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What was the component that started the slippery slope

post #1 of 76
11/19/09 at 11:05pm
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of hifi. For me it was either the Sony TA-E2000ESD...(if the Sony ES line is HiFi...I bought it at Harvey)and I filled in with teh DC player...amps....etc....then I upgraded my speakers to my current Sonus Fabers and that was end game. It revealed that my beloved ES components weren't going to cut it. Then the slippery slope began...
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post #2 of 76
11/19/09 at 11:28pm
for me, it was hearing the 650s balanced for the first time. after that, i just went from one amp to another until i got a B52. but making the step from small to big is the real barrier to break. it's just getting the courage (or disregarding reason entirely depending on how you look at it) to make that first "big" purchase - which is compelled for most, as it was for me, by mere curiosity ("what would x sound like? what would it be like to own this and listen to it in the quiet enjoyment of my home every night"). after that, subsequent purchases even if much greater don't seem like a big deal.
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post #3 of 76
11/19/09 at 11:30pm
Wow, that was a long time ago...about 25 years ago to be precise. What started it for me was being exposed to unamplified live orchestra music by my father. After that, I wanted to get that performance anytime I wanted it and 25 years later I am still trying to get there.
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post #4 of 76
11/19/09 at 11:32pm
Krell's biggest home theater setup.
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post #5 of 76
11/20/09 at 1:04am
Stax 2020.


The Koss ESP9 was the gateway. But the Stax pushed me over the edge so hard I still have a slipped disc in my spine.
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post #6 of 76
11/20/09 at 1:06am
Grado SR-60. I contend they are dangerous to the wallet. The most expensive $55 I ever spent.
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post #7 of 76
11/20/09 at 2:02am
Senn CX300II. I figured if cheap senns could sound this good how much better could it get? Little did I know...
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post #8 of 76
11/20/09 at 3:29am
I thought I'd be happy with the modest HD-650 rig, but then they discontinued the K-1000 and I broke down and bought the last new pair at HeadRoom. It went downhill from there, but I choked off the big purchases after the O2 Mk. 1. There's some other high end stuff out there, but I've lost interest. For now.
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post #9 of 76
11/20/09 at 3:44am
Hearing the SR-Lambda pushed me off the deep-end known as high-end.
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post #10 of 76
11/20/09 at 8:19am
Back in the sixties, when I built 2 32w/channel monoblock amps using KT88's.
Then spending hours listening for differences between the Shure V15 MkIV & the Stanton 681ee. The Shure tracked slightly better, but the Stanton sounded slightly better.
Then I bought a Sony Reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The ad said "Great sounds great, good sounds good, and rotten sounds rotten".
That took great courage in advertising. I have been searching for true fidelity ever since.
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post #11 of 76
11/20/09 at 12:44pm
absolutely HD650! although I've auditioned something much more hign-end after that.
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post #12 of 76
11/20/09 at 1:57pm
Boring story: probably the component I've never used is to blame, the entry level amp I ordered took too long to arrive leading to excessive head-fi surfing and other ideas.

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post #13 of 76
11/20/09 at 2:25pm
The Stax headphone I listened to in the mid 90's, one in the Lambda series.
When I some 10 years later got tired of my Grado SR80 and decide to get a new one I remembered that magical experience and hence I went to audition some Stax. I was sold right away and left the store with the SR-007BL and SRM-007t...
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post #14 of 76
11/20/09 at 4:06pm
Etymotic ER4 with 1G shuttle. Talk about some eargasms while traveling. I just knew there was better than earbuds, and some of the cheaper Sony IEMs. This was 10 years ago. Steady descent since then, until the recent upgrade to balanced HD800 and W5000.
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post #15 of 76
11/20/09 at 4:07pm
As a graduate student in Australia I was part of a record listening group that went from home to home listening to music. I wasn't well-off but I had enough financial support to afford some gear and started by building a 3-way speaker system in home-made enclosures. Then I got a Koss ESP6 and my wallet has never been the same since.

Interestingly I boough another ESP 6 a year or so back, the original having been sold years ago, and it is still a decent set of phones. Certainly given the lack of similar isolating eloctrostatic phones. I sold off my Koss 950 which is a better phone, but kept the 6 and the 9' because they are useful when isolation is needed.
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