First time you were blown away by a stereo?

I went over to my allergy doctor/former neighbor's house to look at an old radio one of his son's had for sale. His dad came home and I got to hear his system, with HUGE tower speakers ( Don't remember the brand or model, but the bass was about as good as it could be in 1970) playing "Night on Bald Mountain" and I was pretty much hooked at that point. I don't remember all the brands of equipment he was using, but I remember seeing McIntosh amps. I wish I could have stayed longer, but he was generally a disagreeble type of guy, but a great doctor, and I wasn't comfortable talking to him outside the office back then. If he would have been a nicer guy, I would have been over there a lot. I decided when I was 17 that to continue the allergy shots I had been taking for over a decade weren't needed anymore, and when I told him I wouldn't be having them anymore, he went off on me, yelling, "You'll be back next spring!". He was wrong, with the exception of my insanely over the top reaction to cut grass and any kind of pine tree, I was pretty much allergy free for 25 years, until I was eating dinner in my truck and they came roaring back. Claritin took the edge off and I don't take anything for them now, unless I think there is a chance of going to someone's house with a Christmas tree in close proximity, then I take Benadryl and suffer through it. Without taking it, in a couple of hours I'm a total wreck.
 
It was hearing a live symphony orchestra when I was 10 years old that blew me away, sparking my interest in sound systems, which were quite mediocre in my home. However, I'd ride my bicycle several miles to various audio and radio shops (circa '65) and it was more a progressive-improvement continuum than a one-time blow-me-away thing. One early stand-out along the way was the first time I heard K-horns, and later, B&W Nautilus. Duntech Sovereigns stood out for the failure to impress, but the placement and the setting were all wrong, so it's almost like I never heard them at all, and I fully realized that at the time, which was disappointing as I had looked so forward to hearing them.
 
Back in the late 70s I was involved with PA systems and the Tannoy R&D guys asked us if they could use a gig to test some new commercial cinema system speakers they were designing. We agreed - obviously. They brought these units down together with some Crown power amps and various other bits of kit and set them up next to our PA stacks. I was chatting to one of their guys and he knew everything about these test units - I mean he even knew what colour the voice coil wire varnish was on the drivers!
They took a composite feed from our mixing desk so we could run a direct comparison (theirs versus ours). We were running a 5000 watt rig at the time.
I have to say that we were all completely blown away at the sound quality of these things.
It completely changed my perception of how a PA system should sound.
 
First time: early 1980’s, I’m 7 years old and my father is cranking Jethro Tull’s “Stand Up” through his Rectillinear III Highboys. My mother is screaming at him turn it down and he is ignoring her and smiling. :)

Second time: early 1990’s, I’m 17 years old and my father takes me to a “real” stereo store to look for an upgrade for his now fried Rec III’s (too much Tull LOL). The salesman was really cool and let me into one of the “tube rooms” by myself. I don’t remember the speakers but the amp was a Golden Tube SE-40. He put on Miles Davis “A Tribute to Jack Johnson” and it immediately melted my mind. I could see Miles standing in front of me and John McLaughlin was sitting to his left! I vowed I was going to work extra to afford that amp, until I realized you needed to buy a preamp on top of it. I vowed that some day I would build a tube system like that to try to recapture the magic I’d heard that day - and so an obsession was born!

EDIT/UPDATE: I recently bought a beautiful SE-40 off BT that was upgraded by AK legend “Kegger” (RIP)!! Finally own the amp that started it all for me - and now Miles is BACK IN MY ROOM!
 
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In 1973 (or so)...

Listening to Santana Abraxas on a pair of these:

JBL4520_zps44u2rkuk.jpg


If memory serves me well, amplification was courtesy of Phase Linear. This baby:

pl700Ba.jpg



Spoiled from the get-go. :D
Wow.. That's all I can say for a first experience..
 
Here's my story... 1976..my older brother George came home from military early during to my father passing... A week after arriving home.. A truck pulled into drive way.. Brother bought a stereo at Px in Korea... The truck unloaded a brand new sansui 9090...sansui turntable.. And Bose 501...i remember unpacking and setting everything up.. I was in 7th grade.... The first album up.... Neil Young harvest... After that Bob Dylan blood on the tracks... I was hooked... Prior to that it was Frank Sinatra my dad played on a grundic console while squeezing a beer can as a added instrument...my brother passed away last easter and I know proudly listen to that same stereo... Sansui got a few issue's but nothing to keep it from playing... Bose got refoamed sound killer.. It is just a small part of my collection..
 
Early 60s. My Uncle had a Stromberg-Carlson tube integrated driving a pair of "Sweet Sixteens" he had built. I KNEW that someday I'd have something as cool as that. All credit to Unc for getting me into ham radio, broadcast engineering and all manner of electronic tinkering.

Fast forward to about 1974. Went over to a buddy's apartment above a store. It had a BIG living room fronting on the main drag. In it, Bose 901s hung by chains from the ceiling powered by a Phase Linear 700, a Phase pre and a high-zoot Dual. Don't remember what we spun on that Dual, but do remember we were seriously worried about cracking the picture window:) Pretty sure a significant portion of the town of 5,000 could her what was goin' on.
 
