Describe your decisive experience that completely changed your view of audiophilia with a comment.

[Purité Audio]

Same as BD first level matched ( milli volt meter) unsighted dac comparison, one of which was really really expensive,
Keith

 

[Rotiv]

Realize that my hearing does not allow a valid conclusion on its own, which the enlightened ones do not either. Accept, to back off, and start again.

 

[julian_hughes]

I suffered a severe head injury and have been buying audiophile enhancements ever since. Pebbles, CD demagnetizers, huge powerful multi-core PCs to do the job of an inexpensive embedded device, directional ethernet and USB cables, 24 core IEM cables which rust, mains purifiers, the whole thing.

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

In 2021, reading a comment, possibly of a review of a 500,000 dollar turntable, which led me to ASR.

 

[Spkrdctr]

My eyes were opened way back in my twenties. Seems like centuries ago..... Anyway I had the good fortune of meeting an engineer named Tom Nousaine. He invited me to observe some blind tests and check out what the cutting edge engineering in audio and subwoofers was. It was fun because I got to learn a lot from the engineers who did all "the cool stuff". After observing blind tests that no one here would believe, showed no one could tell a difference in anything, amps, receivers, speaker wire, interconnects, etc. The ONLY thing anyone could hear the difference in was speakers. Nothing else in the ENTIRE audio chain mattered. Then the challenges went out to the entire audiophile community (famous magazine writers and their ilk) After a few tests where they failed miserably, they then refused to participate IN ANY blind tests again. This was 40 years or so ago and the high end audiophile crowd still will not participate in a blind test. They passed the (don't ever do a blind test) mentality down through the decades. Even today none of them would be caught dead doing a blind test.
Well, that opened my eyes. The engineers that were involved had day jobs doing car audio research for the big three auto companies. They, in Detroit terms, worked in "job shops" Job shops were hired engineering firms to do the research. They were even back then doing things in car audio that would be futuristic even today after all these years. So, I state on ASR over and over that NO ONE has EVER been able to tell a difference in the audio chain except for speakers. Oh and you do NOT need a highly tuned very difficult to set up and do, fancy engineering blind test. Just a good basic blind test can be done in homes. So, I shake my head when people here on ASR say they can hear differences in certain equipment when the difference is measurable but not audible. Listening in a home stereo environment masks everything but the speakers.
So, I officially turned my quest to educate people over to Amir. He has youth and stamina and hasn't been beaten down with people doubling down on non-science beliefs. I'm retired and don't have to discuss it anymore. That is my story!
Now, about audiophools...........

 

[Robin L]

When I came to the realization that all LPs sound worse as the stylus approaches the deadwax. This was about ten years ago, around the same time that digital replay became clearly superior compared to analog, at least to these ears.

 

[moonlight rainbow dream]

After moving a speaker into a different room, I was flabbergasted by the amount of bass it was putting out when I had earlier concluded that it didn't have much bass. Showed me how important speaker placement and room acoustics are to the overall performance of a system, and put me on the fast track to becoming a multi-sub/REW advocate.

 

[sq225917]

Hearing the DG vinyl of Bernstein's West Side Story for the first time on a large B&O Rg1200 radiogram as a child age about 8.

Doing a blind cable test that involved, an rca cable, speaker cable, a coat hanger, a kit kat wrapper and a set of car keys. They all sounded the same.

 

[LTig]

A blind test between two Arcam Black Box 3 DACs where one was modified by me (rolled opamps). Other than at the first sighted listening where I reported smoother sound, more details, lifted veals and so forth I got 8 of 10 tries correct and the difference was incredibly small. So small I decided its not worth to worry about.

A test between SPDIF Toslink and Coax. Coax always sounded much better to me - unfortunately also when the person switching between the cables did not switch and I heared the same better SQ with the Toslink ...

Using a measurement mic and REW to adjust the EQ for my main system.

