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What was your first big eye opener with regard to audio?


Hello friends,

what was the most fascinating thing you did with the compilation or optimization of your system in terms of SQ or performance, that really got your attention in either a good or bad way?


what was it that actually impressed or surprized you once it was in place?


or what DIY project was it that once done really gave your audio system a big shot in the arm SQ-wise?


maybe it was simply finding out just how much some items could cost


something always seems to take place that changes our philosophies or understandings and maybe even our approach to arranging a fine audio system.


what was your’s?

 

Perhaps it was buying a quality rack, platform, or maybe a pr. of amp stands?


rolling tubes? adding iso footers?


biting the bullet and bringing in a decidedly  more expensive or merely a different electronic component? DAC? Line stage? Mono blocks? Speakers?


what amazing things could be done with as little as 8wpc?


for example, my ‘eye opening’ events came two  fold. adding power line conditioning and using upscale wires/cables, or power cords.


which of these came first I’m not sure but all of them  came with a huge amount of prejudice on my part as to them doing anything positive to the quality of the sound, but indeed they did!


other things came along with nearly the impact or mind altering impact but those were the initial items that paved the way for me to keep an open mind with respect to building an audio system and preserving its synergy.


what was or has been your epiphany? your most surprising  ‘move’ in audio land?


blindjim
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,422 posts
 

Hearing electrostatic speakers for the first and second time. First time the RTR tweeters in the ESS Transtatic I, the second time the Infinity Servo-Static I.

Then it was hearing a direct-to-disk LP played by a Decca cartridge. I don't separate the two because their sound is so related. Lightning fast transient "snap" (like the crack of a bullwhip), attack, immediacy and tactile presence, punchy bass (when played aggressively, the strings of an upright bass, piano, and bass drum really "pop"), and the startling dynamics of live music, Vocalists sound spookily in the room, standing right in front of you.

Then it was finally hearing a loudspeaker that reproduced the size and scale of instruments and ensembles: the Magneplanar Tympani. They make just about all box designs sound like the instruments and vocalists are being squeezed through two missing bricks in a wall (left and right), with the vocalists mouth about three feet off the ground. Pianos through them sound like miniature toys compared with big planars and the real thing.

Those are things I heard without owning them, not what I did to a system. But then I acquired them, so I guess that counts.

zavato's avatar
zavato
1,390 posts
 
First time I heard a pair of Magnepans a 
blindjim OP
3,092 posts
 

xshadorne
That a good quality pre-amp is really important and that phase is very important to me.

blindjim> could not agree with you more on the preamp importance. IF there is more than one decent source of course.
many thanks.


three_easy_payments:09am
My first eye opener in audio was actually as a teenage guitar player when I fell in love with the sound of a vintage Fender Twin over the 2-dimensional SS amps they were cranking out in the 80s.

blindjim>
in HS it was a Craig Power Play AM.FM 8 track removable deck.

never considered tubes at all.
THX


roberjerman
Going to a friend’s house back in ’79 and listening to his system:

blindjim>
regardless the venue it is about the sound.


williewonka
My biggest "eye opening" experience was discovering the effect of cable geometries and their impact on the attached components.

blindjim>
I've decided not to cut any of my wires open to check out their construction so I go with what happens when this one or that one gets into the signal chain and I subjectively account for the change.

and often it is simply put, 'change'.

Improvement is more rare.
many thanks.


bdp24507-17-2019 9:33am
Hearing electrostatic speakers
Then it was hearing a direct-to-disk LP played by a Decca cartridge.
Then it was finally hearing a Magneplanar Tympani.

blindjim>
maggies are fascinating speakers. I agree just not my cup of tea as it were.
limited EXP tells me carts have their own voice and can utterly change the entire presentation.



zavato
Magnepans a

blindjim>
yes indeed.
I heard the top Maggie many years ago driven by Levinson power and fronted by the Phillips/Sony cube SACD CDP.

you could shake hands with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.
astonishing.

if they only had some slam and bottom end!
very cool
Post removed 
big_greg
6,554 posts
 
I've been "into" home theater for a long time, but less serious about 2 channel listening.  One day I wandered into the one local hifi shop in the area and the owner demo'd the new (at the time, circa 2010) Klipsch RF-7 II speakers.  He queued up Black Cow by Steely Dan and being a home theater guy, the first thing I asked was "where are the subwoofers?".  There weren't any.  It was the best sound I had heard up to that point and it started me on a quest for better sound quality for music, which I have always loved but never made it my first priority.  Say what you will about them, but I still have a lot of Klipsch speakers and listen to a modified pair of Heresy I and also a pair of modified KLF-30 on a daily basis.  I've moved beyond Klipsch in my main system, and continue to learn and improve my system(s), in large part with the help of all of you here.
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