Biggest impact on you?




Curious: I’ve gone through a lot of gear over the years. In reflecting upon this, a Conrad Johnson MV-45A1 power amplifier I bought back in 1983 had the biggest impact on me. This includes consideration of the many preamps, speakers, cables, CD players, and so on that I’ve owned through the years.

Has that piece been the best I’ve ever had or heard? Absolutely not. But, it was the first high end piece I’ve owned and it wowed me big time. Ran it with Vandersteens, CJ’s PV4 preamp, and a Sonograph TT – loved it!

So, what component (power, pre, speaker, TT, CD, etc.) has had the biggest impact on you?
rbschauman
Coincident Frankenstein 300b SET amplifier.
This introduced me to a new level of sheer unadulterated musical realism and pure palpable pressence.
Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm
Purist Audio cables
Custom Power Cord Co. Top Gun power cord
Maxell Metal Vertex cassette tape
I think it's a toss-up between the Thiel CS3.5 speakers, which were the first true high-end speakers I really listened to (couldn't afford them, wound up with Thiel CS 3s instead--this was in 1986, as I recall) and the Well-Tempered Turntable (got it in 1987), which made me realize that my vinyl collection was a lot better than the CDs I was listening to at the time.
My second pair of Advents added to the first pair in 1983. One pair of Advents was a good stereo but Double Advents made for a transformation to the big time and were still pretty cheap. They had impact, too. My landlords and neighbors reluctlantly listened to whatever I listened to. They were lucky but they didn't know it!