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

Fool your ears! Back in the ‘50’s (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I went to a “hi-fi” show in San Antonio, Texas. There was a good deal of equipment shown. But two things really caught my ear: one room was demoing Audio Fidelity Records, then quite new. They were playing it on a Rek-ko-kut, 16” turntable, into a McIntosh Amp and then on to a JBL Hartsfield speaker (monaural, at the time). They were not pushing the equipment, only the Audio Fidelity Record. It was the most fantastic sound I had ever heard!  Another room, much larger (it seemed like a basket-ball court size) had about 20-25 ElectroVoice speakers/cabs. All the way from a small $25 job to their SOTA EV $800 Patrician. The demo started on the $25 speaker, you could ‘see’ people nodding, as if to say “not bad”. After a bit the demo moved up to the next level speaker. Again, you could ‘see’ people nodding “yes, that’s better. And so forth ‘til they reached the $800 Patrician. Again people were thinking, Wow! That’s a lot better.....but is it $775 better?. At that point in the demo, the music switched from the $800 Patrician to the $25 speaker..........they could not have GIVEN the $25 speaker away. That’s when I learned how easy it is to fool your ear. The louder speaker always sounds better than the quieter speaker. Something to keep in mind in ‘auditioning’ speakers‼️

Back in the early seventies walking into a dealership in Poughkeepsie, NY and hearing a pair of pricey Ohm speakers being demoed for a customer. I recall the sound of cymbals shimmering across the room as it you could touch the sound.

Not much later I heard some Quad Electrostatics which had a beautiful, clear sound. I wanted them badly but was in college then earning $115 per month in a work study program, so they were a bit out of reach. That second experience stayed with me so long I might have sprung for the newer Quads recently instead of my Magico A3’s if they weren’t of Chinese manufacture now.

Mike

Bought the Infinity ServoStatic 1. First time I heard detail clarity instruments. Still miss this system 

The game changer for me was hearing a properly installed pair of Mc’s XRT 20 line arrays back in the 80s Compared to point source speakers the sound literally blew me away. No vertical limit to soundstage or critical sweet spot, the entire row IS the sweet spot. With 25 tweeters per column, 1 8" mid and 2 12" woofers per cabinet, flat response from 20K to 20Khz, there is no need for a subwoofer when playing 2 channel sources.

It took me another decade plus to secure a mint condition pair, (located 3 states away in a church in South Carolina) then re-edge rotten coam surrounds, as well as install better binding posts and upgrade crossover caps. The coupe de’ gras was adding a pair of Mc 501 autoformer mono-blocks, MX135 preamp-processor and later a C2500 preamp in pass thru mode to allow true 2 channel or surround. The combined sound is stunning, from a few tenths of a watt to full power and beyond. I added a a pair of XRT 30’s for another room which I located in between for a good price using the same model amps. The differences between the older and newer line arrays is not dramatic, the older pair are more sensitive and use power more efficiently, but the lower distortion drivers in the newer models add refinement. Either system sounds stellar, whether playing analog or digital material, CD, or high resolution transfers. You can’t go wrong with a decent set of line array speakers. My ears tell me its the best of all worlds together, like attributes of best Point Source and Planar speakers mixed together. You don’t hear the room, you hear the music, with a depth and realism I never knew possible till I heard the XRT 20 and was blown away by what I heard.

I do still own several sets of point source speakers as well, and the work perfectly for me in the smaller rooms I have them set up in. But if I want to hear a performance, I listen to either the 20’s or 30’s depending on my mood. The room the 30’s are in is a tad smallish for them, however they still rise to the challenge, effortlessly reproducing whatever music I play.

I’ve had these speakers longer than any other pairs and don’t ever see a need or have the desire to replace them with anything out there I have heard, even mega buck offerings such as the Wilson Maxx, or the lesser price but still fairly expensive B&W 800 Diamonds that many people still couple with the big McIntosh amp offerings and a Mc tube or SS preamp. The B&W's are power hungry, requiring the big 1.2KW amps if you wish to get anywhere near concert levels. While the Wilson Maxx's are substantially more expensive with excellent sound reproduction and in a league of their own, for my ears they are nowhere near as satisfying as the line arrays are. To each his own I suppose.

Hearing something sublime, startling, or incredible is one thing. those events are just special.

hearing or enjoying a startling event, or presentation is one thing. getting into the past time itself is yet another. In this place ‘eye opening’ events especially eraly on seem to crop up regularly.

at the top of that list for me has to be:
just how much components can cost!!

in all, the true mind blowing aspect of this venture for me remains how much things cost despite their form and application.

$25K for an extension cord?
wow. yeah.

for me the biggest eye opener after the fact, is the stratospheric prices attached to some things in the audio world. no question about it.

finding out ‘everything matters’ was perhaps as interesting and intriguing as has been
the realization things here can exceed the cost of a decent home.

this little nugget did not come as an eye opener, but as a ‘mind blowing’ epiphany. it stemmed predominately from the Audiogon pages and its membership.

never would I have believed placing different types of ‘footers’ beneath a component could alter the entire sonic presentation. Never.

many years ago one member from Colorado sent me a bag of wood blocks. several in fact. each group in their own packaging. each group of 3 pieces was off of a different tree.

Coco Bola. zebra, ebony, Mahogany, and others.

he said ’try ‘em’. so I did.

results were mixed but there were noticeable results from one tree to another. and, it told me there was likely something to be said for even more upscale footers or isolation devices in general.

consequently, as Eric alluded to way early in this thread, DIY and personal experimentation are still an impoirtant aspect   in the hobby.

previously the only area DIY had expressly urged me on was with acoustic treatments for the listening room. so many varied and various things do account for plainly fascinating results which are IMO, derived from unbelievable experiments.

rugs. Drapes. curtains. kinds of furniture. egg boxes. Pillows. insulation! and even foam.

I’m not even gonna get into speaker placement and how marginal moves there can be absolutely revelatory.
whoa.

in nearly every instance, I had to do it for myself, in my own home and my own gear, to eventually become convinced everything matters.

naturaly some things matter a bit more than others, but….