First time you were blown away by a stereo?

Haven't been blown away by gear yet. In 1987 I was at a Maryland state fair. The girl was singing solo in a tent with a guitar and drummer playing. Great range that she wasn't using, smooth, strong with no vibrato. She was just coasting with no pretence. I was blown away. I watched in amazement for the next few hours. Never heard of them after that.
Best I ever heard, live or recorded.
 
Quite a few years ago, Threshold Audio was located near where I live in Southern California. I had applied for what I think was a final assembly/test/QC type of position, and firmly bombed the interview. Threshold probably made a good decision in not hiring me. However, considering that not long after filling the position that I had applied for they subsequently relocated to the last state I would ever desire to live in, it was a win-win all around. Anyway, as a consolation prize for flubbing the interview, the friendly fellow that interviewed me invited me to chill in their listening room for a little while, where I was treated to listening to a CD of Dire Straights through one of their flagship amps and a pair of electrostatic speakers. I forget the make of the speakers and the CD transport/player etc, but the sound was absolutely glorious and immersive.
 
When my brother came home one summer day in 1978 from Tech Hi-Fi with a brand new Technics SA 500 & Technics Turntable and a set of OHM model H .... and I heard what a quality Sound system really sounded like, i was used to AM radio Quality..lol... cheap Cheap cheap generic "Radio" before that moment.

I just recently after many years of looking aquired a Receiver like his but one model up from his ... The SA600 & miraculously because of the generosity of an audiokarma member Markus111 I aquired the Ohm H's , no turntable yet... I'm still looking.
After many years all of this came together starting with the aquisition of the set of OHM model I on April 4th, then the receiver a few days later, then 3 week's ago a pair of OHM C2's... and then the big miracle came after Markus111 responded to my questions about a set of OHM model H he had aquired back in 2010 and then the realization of my dream realized on Memorial Day...
A great day with Special Extra meaning now in memorial of my brother...
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It all started for me with that day
in the Summer of 1978......
Great story, Harvestor. I am very sorry about your brother.
 
I've owned/own some great gear but the only time I've ever been 'blown away' is the first time I played that Charlie Byrd direct to disc jazz album I picked out of a bargain bin for $3.00 in in 1979. I threw it on my new Oracle Delphi/FR-14/Dynavector Ruby/ Kef 105.2/ Boothroyd Stuart Meridian 105 monos. Lesson learned was that potential means squat. High end gear needs high end source material to realize it's capability. Until then I did recognize obvious performance differences that I thought were about as far as it goes. Anyone who heard that record on that system declared it sounds like they're right there in front of us. However, it is a clever trick record in that it's actually recorded at 45rpm and labeled 33. But so what?

How many other clever tricks are out there?:)
OMG I love that story. It's stories like this that kill me.
 
Haven't been blown away by gear yet. In 1987 I was at a Maryland state fair. The girl was singing solo in a tent with a guitar and drummer playing. Great range that she wasn't using, smooth, strong with no vibrato. She was just coasting with no pretence. I was blown away. I watched in amazement for the next few hours. Never heard of them after that.
Best I ever heard, live or recorded.
Beautiful. I keep forgetting there is such a thing as live music! Do you remember what she was singing?
 
Birchoak puts us at the scene we all wanted to experience.
Mine was considerably less, a 10 watter or so from Radio Shack. And no one to share it with. Or invite over.
 
Folks, I love these stories. Keep 'em coming and no need to make them fancy. Just get the story out. This is one of the greatest applications for the internet, to be able to share these cool experiences with each other, despite being separated by thousands of miles or even just a few walls.
 
Birchoak puts us at the scene we all wanted to experience.
Mine was considerably less, a 10 watter or so from Radio Shack. And no one to share it with. Or invite over.

Hey, remember the other part of that day, where I stumbled around a darkened gym with a broken heart! And I have met virtually NO ONE, in person, who shares my passion. Only here (ok, maybe a guy or two from Craigslist but they were in my house and wouldn't leave).
 
Many years ago (many) older brother of a good friend finally hooked up a big pair of speakers he had bought over a year previously. Had said he didn't want to use 'em until he had a "good enough" receiver to hook them too. He (the brother) came home earlier that day w/ a BIG Pioneer something or other (no idea what it was) and was playing some Woodstock era tunes when we came in after school. Then he put on some Pink Floyd, guessing we played DSOTM 3-4 times, each time just a little louder. And we got LOUD, even by our standards, and for teenagers to admit we were "loud" - rare, but no one complained.

