what's your best audio system experience?

Maybe my own first real hifi setup in the ninetees: nait 2, spendor speakers and a thorens 320 tt. The nait 2 was so much better than everything else in these times (and my ears were better than now)... Christoph 

The most influential 'eureka' moment for me was at Sound Org in Southwark in mid-80's.  Went in to demo a cartridge for my Rega - walked past the other demo room on the way out and heard an LP12/Naim/Kans set up playing Bowie.  First step on the Linn/Naim road for me.

Most impact was the first decent HiFi I heard. As an undergraduate I had to make frequent visits to a particular piece of analysis equipment where the lab tech was into HiFi, evidenced by a pile of HiFi Answers behind his desk. He invited me back to his place to listen to his system:

LP12 > Active system using valve amps > Huge Tannoy Speakers.

Bat Out of Hell at amazing volumes.

audio t reading which is a lovely shop

naim nait 3 rega ela and whatever the "matching" naim cd plater was

Harry posted:

HDX/555PS/552/500/SL2.

"Oh. So that's what music really sounds like. Well I never..."

Unforgettable.

We'll be listening to a Statement soon. That might reset it.

my words exactly.

Lisbon, Audioshow 2014./ thats how i get to know the Naim Brand....

(remember thinking... that's interesting) 

Maybe a little bit narcistic, but the best system i've ever heard/had was my Naim based system in 2013. A Michell Gyro with Sumiko Blackbird cartridge, 282/Hicap DR/250.2 driving Amphion Argon 7L. I was using Sarum LS cables, Fututech/Harmonix power cords back then. I'm trying to restore this sound but without success....

What happened to that system Twinslayer that you have to recreate it?

dayjay posted:

What happened to that system Twinslayer that you have to recreate it?

I had to downgrade due to new appartment etc...now i have even higher gear but it doesn't deliver like an old system did. 

That's a shame, I hope you find your way back to the sound you are looking for in time 

All you need is some SBLs. 

dayjay posted:

That's a shame, I hope you find your way back to the sound you are looking for in time 

Thanks.

Hungryhalibut posted:

All you need is some SBLs. 

I purchased nSats 3 months ago and I really love what they do at the end of 135s

Honest answer - first time I thought I'd see what music sounded like through the Yamaha AVR and front speakers...after an (adult) lifetime of iPod docks it was a revelation and I was immediately bitten. 

That aside - the three speaker shootout between neat sx7is, fact 8s and B&W 804 d3 fed by NDX into SN2 at the dealer's last week... Specifically the B&Ws...which barring room suitability disasters will dhopefully be with me for a long time to come. 

Paul Darwin's active dbl's back in about '96-97 after an evening in the pub. Never thought it possible, never experience anything quite so mind blowing since. Don't know the details of the system .......all I recall was two stacks of nailm kit standing about 5 ft tall in a huge room with cardboard boxes of vinyl literally everywhere.

Paul was at Listen Inn in Northampton at the time, now at Rega I understand.   Sadly lost contact as I went through a difficult period and moved away shortly , i'd pay good money to listen to that system again!!

M

Many years ago at a Heathrow show I heard a Mark Levinson CD player with a massive Trilogy amp (including many valves if memory serves) into some Canadian speakers I think (ARC?) and I had (have?) never heard anything like it. I remember a female vocal and I could swear that lady was standing in front of me singing her heart out.

Truely stunning - I left that room slack-jawed and bewildered!

Last year at Munich HiEnd, a full dSC digital source driven by VTL pre and monos into Wilson (Alexias I think) playing the last part of Mahler's 2nd. At the end we were looking at each other with a equal measure of awe (system sounded pretty amazing) and despair (this set was up too darn expensive to aspire to..).

There have been a few systems that have "caught my ear" but the stand-outs were (in no particular order).....

LP12/Ittok/Karma/32.5/Hicap/135s/Isobariks upstairs at the Sound Org at London Bridge.  I have always thought that the room was ideally suited to the briks - never heard them sound as good anywhere else.  

