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

I have heard a lot of great systems over the years, but like many of you I still remember the first time I went into a real audio shop (Hi-Fi Showroom in St. Louis) and heard real high end gear. It was 1966 0r 1967, I was an undergrad at WU in St. Louis and I went in just to look. I head McIntosh, JBL and Thorens and I was blown away, my parent GE console stereo never sounded like that, I was hooked.

I have always played vinyl except for 1993 to 2003, the place we lived in made setting up a TT very difficult. I kept upgrading my CD player, but I always ended up fatiguing listening to digital. In 2001 I bought a Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD/SACD/CD player as my first DVD player. I was mostly interested in it as a video machine. Almost as a joke I bought an SACD and played it just to be sure it still sounded like digital music. I still remember the shock I got that it sounded so much better than a CD. It had been eight years since I had played any vinyl and after eight years of nothing put CD's it sounded like I have found real sound again. I still have that player in my home office and play SACD's on it.

 

1. The first time I heard a decent binaural recording on some Stax Lambda Professional earspeakers - now that's real 3D sound.
2.Finally getting my dream vinyl system set up - Breuer Type 80 cartridge/Breuer Type 8 tonearm/Technics SP10 Mk 3/Audio Research SP 6 preamp/Audio Research D79B power amp into the Tympanis - OMG! Never ever heard anything as good as these (and still haven't). They had the odd characteristic of being able to play loud, yet you could still talk easily against that. The ultimate speaker for cranking it without pain (although you needed a huge amplifier to do get high volume levels).
3. Hearing the Stax CPY/ECP-1 cartridge system - that was an exceptionally good sound.

 

I've had several most important days, really; I was four years old in 1969 when my brother left school one Friday and started a well-paid job on the following Monday (yes, that really COULD happen then). Every Friday (payday) he'd call into town on his way home from work and buy at least one album or maybe a couple of singles. EVERY Friday. And he did that until the mid/late '80s when he went CD. He then gave me ALL his lps. First UK pressings (and usually day of release) by Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Queen, Bowie, T. Rex, Neil Young, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, etc. He'd then come home, show me how to handle records properly and then showed me how to use his stereo system. That was it - I was hooked. Family knew that every Christmas and Birthday, I either wanted cash or record tokens. After a few weeks of working, he came home from work one night with a good record player (separate turntable and speakers) he'd bought me, along with several new singles he knew I liked. I grew up in a house full of music, although - strangely enough - my parents never had a record player or tape recorder, so everything is down to my Brother.

 

Big brothers rule! (I have three of them.)

 

Very cool, my brother was nothing like that, still isn't.

 

The first few years of my musical life were played out on a succession of tape Walkman. Or crappy mini, all-in-one hi-fi systems. In those days I wasn't at all arsed about sound quality, as long as there was lots of bass (I thought that as most sound systems I'd encountered had a 'bass boost' button, then surely more bass must equal better sound!)

After a succession of my mini systems' CD players crapped out, I 'upgraded' to a iPod, dock and a JBL Creature speaker system (you know, the subwoofer and satellite set up that looks like Darth Vader's helmet?) For me at the time, convenience was king. And I was happy with 192 or 128 kbps (or less) MP3s.

Wind forward a few years, to the Christmas that I bought my parents a little all in one LP/CD/radio system so they could dig out their vinyl out of the loft again. This was my avenue towards being arsed about sound. Don't get me wrong, the turntable was a piece of junk that would make a Crossley sound like a Linn in comparison. But, even using these modest means, I noticed that even ordinary old records had certain something - a presence, if you like - that was sorely lacking from my MP3 files.

Eventually, my iPod ended up in the same graveyard as all my other music players that had crapped out. I felt a pull away from convenience and instant gratification and towards quality and fidelity. As time went on I started building up a little LP collection of my own, so I could get a bit of that olde-time vinyl magic for myself. And as sure as night follows day , I got a turntable of my own (a Sony LX-300 USB jobby , if I remember correctly). At first, I made do with the old JBL speaker set up. Soon, that fell by the wayside as I fancied some of that olde-time tube magic for myself as well. Darth Vader head went on eBay, and the purchased of a Fat Man amp, a pair of Wharfedale bookshelf speakers, and the best cabling that money could buy (... from Richer Sounds).

