What was the 1st system that made you go WOW!!!!

[Frgirard]

My actual system : kh420 and the room.

 

[Willem]

Quad ESL 57 electrostats, in the late sixties when I was in my final year at school. I bought them a few years later, and still own them, even though they have since been replaced by subwoofered Quad 2805s.

 

[Music1969]

The first was Focal Utopia speakers. Followed by Focal Utopia headphones!

But later and bigger wows B&O Beolab 90 demo. KEF Blade at a dealer. Genelec 8361

 

[dougi]

visiting an acquaintance in the early 90s who had a fairly nice system. LP12->Carver magnetic field amps->B&W Matrix 801s. The first time I had heard proper bass in a home environment.

 

[JayGilb]

Drove a few hours and purchased a CD player from "a big city stereo shop" shortly after their introduction. Spent the rest of the afternoon hitting every record shop I could find on the way out of town, purchasing CDs, which were really hard to find in the early days.

The sonic improvement was so great over vinyl that I barely played any records afterwards.

 

[Purité Audio]

Meridian M2 not long released at Subjective Audio , Mornington Crescent ( the place not the game) they were to blame for this lifelong illness!
Keith

 

[Doodski]

B&W Matrix 801

I was selling the Matrix 801 @that time and ran them with several different power amps. They do have a nice slam. I was powering them with a Luxman M03 and bottomed out a woofer voice coil former and the rep replaced the woofer under warranty right in the sound room so we did not go without the display pair. Great service.

 

[JayGilb]

Meridian M2 not long released at Subjective Audio , Mornington Crescent ( the place not the game) they were to blame for this lifelong illness!
Keith

While audiophilia is not in the "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", it would probably fall within the parameters.

 

[Burning Sounds]

Maggies again! In 1979 I was wanting to replace my Altec Valencia's and had done the "research" and had decided on some Polk speakers (can't remember the model). After he demo'd them the salesman suggested I have a listen to these new speakers and wheeled out the MG1s. I'd never heard a speaker that sounded so open. Forty two years later and I still have them (and some MG2.5Rs) and they still work. It hooked me on dipoles and once I had discovered Linkwitz' site I was hooked even more. Currently enthralled by LX521s and LXMinis and unlikely to change.

 

[raindance]

My first experience with high end was some large Maggies driven by locally made (in South Africa) Steinhart valve (tube) amps and an Oracle turntable all set up in the middle of a showroom nowhere near any walls. This would have been in the 80's.

The same setup sounded amazing through some fairly tiny Sonus Faber speakers also, especially on solo piano.

 

[Midwest Blade]

Used to be a professional audio business that also did some retail. They had a set of Fostex studio monitors with 12" woofer in a teak veneer cabinet which had a mounted teak horn and a super tweeter. Not sure what was powering these but whenever I coaxed them for a bit of a listen they were just unbelievable.
Second was a set of Klipschorns with a SUMO class A amp, preamp and Oracle turntable.
A short time later I first heard Quad ESL's. These very speakers are set up in my listening room today forty years later.

 

[Kevbaz]

The first system I heard that made me go wow, was a car system using DLS speakers, Hifonics Sub’s and all Hifonics amplifiers.
It sounded amazing, really clear, and amazing bass and affordable equipment.

 

[solderdude]

Some huge Acoustats at a hifi show about 30 years ago.
The Panels were bigger than a door.

It made me design and build my own stats (tensionless), about just as high but narrow.

Now decommissioned (due to HV, kids and cats)



Now using DIY 3-way system (2x 17W75 + VIFA M110 + HiVi ring ribbon tweeter) + DIY Active SW (flat to 18Hz) with 2 30cm alu woofers.





all own design incl the active filtering and used power amp.

 

[tifune]

I know your Q is geared toward high end, "everything in it's right place", etc. but the 2 which stick out in my mind the most are the LSR305 and the Sundara. In both cases, I actually got legitimately angry at how good they sounded for what they cost compared to some of my other purchases.

 

[jkasch]

I wonder how many of these 1st Wow systems approximated the Toole room target.

 

[minor1000]

Linkwitz Lab Pluto

 

[Jim Matthews]

Linkwitz Lab Pluto

View attachment 165622

Everything but the box. Brilliant, affordable design.

You did good, Siggy.

 

[Bob from Florida]

Spica TC50 powered by Quicksiver Silver 60's mid 1980's. Source was a Merrill Heirloom table with Eminent Technologies air bearing tonearm with a Garrett Brothers cartridge. I don't remember the preamp. Those speakers did an uncanny disappearing act.

 

[JeffS7444]

Early 1980s, the dealer's system probably consisted of:

Linn LP12 turntable + Ittok arm
Mark Levinson ML7 pre
Mark Levinson ML2 monoblocks
Quad ESL57 speakers with Levinson oak stands (and Decca tweeters? I don't recall)

Some audiophile-type recording of a solo female vocalist was playing, and it was the most lifelike reproduction I had heard up to that point. But whether I'd be as impressed today is another matter! Today I might want a massive sound when playing works like "Sunrise" from Also Sprach Zarathustra. I never did buy the Quads, but I did go through a Linn + Levinson phase.

 

[JeffS7444]

Linkwitz Lab Pluto

View attachment 165622

Did you ever have the opportunity to compare with LX-Mini? I paid SL his design fee for those a number of years ago but so far have done nothing because my current set of Plutos already sound very good to my ears!