What are your "WOW" moments in audio?

[beerandmusic]

 

People talk about upgrades and such all the time, and the topic of EVERYTHING MATTERS, but I am curious if there was any SINGLE things you recall that you have done in your audio adventures that you TRULY noticed a whole new level of appreciation, that you feel are truly worthy of a "WOW" moment.

 

for me

subwoofers

First time trying native DSD

Hearing vintage JBL speakers

upgrading my amp

learning to find the sweet spot before doing anything else

using multieq

isolating pc noise

 

a few more subtle, but I believe I heard a notable difference

using silver cables

 

I haven't had any wow moments with DACS...i have even had wow mometns with high quality SACD players, but still none with dacs....but that may be because shortly after i got in, i was using DSD over ethernet, and nothing has clearly reigned superior since those days in the way of dacs....maybe i need to resolve for room and power and then i could note bigger changes in dacs?  But I have heard very expensive setups and for the most part, besides the speakers, i think they have been relatively yawners, at least considering their exorbitant prices.

 

I also was pretty impressed the first time i plugged an android directly into an amplifier...sounded pretty damn good.

 

i still haven't got into room correction or into power besides just using a power conditioner.

 

 

 

[phosphorein]

Hearing the Tympany 1-D for the first time after a few years with small box speakers. So transparent and a huge soundstage.

[beerandmusic]

7 minutes ago, phosphorein said:

Hearing the Tympany 1-D for the first time after a few years with small box speakers. So transparent and a huge soundstage.

 

Did you hear them first in your home or at a show or dealer?

Are you still running them in your current setup?

[Teresa]

Like you, first time for me was discovering imaging, and then moving my speakers around until they produced the best soundstage in the sweet spot.

 

In 1977 when I heard Sheffield Lab's Direct Disc LP "The King James Version" by Harry James and his Big Band at a stereo store. I couldn't believe an LP could sound that real. At the time I didn't like LPs and I listened only to 4 track 7 1/2 ips prerecorded reel to reel tapes. That LP changed my mind and I added a turntable to my system.

 

In 2001 when I heard my first Telarc Pure DSD SACD, it sounded so real it was unbelievable, my greatest WOW moment ever! Since then nothing I've heard from any format or recording company compares. Telarc SACDs went out of print in 2009 and I have tried many audiophile labels since then, some come close but nothing IMHO compares to a Telarc SACD. I really miss getting new releases from them. Telarc made Pure DSD recordings from 1998 - 2009, then they were purchased by Concord Music Group who discontinued all the SACDs on all the labels they owned. Telarc DSD recordings are nowhere to be legally found, a handful exist as 24 bit downloads at HDtracks and others but Concord is not letting out the DSD originals for some reason.

[MetalNuts]

In my younger days, there were a lot of wow, may be because my hearing was very sensitive and my short term memory allows me to distinguish the difference.  I can still remember the first "wow" came with the demonstration by the sales of changing a PC to Power Snake (now called Shunyata).  The PC had "star dust" inside and you can hear it flows inside.

 

The most recent wow is to change the speakers spikes  to Sort Fut. 

[Ralf11]

In my younger days, there were a lot of wow, also flutter due to cassette decks

[fas42]

A flutter of my eyelashes, and the pronouncement, when I first did enough optimising of the rig as a whole, and a vast vista of sound opened up, yes, 30 years ago ... this was, ummm, mind boggling to me, since nothing else I had ever heard came remotely close to this experience.

[Fokus]

Apogee speakers.

[pvanosta]

My first WOW moment was at a HiFi show in the UK in the late 80s, when I heard the Apogee Grand, driven by huge Krell amplifiers. I had never heard anything quite like it.

 

Another one came 5 years later when I wandered by an audio store in the South of France, on vacation. The door was open and I heard music, so I walked in. I ended up listening to Dee Dee Bridgewater on Martin Logan Quest Z, driven by Classe Pre/Power amps. I ended up buying that configuration piece by piece over the next few years.

 

Fast forward 15 years, to the THE show in newport Beach, where I found myself glued to my seat listening to the MBL 101 E. Repeated that experience a couple more times since then (until I can afford a pair   )

[AnotherSpin]

Recent wow moment – in the process of relocating to a new apartment I am moving my audio by parts. At new location I only have small Dynaudio active Excite speakers connected to macbook air through iFi micro dsd (didn't bring most important and costly parts of my audio system yet). Music files are playing with free VOX player instead of my regular HQPlayer or wtf player, and I was surprised how good it sounds! In fact it happens not for a first time when I was impressed with much simpler/cheaper audio set sound. Maybe, because I listen music at last, not a sound?)))

[pas]

Shunted LPS-1's powering a Zyxel switch and Sonore microRendu 1.4 with a shunted LPS-1.2 powering an HDTA Serenade Pro DAC. Due to lack of noise, the detail, musicality, articulation, and decay are first class. 

 

There is zero sibilance and listening fatigue. All my files sound better and DSD is sublime. Very satisfied listener.

[andifor]

My biggest WOW moment in music, was listening to Roberto Fonseca the first time.

My biggest WOW moment(s) with misc equipment, was each time, I replaced my speakers.

[Musicophile]

3 hours ago, Fokus said:

Apogee speakers.

