The first time is the best time...

[tyrion]

I was 13 when my parents bought me my first stereo system. Lafayette receiver, Gerard tt and Criterion speakers. That was almost 32 years ago and I still have the receiver and speakers.

 

[skullguise]

My first enlightened moment came when I was visiting a Nantucket Sound store in the mall where I worked. 1982 or '83 timeframe. I heard some noise from a back room, accessible via a closed glass door.

As I headed back, the noise got a little louder, and JUST as I opened the door, it stopped....only to start again in spades with HUGE bangs on a Tympani, and a maelstrom of brass and strings! Those Tympani hits actually blew my hair back a bit, a la the Maxell tape ad.

Those speakers were Snell A-3's, and the music was Stravinsky "Rite Of Spring." After that experience, it was mid-fi up to hi-fi, then to head-fi.

And my first head-fi enlightenment came when I took my fairly old Senn 580's, which I had for a couple years but didn't use much, and played them on my Ray Samuels XP-7. Organic sound was what I gushed on this forum shortly thereafter.

I was "forced" to go to headphone listening because of a young child and a wife who doesn't want loud noise at night - the only time I can really listen often. But I realized that the sound through headphones is unique, beautiful, and just as musical as listening through speakers. Different, yes; but enjoyable and enlightening in many different ways!

But I would LOVE to go back in time, and re-experience that feeling in the store. It was incredible! Aural S*x!

 

[Todd R]

Ahh yes,
Mine was when I bought an Audio Alchemy Headphone amp (remember them?) and a pair of Sennheiser 580's.

Prior to that, headphones were only a necessary evil for the times when I couldn't play the speakers.
Who knew they could be so much fun?

TR

 

[zachary80]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma Just wait 60 years or so.When Alzheimer's syndrom has seriously kicked in you'll have your first time every day, and your music collection will sound like you never heard it before.

What, you mean quiet?

 

[Kirosia]

senn mx500 . . . and the first real time I got "blown away" was the dt880/mg-head combo . . .

 

[Jahn]

I blame Lisa. Her recommendation on that Stickied thread of recommended headphones led to the Alessandro MS-1. Who said no one reads the stickies?