What made your ears go "woah," first?

So, I'm shopping around. I've been a solid value/mid-fi guy my whole life. I'll never spend what most people around here spend on enjoying our shared passion, but I enjoy music every day and am super-curious about what might take my ears another level now that I'm in my 40s and I'd like to find some gear to enjoy in my office.

My ears enjoy sound quality (a lot), but I've never heard anything that made me sit up and take notice apart from accomplished drum corps horn lines and certain symphonic/wind ensembles play and having those moments where the sound came together like a pipe organ and floored me.

Overall I like a nice full sound, plenty of bottom end, but balanced with clear highs. The thought of "enjoying the music the way it was intended to be experienced when it was recorded" is something I respect, but not if the sound is boring and lacks character and depth. I listen to a wide range of stuff, and when things growl, I like to encourage them, but not to the point of being muddy at all.

I grew up with Dad's hi-fi, had a killer mass market Onkyo component system in the 90s when I was a teen, and since then have stuck to decent but moderately-priced gear, i.e. a Panasonic HC-17 HTIB in the mid-2000s and hand-me-down AVRs by Denon and Yamaha for music/movies/gaming. Headphones-wise, I have some Bose QuietComfort, ATH-M50, and Airpod Pros. I won't spring for an XM radio subscription in the car because it's too tinny, sounds like the early MP3 days. I have to listen to digital music in high quality, 2 Case Logics full of CDs I haven't played in a decade, and I've got 30 or so vinyl I've yet to spin but would like to.

In my office I have a JBLXtreme2 that I take on the go, and some Polk Audio T15s and a matching PSW-100 now sitting unused. I first thought to find another "best sound for the money, but bargain" components to drive them again...a decent turntable and a bargain on a receiver/integrated amp, but I'm just so CURIOUS about what I don't know and what I haven't heard, and I don't have time to drive around and hear things these days.

So I ask you this: if you can think back to the first time you dipped your toe in gear that was beyond the type of stuff I'm talking about (Consumer Reports best value type stuff), whether that's in price or capabilities, what was it that got your attention? Speakers? A certain amp or receiver? A particular CD player or turntable or cartridge? Something at a certain price point?

Related: given what you know now, which component(s) do you prioritize spending the bulk of the money on above/beyond the others? Could you take your ears to another level with something in particular and happily make sacrifices elsewhere?

I know a lot of these threads exist around here, but I'm tired from researching on the web and I'm really interested in your stories, whether they're accompanied by recommendations or not. Thanks!

 

20 years ago at the hi-fi place...Conrad Johnson stuff lighting up some Magnepans...singer in the other room experience.
Been trying to match that every since.

When I started, it was speakers, then amps, then source.
Now, I'm going backwards reworking the source and down the line. Doing this only because I feel I don't have any bottlenecks right now. I know I can do better, but I'm comfortable where I am.
For now.

 

Probably about 20 years ago now- visited a single friend making too much money who’d bought a VPI Scout, Magnepans and some nice solid state amp & tube phono preamp. He threw on a record and I said to myself, “well damn- so that’s what they’re supposed to sound like!”

 

When I was starting out, going from an inexpensive Yamaha AVR to an inexpensive Yamaha integrated amp was quite an ear-opener.

The Speakers and the room they’re playing in definitely account for the bulk of a system’s sound quality.

 

Tube preamp.

 

The gear I’ve used for a long time has been pro audio gear.
I got into records because DJing was cool back in high school, but CD decks were new and too expensive.
So turntables it was - records were dirt cheap, it was the poor mans choice.
That DJ setup evolved slowly into a hifi setup in the past decade.
So I’ve never had audio equipment that fits in the “consumer report” category, but I know how good it can sound.
I did have some moments when I had an eye opener, moments that really caught my attention.
The last stage monitors I bought (Yamaha CBR12) were the first eye opener.
It made the sound quality so much better, that I lost interest in the 1000 or 2000 watt powerhouses.
I got interested in sound quality over power.
But the real thing was when I got my Wharfedale EVO4.4 speakers (still “entrylevel hifi” though).
I finally understood what HiFi is about.
It’s not about high fidelity in the literal sense, not about accuracy or being realistic - that’s what pro audio is about.
It’s about creating an illusion of something more than reality.
Creating a holographic soundstage that’s not there, not even when you’re at a live performance.
Call it hyper reality, surreality or augmented reality… idk, but it’s about adding an additional dimension or experience to the music.
The first time I experienced it was the most amazing, but it never really ceases to amaze me.

It’s not sound color, dynamics or even accuracy…
It’s that dimensionality, that holographic soundstage.
That’s what you’re missing out on.

 

About twenty years ago I discovered entry-level British hifi (made by Cambridge Audio, Epos, Rega, Linn, Naim, Wharfedale etc.) ... cured me of wanting $$$$$$ American 'high end' kit (Krell, Levenson, Martin Logan, Wilson etc.).

Simple, practical solid-state kit that presents the music in a foot-tapping, engaging way. Audiophile concerns? Feh.

Today things are even better -- you can easily put together a system for less than $2k that's totally satisfying (think Onkyo, NAD, Yamaha, Q Acoustics, Wharfedale etc.).

