What are your Eureka Moments in this Hobby?

fastfreight

My 1st Thiel Audio (CS 2.4 loudspeaker) in 2011. Eureka indeed!

Happy Listening!

1- In 1971 hearing a loudspeaker with electrostatic tweeters: the ESS Transtatic I with 3 RTR ESL’s (along with a KEF B110 5" dynamic cone driver for the midrange and a transmissionline-loaded KEF B139 woofer). Retail price in 1971 was $1200, over twice the price of the biggest and best acoustic suspension loudspeakers of the time (Acoustic Research 3a, Rectilinear III) . I then heard the Infinity 2001A, which contained the same tweeters, and the Infinity Servo-Static I, my first full range ESL (though the pair came with  a single 18" subwoofer). In 1971 the SS retailed for $2000, at that time a lot of moolah. All these speakers were far more transparent than the common ":box" style speakers most people owned.

2- In 1972 hearing a Decca pickup for the first time, a startling experience! FAR more immediate, dynamic, and visceral than the common moving magnet cartridges I had heard. Along with the Decca Blue was hearing it reproduce the first direct-2-disk LP I heard: The Missing Linc Volume II (Sheffield S-10). That LP made tape-sourced LP’s sound veiled, distant, and soft.

3- On that same day in the Spring of ’72 I heard the Magneplanar Tympani T-I loudspeakers bi-amped with ARC D-51 and D-75 power amps (with an ARC SP-3 pre-amp). The system was being delivered and set up in the dealer’s excellent sound room by Bill Johnson himself. That day was a life changing one! Bill played the EMI pressing (ASD 2301) of Holst’s The Planets, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting The New Philharmonia Orchestra with chorus. In a quiet section of the traversal of one of the Planets I heard the faint inkling of a struck triangle, emanating from a raised  platform (along with the snare drum and timpani) above the height of the rest of the orchestra, and sounding further away than the listening room wall behind the Maggies. What a trip! The dealer played Gordon Lightfoot’s version of "Me And Bobby McGee" (by far my favorite rendition of the song), to which Bill said "That IS a great sounding recording." Musically great, and demo-quality material.

4- My long time preference for planar dipole loudspeakers came with it a penalty: the lack of the bottom octave in some music. The Magneplanar Tympani speakers (all incarnations) produce great quality bass (Harry Pearson’s reference bass reproducers) from their twin woofer panels (each 16" x 72", two per channel), but require a LOT of floor space. In order to get output below 40Hz the panels need to be braced (to a wall or the ceiling), and fed a lot of power.

Wendel Diller---Magnepan’s Director of Product Development---has long maintained that omnipole subwoofers (driver/s mounted in a sealed or ported enclosure) "Do Not Work" with dipole loudspeakers like his Maggies. Electrostatic, ribbon, and planar-magnetic loudspeaker devotees have since the 1950’s endlessly searched  for subwoofers that "blend" with their speakers. Few are satisfied.

For years Diller has been working on a dipole subwoofer with which to augment his Maggies, but as of now it has yet to become a viable product. I don’t know what is taking him so long, but it doesn’t matter. My Number 4 nominee is hearing the utterly unique, absolutely fantastic Direct Servo Feedback Open Baffle/Dipole Subwoofer system I built from a DIY kit, a product developed and sold by Brian Ding of Rythmik Audio and Danny Richie of GR Research. Finally, a sub suitable for use with any and all dipole loudspeakers!

First moment, a friend returning my Led Zep 1 record the week it came out and he asked to borrow it. He came back over and said listen to it this way...handed me his headphones and plugged them into the amp. 

Fifty years later, hearing a hi rez digital version of Coltrane/Hartman and sensing the room and breaths. I had ignored digital until then.

@bdp24- You have a good memory for smaller details. I'm wondering--most significant/memorable improvements in audio equipment  happened in the 1970s?

David

a) The first time hearing Led Zep on my dad’s Heathkit and Scott kits he built.  This was 1969.  My musical life changed at that moment.

b) During that same year being given CS&N by a neighbor musician, playing the Garrard turntable, and listening to Suite Judy Blue Eyes.  Wow!

c) Roll the clock forward 30 years and the first time I heard Magnepan speakers.  What is this??

d) Listening to an external DAC for the first time (that I am aware of) seven years ago.  Amazing sound staging.

I remember these moments so clearly.