Your first audio "wow" moment?

[brianedm]

Hey guys,

Just curious what everybodies first audio "wow" moment was? That moment where you went to the movie theater, listened to a recording, or visited a friends house where your eyes opened and you got hooked trying to find that perfect sound for your home?

For me personally it was just getting my first cheap avr and cheap tower speakers and putting on a movie. It was already better than what 99.9% of peoples houses sounded like and I was hooked trying to find out what I could achieve at home.

My most recent wow moment was upgrading from 1 to 2 subwoofers. That's been an AMAZING improvement. Looking forward to hearing everyones stories

 

[dkane360]

I'd say it wasn't one pivotal movement, just a constant strive to get better and better sound.

The closest to a wow moment though would have to be listening to my DT880's for the first time

 

[monkish54]

I had been demoing speakers for a while. I can't even remember all the speakers. 20-30 different "HI-End" speakers around LA and one in LV ranging from $2,000-$22,000.

Tannoy
Dynaudio
Usher
Focal
Paradigm
B&W

etc. etc.

Then I heard Harman's Revel Salon 2. That day I realized every other loudspeaker I had listened to was not high-fidelity. It was my first audio "WOW!!" I went on to listen to the KEF Blade, TAD CR1, Pioneer S-1EX.

 

[macddmac]

Hey guys,

Just curious what everybodies first audio "wow" moment was? That moment where you went to the movie theater, listened to a recording, or visited a friends house where your eyes opened and you got hooked trying to find that perfect sound for your home?

For me personally it was just getting my first cheap avr and cheap tower speakers and putting on a movie. It was already better than what 99.9% of peoples houses sounded like and I was hooked trying to find out what I could achieve at home.

My most recent wow moment was upgrading from 1 to 2 subwoofers. That's been an AMAZING improvement. Looking forward to hearing everyones stories

1. Listening to a friends' JBL 4311b's about 35 years ago.
2. Watching the first Jurassic park VHS on my first home theater ( Sony receiver , Boston subsat six 2.1) 1995 or six. Those T-Rex foot stomps.. Omg!!
3. RMAF this year- LS50's, SS8's, The new Fried towers (playing a piano piece),
The big Legacy's, and the TAD / Pioneer informal A/B.

Can't wait for the next Wow!
Cheers, Mac

 

[monkish54]

1. Listening to a friends' JBL 4311b's about 35 years ago.
2. Watching the first Jurassic park VHS on my first home theater ( Sony receiver , Boston subsat six 2.1) 1995 or six. Those T-Rex foot stomps.. Omg!!
3. RMAF this year- LS50's, SS8's, The new Fried towers (playing a piano piece),
The big Legacy's, and the TAD / Pioneer informal A/B.

Can't wait for the next Wow!
Cheers, Mac

WOW! You have been around the block! I'm a youngin of only 19. Jurassic Park came out the same year I was born. :O It was the first movie to ever use DTS.

Those 4311's look archaic. If JBL released a speaker like that today...I would ***** for soooo long.

 

[Adam]

I'm a youngin of only 19. Jurassic Park came out the same year I was born.

That was my moment right there..."WOW! I'm old. "



At my age, I can't remember the first. I certainly remember listening to Dire Straits Brothers in Arms on CD, though, and being blown away. It was on my brother's portable CD player over headphones. The drums were just so sharp and crisp, I could hardly believe it. I also remember listening to my other (older) brother's system on other headphones at an earlier age and being quite impressed.

 

[ImcLoud]

I dont know my first, but it was definetly a WOW moment was when I finally got my home theater all setup, I already tried 3 different setups {all got returned}, and listened to at least 20 different ones across 3 states {I live in CT 2 minutes from Ma and RI }. And when I hooked up my 340se front stage with the EMO amp and HSU sub, I was amazed they were just what I wanted warm and defined, and the bass was HUGE, just overpowering and DEEP Rumbles with no Boomy echo... Then it took a few days to hang the 200se surrounds, and finish the balancing and crossing. but now that it is done, its impressive for sure, I dont think you can build a better HT sound system for twice its price...

That system has already supplied at least 4 others with their first WOW moments. I play the movie Drive for everyone that wants to hear the system, I FF to the part where the little kids father gets shot, turn it up to 65 {which is just insane volume}, but all you can hear is the motor of the car rumbling which is around 75db, then the door opens , guy walks out, and then the first shot, EVERYONE jumps, it measures like 105db on the meter in the kitchen!!! Then the chase seen after that has pretty good sound effects too... But after hearing that my brother in law, uncle, and a few friends have went and got systems..

