Decisive moments your your audio journey


Have you had any truly decisive moments in your time in this hobby? 
 

I would have to point back to the first time I ever heard Magnepans, it was a “whoa what was that moment?” moment. That was in the 1980’s. It was the first time I ever truly heard reproduced music that got the midrange right, without it being squished 

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When I listened Chopin LP on my Nottingham Spacedeck in comparison to my friend’s Lenco L75.

Lenco killed Nottingham in term of Pace, Rhythm, and Timing! Lenco also was better in reproduction tone of the piano.

I will never go back to belt drive turntables after that!

Led Zeppelin on my 8 Track in my chevy Bel Air 1968. holy Crap! Oops that dates me.

Yes, the first time I heard my dad's Ampex tape machine. He put on an Oscar Peterson tape and it was a wet dream. This was 1964. I was 8 years old and I had had my own Zenith Portable for 4 years. From then on all I wanted to listen to was that Ampex. This was playing through an H.H. Scott  preamp, driving a stereo 70, driving Bozak B302A loudspeakers. These sonically were the best sounding speaker in the entire line. It was perfectly balanced and cast a really good image. The Zenith got very little attention after that. I was determine to get my own system and tape machine. It took 10 years and it was a Revox A77 with Dolby. This played into a used Marantz 7C preamp, driving a used Fuzz Linear 700, driving Klipsh Heresy loudspeakers. The Turntable was a used Thorens TD 124II with an ADC Pritched  tonearm (wooden) and too many cartridges to remember. Nobody taught me about economics. Had I invested 1/2 the money I had pissed away on HiFi gear I would be very rich right now. 

About 8 years ago I bought my daughter one of those all in one record players, one that comes with little speakers that plug into it. Cheap thing, maybe $100. As I listened to her playing records I realized that it actually sounded much better than my phone, computer, and car. I said to myself, "This is good but there must be better". Thus my journey started.