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

adding a subwoofer and feeling the bass rather than simply hearing it.

That wpm ratings are not the last word in determining sound quality.

Accepting that my ears are mine and hear things differently than others.

The day I finished building my dozen 2' x 4' absorbing panels 
and nearly went to tears when I heard the difference they made.



 

Headphones. 

viridian
When I was five years old, the smell of the tubes and the soft glow of them from my dad’s system. Scott/Klipschorn.

jim>
I sold Scott but not the type you refer to here. sure sorry to have missed that previous Scott bus.


big_greg
"where are the subwoofers?". There weren't any. It

jim>
its still neat to me to find speakers that can dig deep and not need help below 40Hz. they are either few and far between or real pricey.


mapman
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

jim>
a good while back a friend owned a pr. of those amps and a pr of $10K Canton Karrat speakers and I found that rig very desireable. temprorarily adding in my tube line stage it became IMO even more so.


wolf_garcia
I bought a pair of Altec A7s in 1970 or so for my band...when I hooked 'em up to my stereo rig I immediately got a clue about what's what.

jim>
Its something how a sound can hit a vein and leave an indelible lasting mark which then calls us to discover more about it..


ahofer
I got my first speakers (Acoustic Research) on salesman's concession.


jim >
AR was big back then. I never saw the attraction.

JBL Century 100s were too but cost more... I did see an attraction there. especially with those sculpted orange foam covers.


jfd
ARC SP6 1978
Jim>
you got to that party real early.


on the flip side of engrossing and revelatory rewarding experiences I've found too some events were not so good but as has been mentioned here, each was a educational session.

the note on aR & JBL brought to mind a real kick in the stomach for one guy.

in 1975 - 76 I made my last trip to the Mediterranean and while visiting Italy loads of guys bought new audio gear. they had to navigate one obstacle and that was to get it safely aboard the ship while at anchor despite weather and shifting seas.

for security sake motor boats which carried upwards of 200 men ferried us to and from the piers from several miles at sea.

rough weather set in during my return late one evening and some fellas were hauling their new devices back to the ship.

handing a top flight reel to reel to the man on the landing the grip was lost and the tape deck dove quickly to become a part of Davey Jones' stereo rig.

even though it wasn't mine, it left a sinking feeling in a lot of stomachs that night and that witnessed it, certainly the guy whose deck it briefly had been.


BTW... I'm sure worse events have unfolded we can not easily forget.
I can recall a fair number without half trying.

Audio Physic speakers open my eyes about high quality music and the professional listening room where I heard soundstage with depth first from those speakers.

Digital room correction; it was shocking to hear my friend 30EUR D-Class  Chinese amp with laptop charger sounds better (under 10-20W power) with digital room correction than my 2000EUR good brand A,AB-class without room correction.

Acoustic panels, I was surprised about 4piece of small, 0.6m x 0.6m well placed panels can clean shape of instruments and improve quality of vocals in the living room.

Tubes, their magic on music.

D/A converter differences, how important to use as good/as new converter as possible. 

Different speaker cables sound different; as an engineer I didn't believe it is audible, but I clearly hear it in a professional listening room. I don't think it is too important but surprising.