I had a similar one with an Apogee Diva at the Munich HiFi Show ca. 1992. The first time I had heard planar speakers of any kind. And I’m still thinking of getting something planar at some point. If only they had a better WAF. 

 

Another wow moment was some years ago when I first heard a Sennheiser HD800 in a store. I knew I had to get a pair, which I did soon afterwards. 

[CatManDo]

The first time hearing a CD in my (modest) hifi system, back in 1986.

 

Infinity RS6 speakers, Kenwood C1/M1 amps, Philips CD100 player.

 

The track was "Leave it" from the Yes album "90125", with the artificial bass synth effects alternating between both channels . My Dual turntable couldn't produce anything similarly impressive.

 

Of course this was required to create a wow effect on a 18 year old, not natural timbre,  microdynamics or precise imaging.

[ARQuint]

Multichannel. In January of 2002, I visited Telarc to cover for Fanfare the release of the label's first DSD surround title, an all-Tchaikovsky program by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. I heard the demo in Michael Bishop's mastering room over five identical Waveform speakers in an ITU configuration, with two subs augmenting the right and left front channels. The sense of being in a specific venue was unlike anything I'd ever heard before, something that, at least in my experience, was only occasionally hinted at with even the best stereo setups. When I got home, I immediately started conspiring to find a way to get my two-channel system to accommodate surround. I haven't looked back and—though three-quarters of my listening is necessarily in stereo—I'm currently approaching 3000 multichannel albums, between discs, ripped SACDs, and downloads.

 

[mevdinc]

My biggest WOW moment was the moment I heard my ATC EL 150s in my room!

[pvanosta]

+1 on first CD audition. This was on my uncle's system, which was quite audiophile by Belgian standards in the 80s (ESS AMT1, Phase Linear 400 Pre/Power, first generation Technics CD player) in 1984. I listened to a Denon DDD CD of Archie Shepp and Dollar Brand (Duets) and it blew my socks off...

[mjb]

4 hours ago, CatManDo said:

The first time hearing a CD in my (modest) hifi system, back in 1986.

I’d have to say this too. It was absolutely incredible after growing up with tape hiss and vinyl crackle and pops. And you could instantly change tracks too. Magic!

[beerandmusic]

4 hours ago, mevdinc said:

My biggest WOW moment was the moment I heard my ATC EL 150s in my room!

 

every time i go to the shows, i am always impressed with ATC and focal...even more so than maggies or wilsons.

[phosphorein]

14 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

Did you hear them first in your home or at a show or dealer?

Are you still running them in your current setup?

 

At DKL Sound, a dealer in MD, which was located in an older house. The demo room was similar to my living room. After 20 years I passed them on to another Magneplanar enthusiast. Lovely midrange on the T-1D's, but they required a larger room than I could provide. I've downsized to the Kii 3.

[exdmd]

15 hours ago, phosphorein said:

Hearing the Tympany 1-D for the first time after a few years with small box speakers. So transparent and a huge soundstage.

 

My first wow moment was also hearing the Maggie 1-D powered by Audio Research tube preamp and amp with Linn SP12 turntable back in late 70's. I bought the 1-D's on the spot.

 

Second was hearing a very tweaked Dahlquist DQ-10 system with subwoofer driven by absurdly expensive Stax Class A amps. I wish I could remember more details of that system. The imaging was best I have ever heard, better even than the Maggies.

[phosphorein]

13 minutes ago, exdmd said:

 

My first wow moment was also hearing the Maggie 1-D powered by Audio Research tube preamp and amp with Linn SP12 turntable back in late 70's. I bought the 1-D's on the spot.

 

Second was hearing a very tweaked Dahlquist DQ-10 system with subwoofer driven by absurdly expensive Stax Class A amps. I wish I could remember more details of that system. The imaging was best I have ever heard, better even than the Maggies.

 

At the time the Magneplanars were distributed by Audio Research and commonly were demonstrated with Audio Research components. I think Winey the founder of Magnepan used AR gear in the development of the Tympanis. To me the breadth of the soundstage and clarity of the midrange was the most impressive feature, not so much the pinpoint imaging which I suspect is difficult to obtain with large panels. Nevertheless, they served me well for 20 years and I parted with them with no small measure of regret.

[exdmd]

With the Tympanis I got very good imaging with the tweeters on the inside. I was also lucky to have a 12x24 foot listening room for many years so I could locate the panels five feet from the back wall. I have never had a speaker that was so sensitive to placement: moving a few inches would noticeably affect the sound. I recall it took me weeks to find the sweet spot in my room. At that time I was single so WAF was not an issue. Great memories!

[fas42]

Just came across a thread with this title in another forum: "What's Most Responsible for Rich, Lifelike Tonality? Speaker, Amp, tubes, Output Transformer, other?" ... umm, this encapsulates where most audiophiles lose their way; they became fixated on One Thing being what has to be fixed up ... err, It's The System, Stupid ...

 

IOW, "other" is always the answer - the difference between Rich, Lifelike Tonality and conventional hifi sound is the number of audible flaws in a particular set of gear.

 

My first experience of competent playback delivered the Wow! factor, because of the overwhelming sense of richness and lifelikeness - on the same equipment that could sound pretty awful if I didn't go to the n'th degree to finesse its status, on a particular day.

[Ralf11]

biggest Wow! factor is cable prices

 

"Wow - some people are really dumb!"