Your first component that was "special"


I got into hifi 40 years ago. I had a Pioneer receiver, Kenwood table, various entry level cartridges (ADC, Stanton, Empire) and Studio Design speakers. I wound up buying a Shure V15 Type 3 cartridge. That was the first piece of gear I bought that was way beyond ordinary. I had kept the cartridge until about 2o years ago- I sold it because by then no decent replacement stylus was available. Wish I still had it.

128x128zavato
Over the years I have owned some pretty "Good" equipment. The one thing that stands out the most was simply Knowledge. Learning about component synergy, cable choices, room treatments, set-up etc. This has had a profound effect on my enjoyment of my system and music. More so  than any one product, although thy have slowly gotten progressively better/more expensive.
Nakamichi LX 5 3-head cassette deck. This deck never, ever ate a cassette. It sounded great, it was fun to maintain and it was easy to get great recording results from. I still have boxes of tapes I recorded from off-the-air (Reggae and old recordings).
I still own it.

"My most special component that I never owned" AND most influential and profound. The only way to answer your query, the ARC SP-10 Mk2 pre-amplifier is the "it" for me.
A Grace F-9E phono cartridge, purchased in 1979. I then proceeded to use various incarnations of that cartridge (the original version, the ruby-cantilevered version, and a Soundsmith-retipped ruby-cantilevered version) for the majority of the next 35 years.

Regards,
-- Al