As for music systems I have had them for years, it takes alot to wow me, because I have been to so many concerts and heard more than my share of private performances, so not many things compare to the real thing... Plus I play guitar and I haven't heard many speakers that sound like when you are holding it in your hands.. CLOSE, but not it..

 

[lsiberian]

Well this is a family forum.

It was probably the first time I heard something I created make a sound. I thought it actually works. And now years later I'm in the process of creating a third something that makes sound.

Speaker building is a fun hobby.

 

[monkish54]

Speaker building is a fun hobby.

It's what I want to do with my life.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I would never forget the moment which really got me hooked on home theater:
Demoing in small home appliances store system which included an LD player - with "Waterworld" (1995) (the airplane fly around scene) which was connected to Grundig TV which supported 2 rear speakers, which were attached on the ceiling
I was stunned from this demo and it was

 

[brianedm]

Just wanna say I really appreciate everyones responses. My favourite part of this forum us how I can come on here and learn so much and everyone is SO friendly. I didn't know that about Jurassic Park. You learn something new every day

 

[brianedm]

WOW! You have been around the block! I'm a youngin of only 19. Jurassic Park came out the same year I was born. :O It was the first movie to ever use DTS.

Those 4311's look archaic. If JBL released a speaker like that today...I would ***** for soooo long.

Haha, I was a little confused, normally when "4311" is referenced around here its about a receiver

 

[monkish54]

Just wanna say I really appreciate everyone's responses. My favorite part of this forum us how I can come on here and learn so much and everyone is SO friendly. I didn't know that about Jurassic Park. You learn something new every day

This is the best forum on the web for learning, IMO. For the most part the people here know what they are talking about, and when one doesn't, there's always about 10 of us that tell him/her.

 

[Diablo]

My wow moment was at an audio show I attended in New York in the late 60's, when I first heard a pair of Klipschorns for the first time. They were playing Leon Redbone at the time. These are so good they still make them today.

Klipschorn Floorstanding Speaker | Klipsch

 

[hjustin]

From a strictly audio standpoint, that would be Christmas day, 1988. I was 16 years old. My parents gave me a Fisher stereo with dual cassette and my very first CD player. Along with that they gave me Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder on CD. No more janky cassettes for me! I absolutely wore those discs out.

First home theater "wow":

It was 1999 or 2000. My wife and I had our first apartment. I was still using the 27" Sony Trinitron that I had bought in 95 or 96 when the Playstation 1 came out. I bought my first DVD player (Pioneer) along with a refurb Onkyo Dolby Digital receiver from OneCall. I had demoed a bunch of speakers locally and ended up buying my first pair of REAL speaker: Paradigm Mini Monitors.

I hooked all this stuff up and the first movie we watched on DVD was Fight Club. Will never forget how good the picture and sound were after years of VHS.

 

[Soccerkid830]

Went from a Sony HTiB to...
Sony SS-F6000's and matching C5000, or whatever it is, and thought those were awesome.
Then I got the KEF Q900's and 600C with Dayton Sub-120's, holy wah.
Then I got RBH T-2's(B-2's) and two Rythmik FV15HP's, can't really say much here , going to be a LONG time before I think about trying to upgrade this setup in any way.

But the real wow moment, was going back to a TV with no external speakers this past summer. I did it for about a week before I couldn't even stand it anymore and had to drive home to grab my receiver and a set of speakers just for something with a little more oomph.

 

[Steve81]

My first real "wow" moment beyond "ohh yeah, that gets loud" was listening to a pair of Cambridge Soundworks Towers (the old bi-polar model). My main speakers before that had been the CSW Model Six, which for whatever strengths it has/had, wasn't what you'd think of as an audiophile speaker, ie no imaging, etc. Two minutes of listening to the Towers (that was in fact the model name), and I finally understood what all the jargon meant.

 

[3db]

My first audio "wow" moment came listening to a friends of mine system; a NAD two channel amp driving a pair of Energy 22 and listening to Planet Claire from the B52s via a turntable. My jaw hit the ground when the driving deep low bass came out so clean, unmuddied and powerful.

 

[bikemig]

I was 17 when I had my first audio wow moment. I saved up all my summer money, went to the local hi fi shop, and spent $300 for a stereo system that was hand picked as an entry level unit by the shop. I remember listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Peter Frampton, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, Little Feat, the Meters and Professor Longhair (I grew up in New Orleans) that summer. Figuring in for inflation that would be around $1200 in today's money. I've had some really nice systems since then but your first time is always the best, .

I had a second audio wow moment when I bought a pair of good quality over the ear headphones. I had never listened to headphones before and I was totally blown away by how good they can be.

 

[Bryceo]

It was last year my 20th birthday I listend to a pair of Martin Logan speakers they playd delta goodrem!!!