 

[Timcognito]

Been in the hobby for decades, to many shows and demos, have built some of my own speakers, bought hundreds of LPs and a thousand plus CDs and helped friends a family with audio decisions. Have never gotten rid of any audio device I liked, switching them in and out occasionally and basically have same main set up in a large room for 15 years. I was satisfied that I had reached my goal and with some reinforcement from audiophile friends about my system's sound to this day I just stopped buying much. I decided to focus on music and not gear, and although I read many audio forums to keep up, I have not regretted my decision. In 2017 bought a Bluesound Node 2 and NAS so I could dump those jewel boxes and have one dash board and music in three locations adding more Nodes. Added a Topping DAC last year upon Amir's assessment of the Node but heard very little improvement in my system. Helped a friend installing and setting up his MiniDSP Flex so maybe that's next. I find that recordings themselves are the biggest factor for sound improvement. The thing I find most rewarding is Jazz old and new, Cumbia, Modern Tango, African Highlife, Electronica, Acapella, Choral, and anything with Acoustic strings. My HT is do for an upgrade soon also so I'll mess with that.
I am the same way about my woodworking hobby, keeping my classic Rockwell and Delta big machines but have almost completely replaced my corded power hand tools with battery equivalents. I just need to finish that damn greenhouse but other projects get my attention.

 

[ahofer]

I’l gonna violate the OP and mark a few brief lifetime revelations:

1. I’m working in a stereo store as a teenager. I get to listen to all the gear all the time. I end up preferring the modest Acoustic Research speakers to the big ultralinears and other stuff with gimmicks and huge drivers after longer-term listening. Hmm, what's going on here?
2. I’m still into gear in 1987, when the Stereo Review article blind-testing fancy amplifiers comes out (see page 80 of the pdf). I’ve had no exposure to AES research or anything. Knocked a huge pillar out of my belief system. Getting a little frustrated with my Magnepans, which seem touchy and inconsistent somehow.
3. I buy some Thiel CS3.6 speakers in 1993, and I’m long-term happy with them. I don’t spend much time thinking about my amp and speakers for the next 25 years, although I do digitize my collection and start network-streaming my music (Logitech, then DLNA/Bubble to a CA streamer)
4. The Thiels break in 2018 and I start shopping and researching. The internet reveals a LOT more objective research where that Stereo Review article came from. I find the dealers, and the first sites I frequent (e.g. Audiogon) increasingly ridiculous.
5. I arrive at ASR in 2019, and learn about even more research.

So you could say the Stereo Review article was a time-release ”red pill” or something. I definitely thought of it whenever I was ogling some massive hunk of equipment after I read it.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

I’l gonna violate the OP and mark a few brief lifetime revelations:

1. I’m working in a stereo store as a teenager. I get to listen to all the gear all the time. I end up preferring the modest Acoustic Research speakers to the big ultralinears and other stuff with gimmicks and huge drivers.
2. I’m still into gear in 1987, when the Stereo Review article blind-testing fancy amplifiers comes out (see page 80 of the pdf). I’ve had no exposure to AES research or anything. Knocked a huge pillar out of my belief system.
3. I buy some Thiel CS3.6 speakers in 1993, and I’m long-term happy with them. I don’t spend much time thinking about my amp and speakers for the next 25 years, although I do digitize my collection and start network-streaming my music (Logitech, then DLNA/Bubble)
4. The Thiels break and I start shopping and researching. The internet reveals a LOT more objective research where that Stereo Review article came from. I find the dealers, and the first sites I frequent (e.g. Audiogon) increasingly ridiculous.
5. I arrive at ASR a few years ago, and learn about even more research.

So you could say the Stereo Review article was a time-release ”red pill” or something. I definitely thought of it whenever I was ogling some massive hunk of equipment after I read it.

Nice link! Thank you. That's a good read.

