Thread: What was your first high-end component ever?

Originally Posted by Calvin

It's kind of interesting to follow someone else's audiophile journey from their first high-end component to the present day.

Mine began with a B&O Turntable system decades ago. This was safer than continuing to sneak time on my father's McIntosh System (turntable, reel to reel, etc. - it was nice ...) when he was at work.

Some years later we went with a Krell Int with B&W 802s (in cherry) and a Sony ES SACD. A set of Grado Headphones joined the package as well. We had a few multi-channel systems thereafter that NEVER fully satisfied my two-channel craving ....

Now we're patiently waiting upon the delivery of another two-channel system.

Whether long or short, what's your audiophile journey been like?

You asked from first component to present day. A whole system was the beginning, in 1990:

Cambridge CD-3 CD player
Stax SRM-T1 tube headphone amp
Stax 'Professional' electrostatic headphones
Siltech cables

One and a half years later, I switched to a speaker system, with then my third CD playback system (Meridian 602/606) and Audio Innovations Second Audio parallel push-pull triode monoblock amps, powering Ensemble Reference monitors. I kept the amps for 26 years (going through heavy modifications and supplement with BorderPatrol MB external power supplies) and the speakers for 25 years (re-foaming in 2005).

Development of my system:

CD playback:
Cambridge CD-3 > Meridian 208 > Meridian 602/606 > Wadia 8/12 (kept for about 20 years) > Berkeley Alpha DAC2 (with switching to Simaudio Moon 260 DT CD transport after the Wadia 8 gave up) > Schiit Yggdrasil DAC v1 > Schiit Yggdrasil DAC Analog 2

Amps:
Audio Innovations Second Audio monoblocks > Octave RE 320

Preamp:
diverse passives > Pass B1 (buffered) > Octave HP 700

Speakers (all monitors):
Ensemble Reference > Reference 3A MM DeCapo BE > Reference 3A Reflector

Subwoofers:
REL Storm III (purchased in 2000) > JL Audio F112v2

Cables:
Ensemble/Siltech/MIT > Monster Audio Sigma 2000 (IC/SC) > ZenWave Audio D4 interconnects / SMSG speaker cables (digital AES/EBU cable, MIT)

Room treatment:
Tube traps/ sound panels/ SubTrap, then window plugs, then ceiling diffusers (all ASC), absorbing panel from Acoustics First. Changing through diverse carpets.

***

Now I'm essentially done. While I have regular exposure to other kinds of systems, I will always remain a monitor/sub guy. I can hardly envision any more meaningful upgrades within this type of system that I have, except perhaps the DAC. Yet given how spectacularly it performs -- it really came into its own with the preamp upgrade --, there is no hurry, i.e. not within the next few years. Good on my wallet, I have other things to take care of. Don't be surprised if I have the same DAC five years from now, or longer.

I had lots of lower end stuff including Dynaco-Heathkit-Hafler that my brother built. My first entry into HE was Hafler 945 and 9180 with Mirage M790s. Then I bought Dynaudio 82s, a Sound Valves 101i, and a Stratos+ amp.

I later lucked into my VAC-Counterpoint-Clearfield setup for a steal.

My first true HE purchase was my new Luxman I got 3 weeks ago.

New 25 watt MacIntosh MC225 that replaced a Dynakit amp. Circa 1960. No kidding!
Added a C20 pre-amp and a second speaker and a stereo cartridge so we could have stereo. My new wife footed the bill. Some time later I let her choose new speakers. She chose Roger's LS3/5a's which we had for 36 years. Our used Cotter preamp's power supply eventually got noisy after running 24/7 for 36 years. Mitch Cotter was right when he said his gear was built to NASA standards.

We paid $450 for the LS3/5a's and I sold them in an hour for $1K (could have got $2K). I bought the Cotter pre-amp used and not working. After repairing it and using it for 36 years I sold it for $1,000.

I lost my wife of 56 years recently and went crazy buying audio equipment. I didn't enjoy it so I sold off most of it and bought a modest Naim system. I did fall off the wagon when I bought a Naim ND555 streamer/DAC.

