What was your most engaging audio experiance

When I was 12 years old, my buddy told me about his big brother's stereo. He requested an audition for me (big bro was serious, and at the age of 19, had no time for punks).

The audition was arranged and I heard the first true high end sound of my life- and I was awed. Transparency, beauty, musicality- right in my face. Van Morrison was standing there that night as far as I was concerned.

The magic? Thorens turntable, McIntosh tube pre and amp, and Dalquist DQ-10's.

I have been chasing that experience since. I'm certain I've surpassed the actual performance of that system in my own home before, but of course that experience has never been equalled.

Life can be beautiful can't it?

I think for me it was a local audio store, long since gone, Soundtronix. I was looking for a all in one system due to limited budget. Up till then most of my listening was done on a Zenith console with Alegro speaker system.
So the salesman knowing what my budget was invites me into the HighEnd room for a listen. And there were these pyramid
ESS speakers with Heil Air motion tranformers and a Garrard TT with McIntosh front end. He puts on a side of Days of Future Past and I fell in love.
The salesman saw my reaction and with a certian wisdom told me and I will always remember. "Now you know what YOUR ears are capable of" and as he walked me over to my price range and said "lets get you started and now you will know what direction to go from here" It taught me that I was wrong in thinking quality was in how loud you could play it without distortion. Although my parents might have argued that statement. I learned a valueable lesson that day. I never owned the ESS but have had many McIntosh components since. Thanks for the thread I hadn't thought of that for years.

"Thorens turntable, McIntosh tube pre and amp, and Dalquist DQ-10's." at 19 years old? Must have been a little rich boy. I should be so lucky.