Oh yeah - speakers were something he called "K-horns" (maybe you have heard of them?) and were these weird/different looking speakers in the corners of the basement game room. Impressed the hell out of me.
 
It was 1961 . I heard Cornwalls, Altec Carmels, and a Frazier model I can't recall. I started out with a pair of more Modest two way Steven systems in Davis enclosures.
 
About 3 years ago. We never had good stuff as kids. As a adult, rack system, mp3 players, boomboxes..so forth. Then my brother bought a 70's Marantz at a yard sale and sold to our older brother. He played it with a average set of Sony bookshelf speakers. Sounded unbelievable. Then the sickness began.
 
I was something like ten or twelve, so mid nineties. One of my dad's friends he'd known since highschool had a house on Lake Murray, and we kept our little sail boat there. He was basically the coolest guy I'd ever known (and probably still qualifies) -- raced Buell motorcycles, had a few ski boats and would wakeboard and barefoot, designed and built full custom neon lamps for a living (still remember the space scene he had on the ceiling in one hall), had a gorgeous girlfriend quite a few years younger than him...

Had an awesome stereo system.

I'd never seen electrostats before, and they amazed me. Not only could you see through them (Martin Logans -- probably Sequels in hindsight) but they sounded amazing! I'm sure I annoyed the hell out of him the next several times we came out to sail, but he was a good sport about everything and answered all my questions. He was running a SUMO amp, and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen apart from those speakers.

Later I remember being devastated when I saw how much they cost in a copy of Crutchfield or something. "Well that will never happen."

Here we are 20 years later and I've built something even bigger, not realizing how everything grew in my imagination until I got the new pieces home. Like I said above, he probably had Sequels, quite a bit smaller than the reQuests I ended up with -- just huge to then tiny me. Similarly, I think he was running a SUMO Polaris, not the Andromeda, but it may have been an Andromeda II.

Anyway. Haven't talked to the guy or seen him in years since we stopped sailing, but I can thank him for the inspiration; basically the reason I'm here!
 
I was something like ten or twelve, so mid nineties. One of my dad's friends he'd known since highschool had a house on Lake Murray, and we kept our little sail boat there. He was basically the coolest guy I'd ever known (and probably still qualifies) -- raced Buell motorcycles, had a few ski boats and would wakeboard and barefoot, designed and built full custom neon lamps for a living (still remember the space scene he had on the ceiling in one hall), had a gorgeous girlfriend quite a few years younger than him...

Had an awesome stereo system.

I'd never seen electrostats before, and they amazed me. Not only could you see through them (Martin Logans -- probably Sequels in hindsight) but they sounded amazing! I'm sure I annoyed the hell out of him the next several times we came out to sail, but he was a good sport about everything and answered all my questions. He was running a SUMO amp, and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen apart from those speakers.

Later I remember being devastated when I saw how much they cost in a copy of Crutchfield or something. "Well that will never happen."

Here we are 20 years later and I've built something even bigger, not realizing how everything grew in my imagination until I got the new pieces home. Like I said above, he probably had Sequels, quite a bit smaller than the reQuests I ended up with -- just huge to then tiny me. Similarly, I think he was running a SUMO Polaris, not the Andromeda, but it may have been an Andromeda II.

Anyway. Haven't talked to the guy or seen him in years since we stopped sailing, but I can thank him for the inspiration; basically the reason I'm here!
Look the Guy up...and Re-Connect maybe you can learn from the guy some more and have your own friendship....
He may become an asset to you in more ways than one....?
 
Ok, I'll go first.

1980-something. I was attending an exclusive prep school, on full scholarship, and was completely unaware of what a good sound system could sound like. Unable to afford the transportation portion of the tuition, I dutifully pedaled my bike to school in all kinds of weather, frequently urged on by fellow students whizzing past me in their own Jeeps, Camaros, Trans-Ams, etc.

One day, a few hours prior to a school dance, I heard the opening drums & guitar to Tom Petty's "Refugee" coming from our theater room, which seated perhaps 150 people. It sounded more clean and powerful than anything I had ever heard in my life, including several live junior high bands, and I was drawn to its source like a moth to flame.