250 driven active Saras in the Naim room at a show around the same time as the briks above.  This was the moment when I realised that Michael Jackson could sing.

6 pack DBLs at a Naim evening in Blackheath.  Must have been mid 90's and I thought I was in the studio with Buddy Holly.  A wow moment and I still think that there is an argument that recording technology hasn't improved much in the intervening years.

NVA Cubix Pro.  This might be the best of the lot.  Totally unflappable irrespective of what type of music it is asked to reproduce. Front end of a Pioneer PL-71 or a Sony ES-something cd and dac.  No hi-fi just music.

A bake-off between the above 4 systems would be fun but somehow I don't think it's going to happen.

the best system that " caught my ear " was my mains upgrade. Least expensive and best upgrade and experience of sound

Dead Can Dance vinyl played on an Immedia Turntable through Lyra's boutique Connoisseur Phono only pre amp into Audio Physic speakers.   Not sure of the amps. This was about 10-12 years ago in Allen Perkins's Immedia shop in the East Bay, San Francisco.  Truly outstanding.

A second moment was in Stony Brook NY at an audio store which had Accoustat speakers and a time domain preamp to manage the sound of the decay.   They might have had a rear channel for the echo.   Pretty amazing sound in 1976.

The Man With Nonaim posted:

There have been a few systems that have "caught my ear" but the stand-outs were (in no particular order).....

LP12/Ittok/Karma/32.5/Hicap/135s/Isobariks upstairs at the Sound Org at London Bridge.  I have always thought that the room was ideally suited to the briks - never heard them sound as good anywhere else.  

250 driven active Saras in the Naim room at a show around the same time as the briks above.  This was the moment when I realised that Michael Jackson could sing.

6 pack DBLs at a Naim evening in Blackheath.  Must have been mid 90's and I thought I was in the studio with Buddy Holly.  A wow moment and I still think that there is an argument that recording technology hasn't improved much in the intervening years.

NVA Cubix Pro.  This might be the best of the lot.  Totally unflappable irrespective of what type of music it is asked to reproduce. Front end of a Pioneer PL-71 or a Sony ES-something cd and dac.  No hi-fi just music.

A bake-off between the above 4 systems would be fun but somehow I don't think it's going to happen.

 

 

 

 

Now there's a coincidence. I heard the same LP12, Isobarik and active 135 system at the Sound Organisation next to Southwick Cathedral in the late 80's. This is the famous demonstration where thay played an acitate copy of Frankie goes to Hollywood so loud that one of the Isobariks fell off its stand. I still get goosebumps when I think of it today.

I agree with you a great room and always smelt of church inscents - or that's what I thought it was!

I also still use a Sony SCD 777ES as my main transport into my NDac. It's the most natural sounding CD player I've heard with the exception of Naim's 555.

I conclude that great ears, along with great minds, must hear and think alike!

I grew up with music - my mother was a concert pianist and teacher - and I went to concerts rom an early age, taking myself off to Hawkwind, Yes and ELP from the age of 14 for a bit of diversity. However, it never occurred to me that Hi-Fi was going to be much more fun than a "gramophone" (Boult's opinion irrespective of whatever anyone played him). The first system that changed my my mind was a PL12 playing Traffic's ON the Road through a Cambridge P50 and Kef Chorales. But the mind-blowing moment was wondering into Studio 99 where I met the great Mike Stuart with the intention of buying me a Cambridge P60. He let me audiiton all the stuff considewred top of the range by the Hi-Fi press of the time - Technics DD deck, Shure V15III cartridge and I can't remember what. Then he played me Thorens 125 (no LP12 yet) with Keith Monks Arm and Decca London cartridge through a Radford Valve Amp into Spendor BC3s. Well that woke me up!

But, immodestly, the best system I have heard so far is the one I have at home. The Shahinian Diapason's have changed my hi-fi life very much for the better.....

Geko, I wish I was there to see the "dancing isobariks". I am guessing that Mr Macer had his hand on the volume control.