And then I got the urge to become a tweaked - another step down the road to full on audio geekdom! The Sony TT was eBayed to make way for a Rega
P1, and I dove headfirst into a world of endlessly fiddling around with different cartridges , tracking weights, stylus alignments and tracking weights. The old, convenience fixated me would have been shocked at my behaviour.

In spite of all the frustration, it was through this process that I truly discovered the profound pleasures of getting a system set up just the way you want it, as opposed to going with what comes out of the box. (If you're interested, and let's face it you must be if you are on this forum, I found happiness through an AT MLA 440 stylus).

More miraculously my CD collection - which during the iPod years became a holding tank for songs that were about to become compressed digital files - sprung back into life. . First through an old Sony CD Walkman hooked up to Darth Vader, and then through a Marantz hooked up to the Fatman and Wharfedale setup.

So here we are a few years and a few thousand pounds later, and I'm now convinced that listening to a well made record on a decent system is the most fun that one can have. Indoors . On your own. With your pants up. The set up that I have is no doubt modest compared to what many of you here. But it still delights my ears to this day. Special musical moments have been coming thick and fast. Like the time I upgraded from the MP3 of RHCP's 'Stadium Arcadium' to the Vinyl. The former had been utterly mullered by the infamous Vlado Mellor, whilst the latter was lovingly sculpted at the mastering stage by our dearly beloved host (Steve... if you are reading... great job!) Or feeling every hair on my body stand on end when I heard Dusty sing 'The Look of Love' on my Colgems 'Casino Royale'. Or being thrust deep into the throbbing crotch of Uptown by the stupendous BG remaster of Prince's 'Dirty Mind'. I could go on. And I am breathlessly awaiting the arrival of my new, beefier, valvier amp as we speak.

Here's to many more years of geeking out over hi-fi and wasting time at this joint!

 

One day back in 1975. As an innocent young boy, I entered an Hi-Fi shop with a friend and listened to a system voiced by a couple of Magneplanar Tympani in one room and another system with AR LSTs in the next room. There and then it was the day I became addicted. You all here know the rest of the story.

 

Who remembers? I was stoned for all of them anyway...

 

I would say the most important days where my taping days. They were so liberating in many ways. I was free from the hassle of vinyl. I could go mobile with my music. Stuff could be recorded from the radio. I could copy albums from friends (hey, I was a poor kid). Girls could receive my mix tapes. Although I got my first CD player in 1986, tapes continued to be my primary media for about a decade. In 1995, I installed my first car CD player which led to the winding down and eventual dontation of my tapes in 1999. I don't miss tapes, but have fond youthful memories of those days and the music I still enjoy today.

 

As an only child, I had to rely on my friends' big brothers. I was lucky that they had some great ones!

 

Right now. Just launched a MC head amp.

 

The first time I heard a good stereo in the 70's with SAE electronics, Thorens TT, Shure V15 cart, and Pioneer speakers.

When I had bought a McIntosh C27 and MC2002.

When I bought CAT JL1 Mono Blocks, I said so this is what Hi-end sounds like I have arrived.

 

Does your D7 still work? I still have mine and it works, but it has difficulty loading and unloading tapes. It's sometimes takes a few attempts...particularly with unloading. But once the tape is loaded, it still works nicely.

The D7 didn't have the greatest longevity, but I think it needs to be handled carefully to survive. They tended to be treated roughly, since most of the buyers used them for live recordings.

 

I would say October 1980 when I first arrived at Bitburg AB, Germany and walked into the Audio Photo Club the first time!!! First time seeing Marantz, H-K, Technics, Sansui, Bose 901, Klipschhorns, AR-9's, and so many others all at once. Ended up buying my JVC A-X9, Infinity RS1.5's, Teac X10 and then X-1000R, Sony PSX-800, Technics SL-M2 and so many others over the next two years, and all at bargain basement cost. Great times for a 20 year old airman.

 

March of 2015 when I got Sony MDR-V6 headphones, an SMSL SD-793II DAC, and a Sound Blaster Z sound card for my birthday. My audio configuration before this sucked. I used cheap headphones plugged into the headphone jack on Logitech Z130 speakers. A lot of bass is removed and a lot of noise is introduced with that headphone jack.