I went over to my allergy doctor/former neighbor's house to look at an old radio one of his son's had for sale. His dad came home and I got to hear his system, with HUGE tower speakers ( Don't remember the brand or model, but the bass was about as good as it could be in 1970) playing "Night on Bald Mountain" and I was pretty much hooked at that point. I don't remember all the brands of equipment he was using, but I remember seeing McIntosh amps. I wish I could have stayed longer, but he was generally a disagreeble type of guy, but a great doctor, and I wasn't comfortable talking to him outside the office back then. If he would have been a nicer guy, I would have been over there a lot. I decided when I was 17 that to continue the allergy shots I had been taking for over a decade weren't needed anymore, and when I told him I wouldn't be having them anymore, he went off on me, yelling, "You'll be back next spring!". He was wrong, with the exception of my insanely over the top reaction to cut grass and any kind of pine tree, I was pretty much allergy free for 25 years, until I was eating dinner in my truck and they came roaring back. Claritin took the edge off and I don't take anything for them now, unless I think there is a chance of going to someone's house with a Christmas tree in close proximity, then I take Benadryl and suffer through it. Without taking it, in a couple of hours I'm a total wreck.
What an unusual story, and what a jerk you had for a doctor. Your saga with allergies sounds like a nightmare; I am sorry for that. I cannot imagine dreading a pine tree (so, no Xmas trees ever for you?). And the sudden resurgence sounds about right--everything's great, and you forget you ever had trouble breathing, then BANG it's back for no reason. What type of music is "Night on Bald Mountain?"
 
Early 60s. My Uncle had a Stromberg-Carlson tube integrated driving a pair of "Sweet Sixteens" he had built. I KNEW that someday I'd have something as cool as that. All credit to Unc for getting me into ham radio, broadcast engineering and all manner of electronic tinkering.

Fast forward to about 1974. Went over to a buddy's apartment above a store. It had a BIG living room fronting on the main drag. In it, Bose 901s hung by chains from the ceiling powered by a Phase Linear 700, a Phase pre and a high-zoot Dual. Don't remember what we spun on that Dual, but do remember we were seriously worried about cracking the picture window:) Pretty sure a significant portion of the town of 5,000 could her what was goin' on.
I can SEE those 901s hanging from the chains--that was the thing to do back then, and everybody drove cheap little threaded eyes right through the 901s' veneer. I know Bose is a naughty word around here, but the 901s were not crap and pumped out an unbelievable amount for their size. A single pair (oxymoron?) was used in my History of Blues music class in college. The class was held in a large auditorium seating maybe 1000 people and when the teacher cued up "Let's Go Get Stoned" by Ray Charles, then "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-las, the music was there, man, and in spades. I'm guessing most Bose haters have never heard 901s.
 
I had a nice setup in high school pioneer stuff with some cheaper speakers (creative I think) but don't remember being blown away by it. I am sure due to setup and the speakers. During college I traded it in on a down payment for a motorcycle. When I got married my wife brought her JVC rack system that sounded ok. We used that until she bought me a CD player and U2 cd when they 1st came out. After hearing how good it sounded I went out and bought a Yamaha amp with Klipsch Heresey speakers and hooked up that CD player to it and was blown away by the sound. The Yamaha and Cd player are long gone but I still have the Heresey's. I am now a vinyl guy more so that CD's now but little system still brings back good memories and it was a WOW moment for me.
 
I was probably 12 and visiting relatives, My Uncle had his B&W DM7's cranking out some good jazz with a diy receiver he built. To me at the time is sounded so real...I was hooked.
 
No specific stories .. I came from a small rural community. Expensive stereos was not all that common among my peer group.

My first exposure to numerous high quality 2 ch stereos was while I was stationed overseas in the USAF in the early 1980's. The Base Exchange & Morale, Welfare & Recreation had a killer selection of components and systems on the Base that were anywhere between affordable to quite expensive.

They had audio rep demonstrations/shows at numerous times during the year. Most people (my age/not married yet/no kids) had really nice audio rigs.
 
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I can SEE those 901s hanging from the chains--that was the thing to do back then, and everybody drove cheap little threaded eyes right through the 901s' veneer. I know Bose is a naughty word around here, but the 901s were not crap and pumped out an unbelievable amount for their size. A single pair (oxymoron?) was used in my History of Blues music class in college. The class was held in a large auditorium seating maybe 1000 people and when the teacher cued up "Let's Go Get Stoned" by Ray Charles, then "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-las, the music was there, man, and in spades. I'm guessing most Bose haters have never heard 901s.

Properly set up and with the proper amplification 901s can amaze. If I were to run across a pair of first series for cheap I'd grab 'em. Problem is, I don't have anything with the power needed to make them come alive. I do have a box full of 2N3055s somewhere so I could probably cobble up something that would deliver:) Right now, the 5.5s I have are just the ticket...the lil' Pioneer can get them seriously loud.
 
AR9s (the big ones) blew me away in the late 1970s. I was at a Philadelphia hotel audio show. I wandered into Sam Goody's suite and they were playing at considerable volume the slow movement of Saint-Saens' so-called "Organ" Symphony, using the 9s. The low pedal notes of the organ, combined with the feathery sound of the strings and woodwinds (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic), enveloped me like an ocean wave. I couldn't get enough of that sound, so I borrowed money from my life insurance policy and soon had a new pair of AR9s in my living room. Based on this story, then, one might say that I value great sound more than my life. :crazy:

Dave
 
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