Which components knocked you out on first listen?

Over the years I've had many "knocks-me-out" up grades. I guess my first moving coil; Fidelity Research & their step-up device. I think I only slept 3 hrs in 48--from pulling out all my records. That was 1978. Lots of those sessions since-- but not quite at that level. Installing a King Cobra/ then an Audio Magic Stealth was quite an improvement.

Apogee Duettas. In the mid-80's I heard these at a Denver dealer, Listen Up, with the at the time requisite Krell KMA 100's and a CD source. The room was long with the speakers up on an elevated platform; subdued lighting with the speaklers gently spotlit and a hushed ambience implied that something special was going to happen. And it did. Lush, seamless sound issued forth which was powerfully extended on the bottom as well as being extraordinarily delicate and airy on top. And this was on chamber music from my nascent CD collection! The music floated; the huge speakers disappeared; I flipped out.

I scraped up the green to buy these about 18 months later. I used them with a Counterpoint SA-20. I subsequently had Levinson ML-2's and a Rowland 5 on them all of which I felt were inherently better sounding amps than the Krells. I could never duplicate the sound I heard that cold, rainy day in Denver. Setup is everything.

Jeez.. Mike.. you make it sound so appetizing and makes one go rush out and demos these items .. being 2 hrs from Montreal.. I have to go test these Tenors.. I have to also find a pair of those Kharmas !.. but I do not think there are Canadian dealers..

I have to admit.. my big knockout was when I put in my first Mark Levinson Amp .. I had swapped out an ATI amp.. what a revelation.. not that the ATI was a bad amp, on the contrary.. but the ML amp was soo good and detailed.. next was the AA Capitole MK II.. was my first high end CD player that I found was worthy of replacing my ML DAC and transport.

good thread !

Flip, I will second the Nestorovic system. Both the Type 4's and System 12 are wonderful speakers, and the NA-1 tube amps are gorgeous, graceful and powerful. (It is regretable that they are out of production).

Cheers,

Charlie

Krell power amps way back when with B&W 801's cooking. Also the Hovland HP-100 preamp, sounds like music.