 

[UltraNearFieldJock]

It's very interesting to read here about so many different revelations. My decisive experience: the beginning of experiments with drastic rebuild of headphones and finally the ultimate solution: Ultra Near Field listening. I was always an enthusiastic headphone listener. But I began more and more to reflect about sound quality (after all sound stage) and comfort (often more than 10 hours music listening per day). UNF make me happy since more than 2 years, but as a DIY-er I continue to improve the system and try something new – it will be perhaps a never-ending story.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Decisive experiences, well I've had a few. However, the ones that continue to lurk in my mind are the experiences of participating in loudspeaker comparisons under randomized, blind conditions at Harman. The first time was as part of a group and seemed less challenging, perhaps because of the social context. The second was solo and strenuous but it forced me to question every sample and sound unanchored by the ability to associate them with a particular entity or image. Since then, I find even unblinded comparisons much more demanding than I did in the past.

I had a very similar experience and take away from my experience with the Harman speaker shuffler.

In my case it was as a dealer so they were selling me on their science, but as I listened to the three speakers on demo, one was a standout as a real honker. I thought to myself, "Oh dear god, this must be a JBL horn system. How embarassing!" The other two were much closer. I preferred the bass and upper midrange of one and the lowest bass and the highs of the other. Honestly I could be pretty happy with either.

It turned out that the honker was a Martin Logan 10" woofer hybrid electrostat, I don't remember the model, and the other two were the B&W 800 Diamond and the JBL 1400 Array. I had preferred the bass extension and the highs of the B&W but at half the price, the demo worked. I bought a pair of the 1400 Arrays for myself and kept them for several years.

All in all, I found the experience quite humbling. It was a very clear demonstration of our preconceived notions and sighted bias.

 

[egellings]

I wonder if it was possible that the amplifier was misbehaving when driving the M-L electrostats. A capacitive load can make some amplifiers misbehave. I heard those speakers and did not experience a 'honky', exaggerated midrange at all. Either that, or maybe a room resonance was at play during your listing session.

 

[ahofer]

It turned out that the honker was a Martin Logan 10" woofer hybrid electrostat, I don't remember the model, and the other two were the B&W 800 Diamond and the JBL 1400 Array. I had preferred the bass extension and the highs of the B&W but at half the price, the demo worked. I bought a pair of the 1400 Arrays for myself and kept them for several years.

I repeat my point about how little usable insight individual, sighted, subjective comments can provide. Great example.

 

[movehome]

The experience that was the most significant to me was hearing an LP for the first time on my first turntable. It was an Allan Holdsworth record and sounded amazing. Before that my digital setup must not have been great, or maybe I hadn't been listening to much well-mastered music. Either way it was my first time noticing great sounding production.

At the time I thought "records are amazing" but now I figure it was just a really good sounding album with good mastering on vinyl.

 

[Alexium]

I’m still into gear in 1987, when the Stereo Review article blind-testing fancy amplifiers comes out (see page 80 of the pdf). I’ve had no exposure to AES research or anything. Knocked a huge pillar out of my belief system.

Great stories, and amazing magazine, thank you very much for both. I love the audio equipment from 80s and 90s, and the 170 pages of the magazine will be an excellent read, a window in the the past.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I wonder if it was possible that the amplifier was misbehaving when driving the M-L electrostats. A capacitive load can make some amplifiers misbehave. I heard those speakers and did not experience a 'honky', exaggerated midrange at all. Either that, or maybe a room resonance was at play during your listing session.

All possible but unlikely. The engineers at Harman are not inexperienced and while my visit was a "sales" visit and not pure research, I don't believe the engineers that were providing the demonstration are so ethically challenged that they would allow gross errors like these to affect the demonstration.

FWIW: A few years prior to the Harman demo I took in trade a full 5.1 ML system with Martin Logan Summits as the main speakers. For grins I took the Summits home and gave them a good listen. I found the sound rather disappointing. I don't really recall my exact feelings, but the speakers were sold off to the next owner rather quickly. Very cool looking speakers though.

 

[ahofer]

Great stories, and amazing magazine, thank you very much for both. I love the audio equipment from 80s and 90s, and the 170 pages of the magazine will be an excellent read, a window in the the past.

the whole archive is on line. https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/HiFI-Stereo-Review.htm