Enter Mike G--------. No one knew much about Mike. He wore a brown leather jacket, drove his own, perfectly restored '69 Camaro convertible, and was considerably rougher around the edges than anyone else in our class. He came from a town nobody had heard, coughed incessantly, and nobody messed with him.

Mike had brought what I have come to believe was a Pioneer SX-1980 to power that night's school dance, and hooked up to it were the largest speakers I had ever seen in my life. I believe they were Pioneers but beyond that I have no recall. The sound hit me in the chest, enveloped my entire being, and permeated my brain. I had no idea Tom Petty could sound this good, this loud, and I could not get enough. It was an instant addiction that has never truly left me.

The receiver looked impossibly complex to me; never before had I seen so many amazing silver dials, switches and levers. What did they all do? What if you pushed the wrong one? How could a mortal human being, let alone a man-child of Mike's provenance, possess such a glittering, fantastic machine erupting with power second only to Krakatoa? If it was a powerboat it would have been sending rooster tails of superheated water two hundred feet high; as it was, Mike was politely asked to turn his music down, lest he disturb the adjacent science wing any further. One poor soul dared peer into one of the shipping cartons strewn about the room and was promptly cuffed on the chin by Mike, with the remonstration "Don't touch my f**kin' stuff!" No one else looked into any boxes.

Oddly, I don't remember the music that night. Most likely I was distracted by Kara M-------, who had professed a deep, undeniable passion for me earlier that week but was somehow unavailable for even a fast dance. I was heartbroken, and although I later learned that her perennially golden skin was actually spray-on tan, no amount of powerful classic rock could raise me from my blue funk that night. Eventually, I got over Kara, but I have never outgrown good music played through a good system. It's not quite as exciting as kissing a girl, but it's damn close.
My dad had a Pioneer from the late 60's or early 70's that I remember listening to a few times as a kid, then he got rid of it at a garage sale when I was about 8. Then around the age of 12 I started listening to our record collection on a cheaper new all in one stereo, sounded ok but I dreamed about getting a better stereo. When I was about 22 I finally had some money in my pocket and took the chance on a pioneer sx750, I remember the first time I turned it on the night I got it with the warm incandescent light and warm vintage stereo sound, was so euphonic. I then invested in a good turntable and ever since I've been chasing better sound since I know now stereos don't sound the same like the boomboxes from the 90's did.
 
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t was the early 60s and I was in junior high school, A friend's dad owned a TV repair store and I was over their place for dinner and his ad had a stereo, which I had never heard of before. It turned out to be a Dynaco of some sort (A PAS3 and a stereo 70 I believe), an AR turntable and a pair of of AR3 speakers. He played some classical records which I never heard of before . I had never heard anything like that before. that bass really knocked me out and it left a lasting impression on me. I've been struggling to recapture that feeling of wonder ever since. I guess it's like the first time you ever had sex. Nothing can compare.
 
There have been several times I've been blown away by systems. But, being you asked for the first... my older brother had a gotten some used equipment, something with VU meters, and big, and I mean BIG speakers, and I was completely blown away when I heard Ted Nugent's first album. I was around 13 at the time.
 
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
Yep... that will do it.
 
I remember the mall by me had a Stereoland store and we used to wander in there all the time.

I mostly remember the blue McIntosh amplifiers.

Even though we couldn't afford them the salesmen would always demonstrate the equipment for us. They got a kick out of it watching us grin...

I remember a lot of Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon..........
 
Summer 2017. My wife and I went to a local hi-fi shop so that I may pick up some XLR cables. The main system the owner allowed customers to use to demo material at the time consisted of a Parasound Halo P5 preamp, Parasound Halo A21 amplifier, a Marantz CD6006 CD player, and Jamo S 628 floorstanding loudspeakers. My wife selected "When the Saints Go Marching In" as performed by the Cincinnati Pops Big Band Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel (album: Big Band Hit Parade). The staging and placement of instrumentalists in the space in front of us was jaw-droppingly surreal. Both of us were literally speechless as the players aurally "appeared" exactly where they would on a stage in front of an audience. Even though I'm thoroughly satisfied with the B&K gear I'm currently using, the day I decide I want to change my setup, I won't hesitate to pick up the P5/A21 pairing by Parasound. The aforementioned track and other discs we demoed sounded frighteningly present and helped me to quick understand why John Curl is one of the most respected circuit designers of all time.
 
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