Biggest impact on you?




Curious: I’ve gone through a lot of gear over the years. In reflecting upon this, a Conrad Johnson MV-45A1 power amplifier I bought back in 1983 had the biggest impact on me. This includes consideration of the many preamps, speakers, cables, CD players, and so on that I’ve owned through the years.

Has that piece been the best I’ve ever had or heard? Absolutely not. But, it was the first high end piece I’ve owned and it wowed me big time. Ran it with Vandersteens, CJ’s PV4 preamp, and a Sonograph TT – loved it!

So, what component (power, pre, speaker, TT, CD, etc.) has had the biggest impact on you?
rbschauman
Also my music server which has totally changed the way I listen to music and made the musical discovery process a lot more enjoyable and efficient. Another game changer.
From what I have, or do, own.
Audio Research tube amps and preamps.(some other brands are good too, but this was my first exposure to REAL GOOD SOUNDING tube gear. not just so-so stuff like reworked ST70s :)
Soundlab Speakers. - can't say enough - unsurpassed, imo.
had to have them after hearing just one note)

Other outstanding products would buy but didn't.
Digital front end from DCS. Ive owned most of the bid name brands - Krell, Theta, Wadia, but DCS sent thing to a new level, imo.

Largest system from Meridian back in the late 1990s (would need to look up the name)- made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and arms.
Running Bitperfect on iTunes to my Centrance DACmini to my stereo was a tremendous improvement. Granted, its the poor man's path to computer audio but it opened my eyes (ears) to what awaits.
Three components come to mind that had a huge impact not just for their
sound, but also for the education that they gave me about system building:

I will never forget the first time I heard the AR SP-9 in my system. It was
the first time that I had bought a brand new component and paid full price;
this made the disappointment all the more intense. I also will never forget
the fabulous sound that it had made in one of Sound by Singer's room in
a system consisting of Snell Type A IIIi's, VTL, Roksan/Koetsu, MIT. I
thought there had to be something wrong with my sample, as it made my
system sound bleached and dry. I took it back to Andy's, and listened to it
again in their system: glorious sound. This experience taught me the
importance of component matching, and the fact that some components
really are more transparent than others. The components in my system at
the time where not up to the AR's transparency. It was an invaluable
lesson.

Around the same time ('80's) I heard the Stax F-81's in a friend system. I
fell in love with their midrange and decided I had to have a pair. After a
couple of years of searching I found a pair. Brought them home thinking
that my "very powerful" Moscode 600 would not have a
problem driving this notoriously difficult speaker. It "drove"
them OK, but the sound was grainy and slow. Tried different cables,
preamps (AR SP-9 was one of them), to no avail. After months of trying to
get them to sound like music, I realized that it had not occurred to me to
try the Dynaco ST-70 that I had sitting in a closet. I figured what the heck.
I could not believe my ears. The lowly 35 watter could not coax much
volume out of the horribly inefficient Stax's, but the sound it did produce
sounded like music: refined, trimbrally correct, and within a narrow volume
range, alive. The magic of tubes and stats. Not being able to afford proper
tube amplification for the Stax's, I sold them, and proceeded to spend
several years looking for another pair,
until about ten years ago when I managed to find them.

Stax-F81. Volume and low-end limitations, but midrange that comes as
close to the sound of live music as anything I have ever heard. Even
better IMO than the Quad ESL. Mrtennis, we actually can agree ;-)