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

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

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.

Pre-amp upgrade to Audio Research made a big difference but biggest difference ever was first time I heard my Class D Bel Canto ref1000m amps. It was a total sound transformation from prior and I wondered what the heck just happened? My ears had to adjust quite a bit which they did pretty fast.

Many years earlier, hearing how good my Walsh 2 speakers sounded outside on a porch from about 100 yards away was a real eye opener.

@mapman 

Many years earlier, hearing how good my Walsh 2 speakers sounded outside on a porch from about 100 yards away was a real eye opener.

So I suppose it's safe to say you do all your critical listening from 100 yards away now? ;-)