Which speakers gave you the *wow* factor?

[dshreter]

I used to think it was the speakers that gave the *wow* but it’s always been the room.

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon on an Aiwa CD changer with the lights turned off was WOW.

JBL HLS 615 playing Radiohead Kid A in my dorm room? WOW

The roof of my Honda Accord stargazing with the windows open playing Sigur Ros? WOW

 

[Doodski]

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon on an Aiwa CD changer with the lights turned off was WOW.

I used to provide warranty service for Aiwa and I serviced manyyy mini stereos like the one you pictured and every one of them was not calibrated properly. The left or right channels where too high or low etc. After calibration and a alignment customers where ecstatic over the sound quality improvement. Another issue was the CD tray would stop short of where the CD was in the tray. It required a extensive MOD to the tray drive circuity in the form of a 100K ceramic trim pot and 2 capacitors. I consider these Aiwa blasters to be amongst the best sounding blasters for the money after a proper calibration.

 

[Carlton80@0]

My current speakers wowed me many years ago hearing them at CES. Found a pair about 15 years ago. Heavily modified them for active tri-amplification which I discovered took away the wow factor. They were ultimately destroyed during a house move. So I moved on to Meridian DSP6000’s and still own a few pairs. Then as luck would have it I found an old Standesign rack on usaudiomart. Made arrangements to pick up the rack and lo and behold he had a pristine pair of Apogee Scintilla. He could no longer use them due to moving to a smaller place and had planned to keep them. He later decided that due to my enthusiasm for the speakers and previous use of the speakers that he offered to sell them to me.

 

[MarkS]

Those Virgo's can be found for amazing deals used these days. Maybe worth a try? Excepting an upper bass bump, the Virgo actually measured very flat/neutral in Stereophile. (Though perhaps you've moved on to newer ASR-approved speakers...)

Well I'm currently quite happy with my Goldenear Triton Sevens, which are not ASR approved (but are slim floorstanders!). It would be quite interesting to hear the Virgos again though.

 

[Doodski]

Well I'm currently quite happy with my Goldenear Triton Sevens, which are not ASR approved (but are slim floorstanders!). It would be quite interesting to hear the Virgos again though.

Very cool!
"As with all GoldenEar speakers, development work is conducted at our engineering facility in Arnprior, Canada, utilizing our full-size anechoic chamber — an exact duplicate of the chamber at the NRC in Ottawa Canada — in combination with intense critical listening."

Triton Series | GoldenEar

Triton Series

www.goldenear.com

 

[dshreter]

I used to provide warranty service for Aiwa and I serviced manyyy mini stereos like the one you pictured and every one of them was not calibrated properly. The left or right channels where too high or low etc. After calibration and an alignment customers where ecstatic over the sound quality improvement. Another issue was the CD tray would stop short of where the CD was in the tray. It required an extensive MOD to the tray drive circuity in the form of a 100K ceramic trim pot and 2 capacitors. I consider these Aiwa blasters to be amongst the best sounding blasters for the money after a proper calibration.

They really did make some nicely designed stereos, but mine also did succumb to some sort of reliability issue that killed it.

I’m glad you gave extra life and performance to some of these!

 

[Toblerone]

Going from tv speakers to a sound bar while playing yakuza on the ps4 was by far the biggest wow factor ever. Truly a wow moment that I’ve never recreated even with the jump from sound bar to 7.1.2.

 

[bodhi]

The most recent would be 8350s I impulse bought to my desktop setup because for some reason my hifi dealer wanted to get rid of them and I got a very good upgrade deal. I mean I could always find some use for them and if not I wouldn't be selling them at a loss. I already have 8330s with a sub so I wasn't expecting much of an improvement, but there it was: completely different experience. My jaw or "the veil" didn't drop or anything but it was kind of "huh, ok, didn't expect that".

Back in the day I used to visit a lot of hifi exhibitions and lots of hotel rooms but too often I wasn't that impressed of anything, at least I can't remember anything special. Same thing with listening to speakers in a hifi store. It might be because of a few experiences where a speaker that sounded great in some other room, in some situation, wasn't all that great when in my own listening space. Also I know the guy with the speakers is trying his hardest to sell me the things and that makes you suspicious.

 

[Doodski]

Also I know the guy with the speakers is trying his hardest to sell me the things and that makes you suspicious.

Lol... I experienced this and had customers tell me to my face that they where suspicious. So I told them to operate the speaker switchbox and check the wiring and stuff and after they where more at ease.

 

[kongwee]

First wow speaker was Wilson Audio Watt Puppy V.

 

[mcdn]

the first time I heard speakers that made me go “wow” was the first pair I heard with room correction. Boring answer I know, but almost any system would be improved more by adding room correction than any other change.

 

[bodhi]

Lol... I experienced this and had customers tell me to my face that they where suspicious. So I told them to operate the speaker switchbox and check the wiring and stuff and after they where more at ease.

I don't think the dealer is actually trying to cheat, usually I have listening room to myself. It's just that they are experts at talking about the good things in a speaker and you tend to start hearing the things he talks about. So who I don't trust is myself.

The experience has gotten better because the dealers I frequent now know that I have already bought a lot of stuff from them so I'm not there just to kick tires so to speak.