 

I’d say hearing CDs for the first time, particularly stuff like Peter Gabriel 3. We had a crappy turntable when I was a kid and CDs seemed like a new world.

 

Hearing a solo piano cd played through a McIntosh amp.
It was the first time that I realized that recorded music can sound very close to live.
I started saving money living the life of a monk and I purchased my fist McIntosh a year later.
And so my journey begun.

 

You need to get out and listen to some entry-level audiophile systems to know what is possible (even with your limited time). Are there any HiFi shops or a Best Buy Magnolia in your area?
Since you're starting from scratch and moving up from AVRs, I recommend auditioning speakers and amp first. This involves performance and synergy between the two components. There are many high quality integrated amps available these days, a more cost-effective plan than buying a separate amp and preamp.

If you can't audition in person, I would still look for well matched speakers and amp first.

 

For me I think it was hearing Celestion SL600 speakers playing a Delos CD of Mavis Rivers in a carefully set up room in a hi-fi store in Texas. I later went to work there.

 

I would start with speakers and an amp. Buy used! I can't stress this enough.

There are several online retailers that sell trade-in gear, open box, closeouts, and b stock. Make sure you call them directly!!! That phone call can save you up to an additional 30% off the listed online price. Be patient, new stuff comes up daily. Keep your boxes so you can trade them in.

Read reviews by numerous people of the same equipment, and look for cosistencies. Reviewers rarely say bad things about a product directly, but they will let on using other cues as to the sonic direction of the piece.

Enjoy the journey.

 

The first thing I remember grabbing my attention was Focal Cobalt 806S speakers, which I heard after 20 years with the Cerwin Vega speakers I bought in my college days. They were about half-price at the time, so I bought them happily. They sounded better at home.

ProAc 1SC speakers were enlightening, especially for the size. I like small systems and small spaces. I think an Audio Research system with ProAc D1 speakers in a room maybe 200 square feet or less probably got a “Woah!” or something out of me, or maybe it was a different four-letter word that doesn’t make it past the forum filters.

 

From my parents cabinet stereo to my Marantz component system. Night & day doesn't even come close to describing it!!!!!!

 

Biggest whoah moment for me was learning more about speaker set up, and then taking a few months to set them up properly through careful tweaks. All of a sudden, the speakers disappeared and there was a massive soundstage in front of me with almost pinpoint imaging and dead space between the instruments.

 

Continental Sound on St. Charles Rock Road, St. Louis, 1977.

Sonus blue in a Breyer dynamic tonearm on a Ariston table. GAS Thaedra into a Dahlquist electronic crossover, Ampzilla II and Son of Ampzilla running Dahlquist DQ10's and a pair of DQ1W subwoofers.

I never knew things like this existed until that day. I thought hi-fi was a receiver and a pair of speakers on the floor.

 

Good car audio. Got a job installing car stereos and my coworker was a sound quality competitor. Amazing stuff.

A local audio store sold hifi gear and car audio gear. I started venturing over to the hifi section and listening to B&W, Sonus Faber, McIntosh and Krell stuff.

 

KLIPSCH SPEAKERS

 

Well, as of lately, when I sat any of the following Aperion Super Tweeters on ANY of my loudspeakers, I heard a clarity I have simply never heard before, it was and remains PURE MAGIC, or as you say, Woah!


Top Of Line AMT Dual Firing Super Tweeter



Steinway Gloss Black Full Ribbon Design



New Highly Polished Basic Planar Magnet Super Tweeter



Highly Polished Full Ribbon Super Tweeters



The AMT Super Tweeter being used on my Polk LSiM 707 Loudspeakers


Every set has been over the top fantastic, from the basic planar magnets to the Full Ribbon, to the dual firing AMT Super
Tweeter, every one brings such clarity to the presentation, easily the best tweak I have ever encountered.

 

For me it was my first “real” stereo. I’m about your age, grew up on cassettes via a boombox/Walkman in the 80s, got my first CD player based micro system in ‘95. Dad had a Technics stack from Sears.

All of this stuff played music that I enjoyed but it wasn’t until I grabbed an NAD integrated amp, NAD CD player and a pair of NHT speakers and started hearing stuff I’d never noticed before in songs I knew well that I caught the bug and have been chasing that feeling ever since, trying to incrementally improve it.

 

When I experienced stereo “imaging” for the first time. It was on a on a pair of cheap house brand 3 way floor standing speakers playing Joni at a back street stereo shop in the very late 60’s.
Bought them and I was on my way.

 

Circa 1984 - when I first played the Audiophile version The Carpenters "The Singles" on with my Mission 70 bookshelf speakers. Karen Carpenter was singing right there in my room. I've tried larger speakers but always seem to go back to small stand mount speakers (currently have a pair of ProAc 1SC)

 

My first toe in the water was a pair of entry level Mordaunt-Short speakers paired with an entry level Cambridge Audio integrated amp and a thrift store Pioneer turntable with a Shure M91E cartridge. Given the trail of upgrades since then, they could be considered the most expensive components I ever bought. I was hooked.

 

Hearing female vocals from a turntable playing through Kef 104.2 speakers.

 

CLSIIz