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

[ahofer]

Excellent thread, many thanks @Neuro
Hard to pick a moment/experience there were quite a lot. Sometimes a few per day . So I just chose something I read today



Well said and very "at present". And it might reach 'epiphany' level when you learn that it comes from an article about people who tinker with and listen to the sound quality of.. gramophones. In 1923!

 

[Kachda]

Positive: Growing up, we only had a cheap tape deck with a single speaker. The first time I saw a woofer moving in and out with bass you could feel was an ear-opening experience. Been chasing the dragon since then.

Negative: Prior to ASR, I used to read audiophile magazine garbage. I demo'ed many speakers and realized that with sighted listening, the visual beauty of the speaker often mattered more as long as the music was good. Also, audiotory memory is near zero and listening to different speakers at different times was useless.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Interesting thread, got me thinking what is that decisive moment for me?
Well, after much thinking and introspection, none!
For me, the last 50 years, actively searching for better music in my home, is just a long chain of small and big discoveries, that brought me where I am today.
Would have been here sooner if I did not waste a lot of time fumbling in the dark searching for magic, following voodoo priest advises.
But I eventually made it to here and now, enjoying every minute, a lot more minutes since I retired, now I can spend hours listening to music in my two dedicated music room, my video room and a few headphones/IEM.
The journey is not over, it never is, but the audio scenery has been spectacular for a while now.

 

[as-audio]

...
A classmate had found a pair of used German (Siemens?, Klangfilm?) studio monitors. I was completely surprised that out of our old records came a completely new sound dimension with "distortion-free" high volume and a hard firm bass.
This was the starting point for a lifelong journey of pleasure.

Please tell us what kind of speakers have been found, otherwise the post is useles - but I see that you did not reply any more in this your very own thread ..

 

[NIN]

Hi

Repeating: There was a test on AVSForum (around 2007?) in which a famous audiophile had to distinguish, in a knowledge removed experiment, his cables (audiophiles = Expensive) speaker cable against run of the mill Monster Cables (around $500.oo) . He could not. I tried similar and the results were the same.

I remember that thread, Mark.

1. Around 17-18 years ago when I came in contact with Ingvar Öhman and all the other guys from MOLT that change my mind on blindtest, measurements and how easy it is to "hear" something that are not there.
2. Just after the contact with the MOLT guys, may be 15 years ago, I started to understand the massive influence the room have on the sound.

 

[Valvetubehead]

Back in 2007, Evan Flavell (aka Zilch) invited me over to ZilchLab in the East Bay to test my EV coaxial mule boxes and gave a listen to early version of what became the Econowave. His C36 viscounts left me slack jawed. Thanks Zilch!! RIP good buddy.

 

[Steve Dallas]

1. In the late 80s, I heard a CD (David Sanborn) for the 1st time at my wealthy friend's house. Early Phillips CD player, Yamaha integrated Amp and JBL speakers. I was stunned at how clean and clear it sounded. Never looked at source material the same way again.
2. Failed a blind DAC test miserably. Scales fell off my eyes RE the audiophile press.
3. Discovered I would much rather have DRC than bit perfect playback.
4. Discovered how important matching dispersion width to the room can be (along with all the other room, treatment, and placement variables.)

 

[Zgrado1970]

Apart from negative experiences on Head-Fi (particularly in the Sound Science forum) my decisive moment came when I hosted my regular poker game around 12 years ago. Three of the players were engineers, and when we talked about my system (and theirs), it became clear I had spent some dumb money. One of the guys was not into audio at all, and he busted a gut when we told him about cable risers, magic stones, etc.

 

[Lux_ury]

Vinyl Records are so overated (Lips sealed emoji)

 

[robwpdx]

In high school one of my activities was the stage crew. We had grades 7-12 in one building. The stage crew operated on an apprentice and seniority system and we had our own self-managed budget. We had a stage & set department, a lighting department, and a sound department. I was the youngest sound manager in 10th grade, we built some of our equipment, and I bought some great AKG lower end microphones. We did our own unpermitted electrician work up to 50A/220 installing breakers in the existing school panels and had ancient arc spotlights we wired off their own motor generators - 90V @ 90A DC where we did all the wiring off the generator panel. We were very independent and the sound booth was filled with unlabeled patch panels and switches you had to know how to operate to use the auditorium PA. We also pinned our own locks. We had a master key system. We gave the principal all the individual unlabeled keys, and the principal had a.freakout when I arrived for a show, found them with the sound equipment trying to set it up for a PTA meeting, and then realizing they couldn't run it without a student. After I graduated, they took back control of the stage crew. It was actually somewhat a miracle no one was injured.

Somehow the Eastman School of Music, with smooth jazz trumpeter Chuck Mangione, visited our high school on tour bringing 3 Suburban Sound 8 channel mixers. As a result of helping at that concert, I later got a student job working in Eastman's recording department and dated a cute one year older oboist learning to make her own reeds. So that visiting show was the moment.

