What was the first system you heard that made you think the high end made sense


I am sure I cannot be the only person here who can recall the day, and indeed the very system that made them think 'oooohhhhh yesssss - I get it - I understand - and I absolutely love it!'

In my case I attended a HiFi Show in Heathrow at the Renaissance Hotel. It was the GT Audio room hosted by Graham Tricker. The parts comprised:

DPS turntable- Schroeder arm - jan allaerts cartridge
Tron Pre-amp
Avante Garde Uno's

In all honesty I still remember the day now. It was so musical and had the ability to connect me to the music. When I went for a full demo at Grahams home I came to understand the magic of horns, valves and imaging. 

lohanimal
Hey Terry, I know where you heard that ARC/Tympani set up in Palo Alto: the first high end shop I discovered and visited in '71, Sound Systems. I heard the ESS Transtatics ($1200/pr) there, as well as Infinity 2000A’s ($600/pr), but couldn’t afford them. So I got a pair of the 2000A’s little brother, the 1001. Had them until I got Tympani-I’s the following year. Amazingly, I now own pairs of both the Transtatics and Tympanis, though they are the T-IVa, not T-I.
Churchill Audio in NYC around 1977.  I had been using a SONY HP-161 all in one turntable/ radio compact.  I walked in to buy a pair of Pioneer headphones and the salesman plugged them in to a top of the line Technics FM receiver and the song playing was the Beatles' Yesterday.  I had never heard anything so magnificent.

Rich 
At a cousin's home. 1969. He had a Marantz 2230 receiver, KLH 6 speakers, and a Garrard TT with Shure cart. The clarity and bass really caught my ear. I loved music but wasn't quite to audiophile status back then.
@bdp24 

I bought my Infinity 2000A's at Sound Systems in Palo Alto. They was the first high end shop for me also. I lived in Redwood City at the time where you could by a nice house for $32,000, now $1.5 million, same house.