Jaw-dropping experiences - post them

Dave Simpson said:
There's two sides to every story (some say three - mine, yours and the truth.) So far, we've only heard one. Ivor is not here and Hamish can't be so it's water under a bridge as far as I'm concerned.
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It is not a story, it is fact. It has been commented on privately by IT, but as far as know never publicly, because he knows he cannot counter it.

You and Flatty don't like it because it spoils your fantasy and delusions.
 
I guess the first was close on 25 years ago. I owned a cyrus 2/mf system. One particular day I call ed in at a naim dealer who gave me a comparison of my cyrus2/psx to an early nait. The nait killed my cyrus. Some years later it was my naim pre/pow/hicap being made to sound synthetic by my bel canto evo for half the price. More recently was RobHs H2s, which is why I now have a pair of Impulse Ta'us.
 
Probably the best for me was room correction using the Behringer DEQ2496, which relieved my room of a huge bass hump, resulting in a much more enjoyable sound. Now i use heavy solid material under my speakers which also has a beneficial affect.

You can have the most expensive gear out there but if you don't get room right with your speakers it will sound awful.
 
In Audio it was hearing a pair of Electrofluidics

I was already planning on getting Jordan drivers but I did not have a clue about how different these speakers would be from all others I had heard.

I've been grateful ever since.

Non Audio it was looking at a Lowry painting in my girlfriend's house & realising it was an original & not a good reproduction. Would you believe he sold these for around £200 in the early 60's?
 
UK Duty Paid said:
In Audio it was hearing a pair of Electrofluidics

I was already planning on getting Jordan drivers but I did not have a clue about how different these speakers would be from all others I had heard.

I've been grateful ever since.

Non Audio it was looking at a Lowry painting in my girlfriend's house & realising it was an original & not a good reproduction. Would you believe he sold these for around £200 in the early 60's?
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The Jordan drivers can make some lovely sounds. Don't know those speakers. Are they still going?
 
Jimbo said:
The Jordan drivers can make some lovely sounds. Don't know those speakers. Are they still going?
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No

The cabinets were moulded from resin/stone not corian but similar
designed to be modular upgradeable

But there was a pair of their cheaper version on PFM for around £600 in the last few months
 
flatpopely said:
My 'wow' moment was hearing Mission 70s at the Last Drop Show in Bolton.

OMG, they were ace.
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The ones with the covers that wrap around the sides leaving some veneer trim towards the back?
If so, those were superb. Not the most refined listen but incredibly tactile and alive.
The very earliest just had the paper bass/mid connected without crossover filter.
 
RobHolt said:
The ones with the covers that wrap around the sides leaving some veneer trim towards the back?
If so, those were superb. Not the most refined listen but incredibly tactile and alive.
The very earliest just had the paper bass/mid connected without crossover filter.
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There was a craze for stacking them at one stage, one pair upside down so the tweeters were in the middle. Sounded half decent as I remember.

Tony.
 
1980 - I was 21, in Lasky's in Manchester. They had a full Quad amp system, ESL57s fed by a Technics (I think) d/d deck. It sounded wonderful - I stayed there for ages listening to that system.

1982 - More Quad amps, ESL63s and a Walker t/t at the Harrogate Hifi show. Again, stunning presentation.

1986ish - Naim 01 tuner, Exposure amps, Isobarik speakers (I think). John Peel's Saturday show; I had never, ever heard radio sound that good. This started my love of Exposure amps. I eventually bought this system, but could never get the Naim to sound as good as I heard it that day (couldn't put an external aerial on my flat at the time).

There have been other, more minor ones, but these three stand out.
 
Hi,

My first was my brothers system of a Garrard SP25 MK VI with a Shure cartridge, an Anstrad amp & Sennheiser HD414 (I think). Opened my ears. This was around 1978.

This put me on the road to ruin.


SCIDB
 
First time i heard Paul Young No Parlez in stereo on a cassette walkman when i was about 8 otherwise nothing if im being perfectly honest. :)
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
I guess the first was close on 25 years ago. I owned a cyrus 2/mf system. One particular day I call ed in at a naim dealer who gave me a comparison of my cyrus2/psx to an early nait. The nait killed my cyrus. Some years later it was my naim pre/pow/hicap being made to sound synthetic by my bel canto evo for half the price. More recently was RobHs H2s, which is why I now have a pair of Impulse Ta'us.
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Mike, have you made any changes to your system since I heard it earlier this year?
 
My first hi-fi show at Blackpool's Imperial Hotel in about 1982. After wandering round a few exhibition rooms I heard a female vocalist coming from further down the corridor, what a great idea to have a live act, I thought. Turned the corner to find "her" - a Linn LP12, NAD3020 and whatever Mission standmounters were current at the time. And so my journey began...

Pete
 
Hearing Muddy Waters singing 'Mannish Boy' on a reel-to-reel tape recorder via a single ELS57. I nearly jumped out of my skin when he went 'whoa!'
 
When, after reading an article in Hi-Fi Answers in 1970 something I fitted two cheapo right-angled shelf brackets under the shelf my Dual CS1249 was standing on and then played "sweetest Taboo" by Sade and heard rain pelting down against a skylight where before I had just heard pink noise. That was me hooked and I've been poor ever since.
 
Jaw dropping experience? My Dad used his Blaupunkt Radio Gram right up until 1978. By this time he got his dream job (building cars for Rover) and so could afford to replace it. But before then, around 74 when I was 12 I listened to a reggae group called Culture on a music centre made by Sharp I think. I listened through headphones and it was my first real appreciation of stereo.

Secondly, around '79 or '80 we visited a family friend who's husband took me and proudly showed me his system. An LP12, Nakamichi tape deck and active speakers of a make I don't recall. He played me a recording of one of his records (he was a buy, play and record once then put away collector type) and I had no idea cassette could sound so good. In hindsight I now realise that in turn meant the LP12 and the rest of the chain was 'that good'.

Since then I have had some revelatory moments but then I suppose that is what you get hooked on when trying to improve things.
 
Sometime during the 1950s I went to a hi-fi show at what I seem to remember was the Waldorf Hotel in London. In one demonstration room was a loudspeaker made by Woden.It was about the size of a double wardrobe,must have been getting on for something like 5 to 6 feet in height.I have no idea what was inside it but it wasn't just jaw-dropping it tended to rattle your intestines as well.
 

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