/B ing against preamps from ARC, Krell, etc. I sold it a couple years ago to a very happy camper.

A nice segue into "My important moments in Hi-Fi history". Madison, in the late 80's/early 90's, had four "Salon's" that I would frequent: University Audio, Paragon, Specialized Sound, and Happy Medium. I was young and essentially broke, but all these shops welcomed me to come-in, listen, learn, and dream. Some (University/Paragon) even let me borrow equipment, cable, accessories to try out at home; even though they knew I could not afford them. Specialized and Happy Medium no longer exist.

In my opinion, if a Hi-Fi shop is to make it in this world, they have to welcome and educate young folks and new-comers. If not, they will die along with their wealthy clientele.

 

Luxman R-117.Never knew a home stereo could sound so good and powerful.

 

I have the bones of two CVT3030s in the basement. If I had some change, I might get the two built into one and use it as a second system. My tech, who worked on it many times and also does a bunch of job repair for McIntosh, always said is sounded like McIntosh to him, qualified with “at low to medium volume”. Gotta say though, that and the little Vandys set me off on the right foot. I could have spent money of who knows what before I found something that good.

 

The most recent, and most important was figuring out my girl friend was into audio like I was. I married her

 

The first time I ever walked into Peaches Records in Rockville MD circa 1976.

Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed being in audio shops and checking out the gear. But a trip to a big record store (especially one the size of a supermarket) when all you've seen are mall record stores and the record section of Kmart, Woolworth, Zayre's etc. is cathartic. At least it was for me.

 

Early 60s: Watching my uncle build his massive Heathkit receiver.
Mid-70s: Finally being able to afford the things in the Radio Shack catalog. Honest. It was a big deal back then.
Early 80s: Taking a pair of Acoustst 1+1 speakers, Naim cables and Linn turntable home for a 10-day audition. They never went back.
Mid-90s: Discovering how good British audio equipment can sound in small rooms.
2005: Joining this forum.

 

When I got divorced!!

 

WOW , what can I say ?
Your my hero Bill.

 

Thanks! We remember that which is important to us. LOL

 

My best days were when I was more impressionable to music.It's all good now but wish I had one of the systems I have now thirty to forty years ago.

 

Today may well end up one of the most important days for me.

I've been using a recently re-capped Yamaha CR-1020 solid state receiver in my main system with the KEF LS50's while my resto-modded Fisher 400 was out for servicing.

I brought the Fisher back home last night and hooked it up to the main system... having been using SS for the past few weeks, I can clearly hear the slightly smeared resolution and not-as-tight bass from the Fisher, but the euphoric tube coloration and layered imaging is very appealing. The Yamaha is crisp and accurate, the Fisher is warm and gooey.

Now I have to decide if I go with tubes or SS in the main system... both have their relative strengths, so I'm not sure which direction to go in.

I'll probably take the Fisher downstairs and see how I like it paired with my restored AR4x's, which may well be a nice period-correct match.

 

I've always found there to be a trade off. As some like to think, one is clearly not better than the other in every aspect.
I have both a tube system and SS, like them both but for different reasons. Couldn't live without either.

 

My strange trip:

It started with my parents who played vinyl records on a Magnovox stereo (it was as much furniture as it was a hifi) system in our living room. I grew up on Al Hirt, Montavoni, Herb Alpert, Barbara Streisand, Andy Williams, various orchestral records, Firestone Christmas albums, etc. Fast forward to the Monkees explosion, I purchased the first Monkees album from a downtown five and dime. I spun 'The Monkees', 'More of the Monkees' and 'Headquarters' countless times on that Magnavox.

Fast forward again to my senior year of high school. One of my close friends at the time called me up (on a phone that was hanging on the wall with a long cord- ha) and said he had just purchased a new component stereo and to come over. I had no clue what a component stereo was but I sure liked music so what the heck- Todd had purchased a Sansui preamp, power amp and tuner with four Cerwin Vega 317(?) speakers, one in each corner of the basement. Anyone that knows about old CV speakers knows they were extremely efficient. The Sansui amp seriously cranked out dbs on those CV. They sounded fantastic.

Todd pulled out a new album- 'Boston'. He set the needled down on his new Sansui manual turntable (a gloss black beauty as I recall) and those first chords from Schotz and company just completely BLEW ME AWAY!! The sound from four CV 317 engulfed us in music nirvana. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was in love. Girls need not apply- I needed more hifi!

Two weeks later after saving some additional money I went to the local stereo store in town- Lafayette's. Not having the budget of my friend I purchased a pair of ATL Atlantis speakers, a Sherwood receiver and an automatic turntable. Hearing my own records on this new system in my own home opened up my awareness of how a better system revealed more of the music stored on the record. (It also proved that a separates system such as Todd owned blew away my receiver-based system- ha). I realized then that I wanted music and audio gear to somehow be part of my life.

Todd moved on to work for a local chain hifi store called Playback. He called and said they were looking for some part-time salespeople and would I be interested. I started at Playback a week later. I was amazed by the Technics 10" reel-to-reel recorders, the Phase Linear preamps and poweramps, those HUGE Sansui receivers (this was at the peak of huge amounts of wattage in big receivers) the very neutral sound of EPI speakers, Discwasher and how to clean one's records, the switch from 8-track to cassette, on and on.

As many of have experienced I began to explore higher quality stereo and became friendly with the local Columbia HiFi store. They sold brands such as Nakamichi, Luxman, Bang & Olufsen and ADS. A year after starting at Playback I joined the Columbia team for six years and AppleTree Stereo for another three . I then left retail and began working for a series of consumer electronics companies until the market crash of 2009. Unable to find a job- my wife suggested that I start my own company. I did. I began in 2009 and it continues today as a mid-level custom installation company selling and installing brands such as Sonos, Peachtree Audio, Paradigm, Audioengine and Anthem.

That is my strange hifi story.

Thank you, Todd.

 

Firestone Christmas albums lol. I actual bought a NM one on discogs a few months ago lol

 

Heck, walk into any thrift store from coast to coast and you will find a half dozen of them!

 

1990 - 1997. In those 7 years aged 19-26 I spent around $12000 in today's money on Hi-Fi.

Then I moved out of my parents house into my own apartment and life suddenly held far more exciting things to do and play with.

Hi-Fi has never held a particularly high position since. I hope my life never changes in such a way that it does again.

 

Introduction to tubed electronics and electrostatic speakers and of course a high-end turntable, which thanks to my wife I have> Been a happy camper for over 20+ years. I tried to tailor the sound to match what I heard at Grateful Dead concerts back in the late 80s very early 90s while Brent was still alive. I said to Mike at Quicksilver that "it was though I asked the tech's associated with the GD to build me an amp that mirrors the sound of the GD live sound" 9 out of 10 because "there was nothing like a GD concert"


sean

 

Bought a friends used turntable (Dual), receiver (JVC) and speakers (Pioneer)
that he sent back from overseas, that was back in the early seventies.

 

First time I visited a high end audio salon and heard the MFSL remaster of John Klemmer's "Touch" playing on Magnapan speakers. I ended up buying Magnapan 20 years later. I also squired that pressing years later. Still magic.

 

When I discovered The Absolute Sound. Way back around issue 30. I couldn't wait for each issue. It really was an exciting time.

 

My biggest moment of realization for high fidelity? When I got a Pioneer cassette recorder as a present for my 10th bday. It cost 54 bucks which was a fortune at the time. Much better than my brother's Panasonic.

 

Until you get old and boring, then it might make a come back to you. That's what happened to someone real close to me.