I have to add system no 5. Phonosophie tt with its version of the armageddon, aro and dynavector XX1-L into a 52/supercap/135 and a pair of epos es14s.  I have yet to hear another tt with the hf resolving power of the phonosophie. When you can hear a drumstick moving air before it hits the drum then you know that you are on to something.

ChrisSU posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I can honestly say I prefer PB's system to NDS/Statement/Focals.

What system is that? Was there Sellotape all over the platter?

Excuse me?????  Sellotape?

Sorry but I am biased, Lindsay is right the TMS3/552/500?Art's plays music better than any of the Statement demonstrations I have been to. I dare say the statement has been hampered by the choice of speakers they have been parred with but IMHO the ART's just get out the way and allow the music to flood through and the TMS 3 just times and flows beautifully.

I have been fortunate enough to hear many great systems over the years.    Here are a few highlights:

In the Linn/Naim category, my favorite experience was hearing the DBL's with Julian at a CES in Chicago where Chris West and Julian kept a steady diet of explosive rock music playing on the six pack all weekend.     Nothing will replace the excitement of hearing the Talking Head's Stop Making Sense at near concert volume through this active system.    It felt like you were walking into the venue as I walked into that hotel ballroom.    Later on, I got to enjoy playing the CD of the Grateful Dead's performance from the summer of 1968 they released as Two From the Vault up at concert volume.  Hearing Phil Lesh and his original friend Mr. Garcia dance their way through New Potatoe Caboose was very nearly the most fun I ever had with a stereo.

For pure goosebumps with vocal music, very few systems fully equal the pairing of the 300 B based VAC Renaissance 140's amps through a pair of Wilson Watt Puppies.     Allison Krauss was in the room, floating between the speakers with an utterly human quality to her beautiful voice.     This system was almost spooky on the right material.

I had a friend in the 90's who owned one of the very few sets of the massive Wilson Audio Wamm's in the U.S..    I was stunned into submission on more than one evening listening with him and his wife.     A first pressing of one of the singles from Paul Simon's Graceland is the one song which remains etched in my memory, although he played many fine LP's on a beautifully set up and lovingly assembled system.

For my tastes, one of the most wonderful speakers I have ever heard was the Avalon Eidolon Diamond.    I heard this in Boulder at Avalon's facility, hosted by their gracious ambassador Lucien Pichette.    He played a quirky track by Luka Bloom that was nothing like most audiophile fare, but it amply displayed the wonders of a speaker designed to disappear entirely.     They are majestic creatures.

We were delighted to present the Naim Statement system on our Wilson XLF's last fall and this was a system that brought music to life in a breathtaking fashion on so many types of music.   One visiting customer had brought in a beautifully natural jazz recording from the late 50's that seemed to entirely engage the "Time Machine" function in the Statement control APP.    

Lastly, I will point out two of my favorite musical experiences which nicely illustrate the still large gulf between music on a stereo and music in a live setting.    I took a few friends to see Rosanne Cash in a rare un-amplified acoustic show with just her and her husband John Leventhal on guitar, and this was remarkable.     This is the closest I will likely ever get to seeing an artist I love in their living room.    When Rosanne played my selections from her brilliant masterpiece Interiors in this show, it felt like she was singing just for me.

The last memory is of seeing the Grateful Dead live during the band's great run in the spring of 1990.     We had perfect seats about twenty rows from the stage- straight back in the middle of the floor, in front of the mixing console- so the sound was unbelievable.     That night they brought out Branford Marsalis for an impromptu jam on one song in their first set and it was a pleasant surprise.     When they returned to the stage for their more exploratory second set, and Branford was with them for the whole of rest of their performance, they reached a late career highpoint that remains one of my favorite memories of live music.   Hearing it on their state of the art PA made most home stereo's seem like toys.     It turns out that certain things require power and a rock band in full flight is certainly one of them.    For anyone interested, you can hear this show on various formats which is known as Wake Up to Find Out- Nassau Coliseum 1990.

Good listening!

Bruce