Not sure it was audiophile quality but it was the moment that started my never ending love of quality audio reproduction. Mid 70s and everyone had those horrible all-in-one systems - all being 8-track, tt, and am/fm radio. I was ~13 and a friend of mine had dug up his dad’s stereo from ~20 years earlier. His parents had immigrated from Germany in the aftermath of WWII - his dad was a world class scientist who had been forced to be part of the Hilter Youth. Though his experiences were different I imagine he was a lot like us (restless and testing all boundaries) when he was younger. I have no idea what any of the pieces were - not SOTA but so much better than anything I had ever heard and I was instantly fixated. A tt, a receiver, and speakers - I believe all German (or Austrian) made. Just so much better and I knew it instantly and I’ve been chasing it ever since.
Funny thing - I am still friends with the guy but have had to recently come to grips with the fact that he doesn’t hear what I do. We spent high school using our money to buy audio components. I remember he bought some big infinity speakers. A few years later I heard someone refer to “listening fatigue” and suddenly I realized I hadn’t imagined the headaches I’d get when listening to his system for more than 10 minutes. He recently heard my system and then compared it to his $250 all-in-one Bose system (“all systems sound so good these days”). I love the guy but that’s when I realized I had always assumed he had an appreciation for well reproduced sound because he was the one that introduced me to it but in reality there is no point in demoing my system for him. Still I am truly grateful for that initial listening session that had a huge impact on the course of my listening experience.