[up late]

not so much a wow moment (the grado sr80 gave me that years ago) but a notable one when i recently auditioned the new focal utopia, final audio d8000 pro and hifiman susvara and found that the susvara got the balance of tonality and technicalities more 'right' to my ears.

 

[Svperstar]

The Gilmore Lite -> Sennheiser HD580 back in what 2004 after only hearing the Sennheiser 595 as the most "high end" headphone.

HEADPHONES
- Sony SA5000, somewhere back in the early 2000s, they sparkled, it was a wow for sure at the time. Other headphones followed and stepped it up, but this was the first big wow difference for me

Was searching the thread for this, I paid $500 for the Sony MDR-SA5000s back when they were the "Flavor of the Month" and people were calling them a "HD650 Killer" at a time when the 650 was viewed as the king by the majority of the community. The SA5000s didn't sound like anything else, in the end I think that "unnatural" sound did them in. I sold mine for I think $250 and I am kicking myself for not hanging onto them. They sounded horrible on certain music and the ear fatigue was real but with the right music they were amazing.

The biggest shock I have had was on Saturday. I listened too the dCS Bartok -> Focal Utopia. I put on a reference track I have heard 100+ times and it just sounded so wrong, I asked if they had some kind of 3d audio processing or something on and sure enough they did. Turned that off and much much better. The Utopia creates a "box" around your head containing the music. Its an interesting effect I have never heard anything else like it.

Not sure it counts as "Summit-Fi" or not but hearing the RME ADI-2 -> SMSL SP200 -> Hifiman HE6SE-2 , I thought I needed a way more powerful amp then my SP200, I completely forgot to try the Extreme Power output on my RME ADI-2. Would love to see if it was up to the task of running the legendary HE6.

I also heard the Focal Stellia and Focal Clear MG and too my ears the Clear MG was the clear (lol) winner. I realize the Stellia is closed back so its not a "fair" comparison but still the Clear MG sounded soooo much better to me, it wasn't even a contest. I almost bought the Clear MG at the meet but I decided to sleep on it.

The HEDD Phone was an interesting experience. Compared to all the other stuff I heard at the meet it didn't really stand out however it made my Audeze LCD-2 feel light in comparison and that is shocking lol.

 

[FinHifi]

Not a summit-fi experience but when I switched from X2 to GL2000, I was amazed how the planar bass sounded like. It is a memory that has not faded.
But a close one, and a summit-fi status: Listening Yosi Horikawa on my Elites: I sometimes just listen to music and stroll around, but when bubbles started to play I just stared at my pc monitor, not reading or thinking anything. The song did not sound engaging, exciting or anything special but caused me to zone out, it was a weird experience.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Roon + Convolution Filters!

That's some crazy transparent Form of EQ.
This fixed the weakness of the Spirit Torino Pulsar for me and also allowed some fun EQ Experiments for the rest of my collection.

Now I truly reached endgame in my Setup.
Sure the collection will keep growing over time but the gear in the chain is perfect for my taste now.

 

[mulveling]

Was searching the thread for this, I paid $500 for the Sony MDR-SA5000s back when they were the "Flavor of the Month" and people were calling them a "HD650 Killer" at a time when the 650 was viewed as the king by the majority of the community. The SA5000s didn't sound like anything else, in the end I think that "unnatural" sound did them in. I sold mine for I think $250 and I am kicking myself for not hanging onto them. They sounded horrible on certain music and the ear fatigue was real but with the right music they were amazing.

Hugely underrated headphone! I have a set with re-cable to balanced (Black Dragon), and they're phenomenal. This set is safe from all my gear purges, present and future. Paired with iBasso DX220Max, it really makes me ask "what headphone setup is meaningfully better than this?" until I get to my Stax 009 / T2 combo.

They're so good I wanted a 2nd pair and bought a set from a guy in Australia who SCREWED me. They came in with a weird smell and what looks like SA1000 drivers (they sound awful), he stopped responding to my PMs after that of course. Oh well, I have my 1 good set and a spare frame.

 

[Amberlamps]

I was thinking about the biggest wow moments I’ve had in Summit-Fi. I’m curious what other people’s biggest wow moments were as well

Mine are as follows:

• Chord Hugo 2 made me realize dacs matter
• Lazuli Reference headphone cable for my old Utopias made me realize cables matter
• Uptone Audio USB ISO REGEN made me realize reclockers make a big difference
• Uptone Audio LPS with the USB reclocker (compared to the regular power supply) opened my eyes to the benefits of linear power supplies
• Isotek Evo3 Sigmas allowed me to understand clean power makes a big difference
• The Woo Audio WA33 standard edition made me a tube amp convert. The soundstage, dynamics and instrument separation were crazy the first time
• Abyss AB 1266 TC expanded my understanding of the bass and weight that can be achieved with headphones
• Raal/Requisite SR1as blew my mind with the type of clarity and resolution one can reach with headphones

What are your’s?

Even though it’s over a year later, I have to agree with you when you say Hugo 2 made you realise dacs matter, I still kick myself for selling it, as that was the dac that opened my eyes, well mojo technically was the first to open my eyes, but hugo 2 made me close them and it told me to sit back and relax.

Now I come to think of it, I had a dream last night, american army trucks with nuclear missiles on the back of them were being trucked through my city. One of them was parked up near me and for some reason they were the ones that were going to detonate but, I was in the kill zone so I took some fishing line and hooks, but no rods and I walked up a mountain in the country side miles from anything, then I dug a hole and found my neighbours inside and I still got nuked.