The Suburban Sound design and the Melcor op amps later became the basis of Automated Processes Inc. mixer, op amp, and preamp card lines. From there, API developed their respected EQ and compressors. They even did a small run of transistor power amps with transformer out.The Eastman School later got a big grant from the Kresge Foundation - KMart and built a large recording space, the Rey Wright room, Hidley/Westlake control rooms, one with a big API console, and one with a big Quad Eight, one of the first automated mixing consoles and based on the DBX voltage controlled amplifier.

 

[CapMan]

Measuring my room with REW for the first time and then understanding that > 90% of the sound characteristic I was hearing was room and speaker and little to do with the electronics.

 

[Rednaxela]

When I was 18 my neighbor invited me to come over and listen to his DIY speakers, I believe a Klang & Ton design, driven by Sony ES power amplification and the amazing TA-E2000ESD pre/pro with, among other features, a 3-band digital PEQ.

It made a huge impression on me.

I remember discussing with him the holographic quality of his setup, and agreeing that with such a sound one could easily live without surround speakers.

 

[jim1274]

I searched the thread for “Omni”, and since nobody mentioned them, thought I’d throw my 2 cents worth in:

This summer, I purchased a pair of Duevel Planets on a flier. I purchased a portable Bluetooth Omni speaker that did some things so well, I was intrigued enough with omni to explore what was out there for regular speakers. After sleuthing around, I ended up reading several glowing reviews of the Duevel Planets, so decided worth a try given the relatively modest cost. I ended up buying the model-up Enterprise not long after. Having been a conventional “box” speaker guy for 50 years (yeah, I am old), that changed my view for sure, enough that I’m now going to try some planars next.

The Enterprise also changed my view on amps. When they first arrived and tested on modest amps, an AVR and older basic Emotiva, first impression is these aren’t enough better than Planets to justify the 2.5X cost. The distributor told me they would benefit from better amplification, so I put a Benchmark AHB2 in front of them, bringing them to life. Until then, I question the difference an amp could make beyond a pretty good one driven well within its power capability.

 

[gsp1971]

When I discovered quality uncompressed recordings with good dynamic range. Ended up throwing away about 80% of my CD collection and started over.

 

[jim1274]

When I discovered quality uncompressed recordings with good dynamic range. Ended up throwing away about 80% of my CD collection and started over.

Oh my, someone told on me. I had my “jukebox” all in MP3 for decades, and will have to admit when not all that long ago signing up for Tidal and Qobuz, well, that changed my view too. Back in the day, things like IPods maxed out at 40GB I recall, pretty much forcing one to use compression to fit much.

I didn’t think of that, but count me in. Any serious listening was done in my living room from my SACD and DVD-audio discs, but ability to stream almost anything mainstream in hires is a game changer. Wide dynamic range is frosting on the cake, for sure.

 

[Anton D]

1) Visiting the ‘Hi Fi’ section of a local shop to buy a new ‘needle’ for the Magnavox console. Started the ‘audiophile’ path then and there.

2) Listening at different shops and hearing people’s systems. None sounded identical and most sounded great pretty great. Sonic variation is fine…there is no platonic ideal system.

 

[Dimitri]

I consider myself lucky in that I heard real instruments at an early age. That established some sort of reference so when I would hear music reproduced, I had something to compare it to.
As for all the flowery writing in reviews over the years.....it's writing.
And any time I read about a veil being lifted I always wonder how they never knew it was there in the first place !!!

 

[egellings]

I consider myself lucky in that I heard real instruments at an early age. That established some sort of reference so when I would hear music reproduced, I had something to compare it to.
As for all the flowery writing in reviews over the years.....it's writing.
And any time I read about a veil being lifted I always wonder how they never knew it was there in the first place !!!

They'll say that the equipment wasn't resolving enough to notice the veil, or something similar.

 

[Philbo King]

I was limited in my early life by moderate to extreme poverty. So I wasn't exposed to decent fidelity until I started as an assistant at Redrox Recording Studio, which used an 8 track Tascam, JBL monitors, and simple Kelsey mix console. (I still love the tape sound for rock). I also worked for the same folks as FOH sound engineer for a few years to help pay my way through college, usually 1 or 2 gigs/week.

Later I picked up a BSR 11 band GEQ/RTA that came with a measurement mic. Even with the limits it had it was a revelatory experience, though it was frustrating to try to dial a flat response due to the fixed Q & fixed frequency filter bands.

I eventually realized the value of room acoustics, starting with covering my basement walls with very heavy velvet curtains hung 9" from the wall. This (somewhat limited treatment) allowed me to get my first mix that translated to other systems well.

 

[Anton D]

I consider myself lucky in that I heard real instruments at an early age. That established some sort of reference so when I would hear music reproduced, I had something to compare it to.
As for all the flowery writing in reviews over the years.....it's writing.
And any time I read about a veil being lifted I always wonder how they never knew it was there in the first place !!!

I find it interesting that so many audiophiles deny acoustic memory, but your experience is much more in keeping with the opposite, I agree with you 100%!