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How Did Your First Audiophile Experience Impact Your Audio Journey?

I am going to be somewhat liberal when choosing my first truly "Audiophile" experience.  In college I had a friend that had a pair of Definitive Technology BP2000 speakers that were by far the best speaker that I had every heard, but his style was mostly just blasting music which didn't appeal to me or demonstrate their true SQ.

My first true "audiophile" experience was visiting a local HiFi shop that appeared to be an almost tacky car audio place from the outside, but I had been told to ask about the basement.  The only thing that I remember was some Vienna Acoustics speakers that blew my mind.

When I was ready to dip a toe into the audiophile pool several years later, I went back to the shop and it had shifted it's focus to be exclusively home audio with Focal being their brand of choice.  Their main room gave me opportunity to audition  Focal speakers from the $750 bookshelf to the $180,000 Grande Utopia's.  What was cool looking back was that I was able to hear the most affordable speakers at their best because they were being powered by the huge Krell mono blocks that were there for the Grande Utopia speakers.  My favorite setup was Diablo Utopia speakers with a JL Audio Gotham subwoofer.  The sound that came out of a large bookshelf was mind bending to me.  As it turns out, Krell has continued to be a consistent amplifier that pulls me in whenever I'm around a system with them in it.  I also have continued to love the Focal sound and have never once thought about needing to upgrade mine even though I've heard objectively better speakers and know that there's a lot out there that are superior.

The thing that I look back on and laugh about from my auditioning and buying process was the pain that I must have put the salesman through listening to one of my Josh Groban CDs that I later discovered is a painfully poor recording.  Ironically, there was one song in particular that was used to make the final decision for which model to get.

I don't know how much my tastes are a result of being blown away with Focal speakers and Krell amplifiers being my first significant experience in the audiophile world or if I happened to be very fortunate by it also aligning to my taste.

- robot

mceljo
stibin
12 posts
 

My journey started with a Bose Soundbar, I was so disappointed by the sound I started looking for a better option. Then came the youtube recommendations ended up getting a Micca RB42 and Topping MX3. Down the rabbit hole I go.

sgreg1
612 posts
 

Dropped a hit of red dragon window Payne on way to Ozzy concert when Randy Rhodes was his guitar player. I remember being frozen in place I mean I could not move I was a statue staring at Randy play. The only other thing I can recall is Ozzy constantly shouting “clap your fucking hands” in his British accent.

pdspecl
254 posts
 

I was maybe 14 or so and my neighbor who was a talented trumpet player in a Chicago tribute band invited my older brother and I into his home and there it was.   Thorens table, Carver cube amp, Klispch speakers.   It opened my ears to a new level of sound I had never heard of.   A few years later I’d start my journey buying a NAD 7155 receiver and it went from there.  

prndlus
55 posts
 

In the 1990’s a friend showed off his system, Yamaha amp, Infinity Kappa 9’s.

He put on The Rolling Stones, Jumping’ Jack Flash.

I had heard that song ten thousand million times by then, but I never heard it like I did that day.

It was stunning holographic and no rational mind could defeat the illusion.

You could look right at the speakers knowing they were the origin of the sound, but the sound was everywhere and the ‘aural’ mind could not square what was seen by the eyes and known by the mind.

I could ’see’ exactly to the inch where each band member stood, could identify exactly where Keith’s pick was hitting strings, could hear the scratching of his guitar pick, could tell exactly where Mick’s mouth was at the microphone, could point out the exact placement of Charlie’s snare drum, could hear them drawing breaths.

To this day, that memory is the standard by which I consider audio.

 

styleman
132 posts
 

I was 27 years old in 1970.   I had always listened to AM rock and roll stations and 8-Track in my 69 Chevy Malibu. One could hear the Beatles on AM radio.  One night I tuned into the local Philadelphia FM “head” station and the Band was playing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.  I was hooked.  I spent the next year and ½ reading Stereo Review, Audio magazine and a Radio Shack manual explaining (i) the concept of how inaudible harmonics enriched the sound of audible music, and (ii) how tape recording worked. In 1971 I walked into a local hi-fi store and walked out with a Kenwood Receiver (20 watts RMS per side), a Dual 1215 turntable with a cartridge (I don’t remember the brand) complete with little RCA cables, a pair of KLH 17 speakers and zip cords for speaker cables, all for $500 total. My first two records were Cat Stevens’ “Teaser and the Fire Cat” and “Tea for the Tillerman”. I was blown away.

 

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