Decisive moments your your audio journey

1970. The Allman Brothers live at the Tea Party in Boston. My first rock concert. Blew my brain away. I have been chasing that sound ever since. I had been to several Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts at Boston Symphony Hall but none of them made the impression on me that the Allmans did. Greg's Leslie still reverberates in my head. 

I visited Audio Innovations (soon to be Audio Note) factory in Brighton, UK.  Listened to the Voyd turntable and some AI monoblock tube amps through Snell E speaker. Joan Sutherland materialised in the big room. 

My first blind amp test in the 80's. At the time I was lusting after all the expensive stuff the magazines were pushing ... until it was proven without bias that I couldn't pick out any differences, much less the expensive amplifiers. Neither could the other three audiophiles participating. It has saved me a lot of money over the years.

My friend and I went to “Natural Sound” in Framingham, MA in 1975 or so and listened to their high end setup, which I vaguely remember had Mark Levinson amp and preamp, and I think Dahlquist speakers.  I think the speakers were big squares mounted on stands.  I think the whole thing at that time was $30K or maybe even more.  It sounded like the band was right in the room with us, it was so real.  Maybe its just a golden memory, but I have chased that type of sound since then.  That was a formative experience with equipment.

With music, hearing Electric Ladyland on LSD was pretty impressive, too, LOL. :)

Great stuff here many of which I can relate to. I've had many different revelatory moments listening to music along way. The initial one was hearing what good, tight & defined bass can sound like on stacked large Advents in too small a room that I covered all the walls w/ thick Karastan carpet samples I got from a friend to absorb unwanted reflective sound. My friends & family thought I was nuts but I loved it!

Next was building first one & then a second Hafler DH - 200 power amp to power  the Advents which was great but then I heard ProAC EBS speakers & understood what midrange & high end detail was about.

I heard & bought a Conrad Johnson Premier 4 power amp w/ EL 34 tubes & along w/ a Jadis preamp & heard real depth & imaging for the first time which was a game changer along w/ my ProAc's . I've been hooked on tubes ever since. 

Very recently I heard how great a quality,  modern horn speaker can sound w/ tubes & bought a pair of Volti Audio Rivals. "Live" music sound as opposed to accurate "hifi". 

For those of us who still listen loudly to rock, blues or jazz, tubes & horns are awesome!