 

[fineMen]

I'm trying to infer the rules for nomenclature he has in mind. Perhaps all consumer items will need to be either named after the founder of the company, or must be some "non-pompous" technical combination of letters and numbers or...?...ah heck, he's even rejected "CS6" as pompous, so apparently he even has something about certain combinations of letters and numbers. My mind tumbles in to the abyss trying to imagine what could be an acceptable name on his criteria.

Imagine trying to please a boss like that!

I'm not your boss ...

My question was / is how much of the 'wow' is from 'different' alone, in contrast to really increased technical excellence. How much of the 'wow' s from marketing. Marketing is a science today, mind you? How much of the 'wow' is from legend-building inaccessibility, e/g due to the pricing.

I got my hick-up yesterday when I read 'transcendental' or so. That wow'ed me. Sorry for interferring, I'm fine again.

 

[John Limbach]

Mine was the 8050, it was the first time i heard such perfect tonality (to my ears) was also impressed by Focal Solo6

Mine absolutely NHT 3.3

 

[MattHooper]

I'm not your boss ...

My question was / is how much of the 'wow' is from 'different' alone, in contrast to really increased technical excellence. How much of the 'wow' s from marketing. Marketing is a science today, mind you? How much of the 'wow' is from legend-building inaccessibility, e/g due to the pricing.

Well, to answer from my own experience: At a CES show (back when it was really big) I'd heard most of the rooms but was "pulled down the hallway" by the sound of a big band that sounded particularly realistic. In that room I encountered the flagship Hales T8 speakers. I listened to various selections and was utterly blown away by the timbral realism of the sound - more-so than pretty much anything else at the show of any price. Later I sought the brand out, found a local dealer, heard the T8s with some of my own music and again was blown away - just massive soundstaging and imaging with a more 'pure' and realistic tone than I heard from most other speakers. I ended up owning the slightly smaller T5 version which had the same characteristics in a smaller package. The designer, Paul Hales, eventually moved on to doing professional audio gear, so he closed down that company. But it was highly regarded. I still have Hales L/C/R speakers for my home theater and I wouldn't swap anything I've heard for them.

I basically had that repeat experience at a later CES show with the Thiel CS6 speakers - it's possible to be impressed with more than one piece of audio gear
When I had the CS6 in my home they were easily one of the best speakers I've owned (and still among my favorite I've ever heard). Super precise, clear, with incredible precision and density of imaging. I have owned various Thiel speakers ever since, including now (Thiel 2.7). Thiel is hardly a fly-by-night success. They were one of the most successful and highly regarded high end speaker companies for about 30 years until their founder/designer, Jim Thiel died and the company eventually closed down.

So my "wow" is based entirely on my experience with those speakers (and comparing them to many others). It doesn't mean you would necessarily share my opinion of those speakers. Hope that answers your question somewhat.

I got my hick-up yesterday when I read 'transcendental' or so. That wow'ed me. Sorry for interferring, I'm fine again.

Didn't you say at one point on the forum that you had some horn-based speakers? I've always wanted to try horns, but my room doesn't really accomodate most horn speaker designs. Cheers.

 

[fineMen]

So my "wow" is based entirely on my experience with those speakers (and comparing them to many others). It doesn't mean you would necessarily share my opinion of those speakers. Hope that answers your question somewhat.

Sure, but the question remains open: Why is the wow the meh of today? Is there really some development, or are you just hopping from one sensation to the next?

Didn't you say at one point on the forum that you had some horn-based speakers? I've always wanted to try horns, but my room doesn't really accomodate most horn speaker designs. Cheers.

Ja, after some trial of tiny little home hifi systems for shelf usage, but true three way, I came back to that horn centered speakers. There is no perfect stereo. I still argue with the over-precise and thus demanding stereo picture. All this is under investigation. Apart from just enjoying music I'm into anecdotal research. I'm an audiophile, and I hope in a better sense.

Know what, the horn loaded speakers are easily 10 times the size, and there is only so little to gain. Once the music is understood, of course. 'Animals As Leaders' for instance, and then I learned that audiophilistines take 'Avicii' as reference. It breaks my trust in reason ...

But never mind, I'm o/k.

 

[dshreter]

Sure, but the question remains open: Why is the wow the meh of today? Is there really some development, or are you just hopping from one sensation to the next?

I think the answer to this is almost obvious. People don't say WOW about things they've experienced, seen, or done many times over. Wow comes when something surprises you and exceeds your expectations. I'm sure Edison's first phonograph blew people away.

 

[ErVikingo]

More than a Feeling on dad’s DQ-10’s way back when. Years later my IRS Beta (still in use)

 

[Urvile]

1990s, was assistant manager of the Moore theater in Seattle, Heart rented out the theater for two weeks for rehearsal. I'd heard some amazing system over the years I worked there, but they set up a full on arena sized PA system in a 1400 seat theater. And yeah it was Wow, all the gear was custom built including the mixing board. One thing they did no others did was a full week of dialing in the PA before the first rehearsal, it made a difference.

 

[Scrappy]

First pot smoking party in high school baba o Riley was playing on a clock radio and my jaw went slack. Meridian dsp 8000se after a long line of top shelf passive speakers knocked me out

Ha I remember being blown away by Who Are You on vinyl on some Zenith Allegros when real blazed. Great tune that CSI theme kinda ruined..