WOW those are some nice systems AI M.; puroagave; Shadowfax and Leatherneck. AI M. you seem to have the longest journey detailed so far. And Leatherneck with the system I’m fixing to receive I will be near the end of my journey as well – but do still intend to get some Magico M3s and higher end Shunyata cables and possibly a turntable setup – the boss and I are still discussing it. Purogave, Bryston is some very nice gear. The Maggies must sound incredible with them. And Shawdowfax, Luxman is incredible. Mike is delivering a Luxman D-08u SACD to me soon – hopefully real soon.

Time to go celebrate a birthday. Post later.

Originally Posted by Calvin

WOW those are some nice systems AI M.; puroagave; Shadowfax and Leatherneck. AI M. you seem to have the longest journey detailed so far. And Leatherneck with the system I’m fixing to receive I will be near the end of my journey as well – but do still intend to get some Magico M3s and higher end Shunyata cables and possibly a turntable setup – the boss and I are still discussing it. Purogave, Bryston is some very nice gear. The Maggies must sound incredible with them. And Shawdowfax, Luxman is incredible. Mike is delivering a Luxman D-08u SACD to me soon – hopefully real soon.

Time to go celebrate a birthday. Post later.

I actually began in 1954 when I was a Marine going to a Navy electronics school on Treasure Island. I met sailors who were building their own audio amps. My wife and I bought the Mac gear in 1960.
I had Maggies with Bryston gear but my wife made me get rid of the Maggies, too big. I had always wanted some Naim gear back in the day and decided to finally give it a try by buying a Naim Supernait 1. I was so impressed, I sold off all my Bryston gear and went with Naim.
My dream system back in the day was Naim/Linn/Spendor. I now have Harbeth as my BBC thin wall monitors instead of Spendors.

My first "High End" piece was a Nakamichi deck, and then soon followed by KEF 104aB speakers, back in the '70s.

RGR model 5 power amp, citation 25 pre, Kef R105/3 speakers(speakers I kept 25 years). I went thru multiple combo's of amps and pre's before finding a Krell kav 300il really pulled the sound together.

Originally Posted by puroagave

Magnepan IIc, ca 1986 or thereabouts. Driven by a Bryston 3B and Kinergetics KDC-20 CDP, the one with a built in volume control--cutting edge digital for the day until the Cal Audio Labs tubed CD player debuted a few months later.

Mine was the predecessor to the Maggie II, the Maggie 2167-F (glad they changed the names of their models) bought almost a decade earlier. I probably still had my big Pioneer receiver and Dual turntable with Shure cartridge. The Maggies replaced my old AR-5 speakers bought when I first came to grad school in California (Go Bears!) in the late '60's.

The Maggies lasted until the end of 1979, when our daughter who was not quite a year old was beginning to learn to walk. One day, I heard a big crash. Our daughter had been trying to stand up using one of the panels of the Maggies for support and instead pulled it down. Fortunately, neither she (who is now 40) nor the Maggie were any the worse for wear. They were in the classifieds a couple of days later (remember those?) and replaced by some Thiels which had a much lower center of gravity.

Larry

My first higher end unit was Kenwood KA-3300D. Kenwood occasionally put out higher end gear, just to show they could, the 3300 series was such a series with matching tuner (only FM) and CDP, I acquired all 3 eventually. To my knowledge this KA-3300 was the first integrated amp to feature a built in DAC, circa late 80's.

Prior to that my financial situation kept me to only receivers.

With the 3300 series I bought Infinity Kappa 7's.

I did keep that for some years but the love of hi fi and having some money, or, good credit, led me to try different avenues of hi fi down the road.

It all started when the DP-3300 CDP broke and no parts to fix it. I bought an Arcam Alpha 9 CDP. Then my excuse was wanting an amp with remote, this led to Krell integrated and CDP, and upgreaded within. A 180 to Conrad Johnson separates, I had an EAD transport and Audio Note DAC, a CJ DAC, T+A CDP, Levinson #512 SACD.

I tried some thing after CJ, Threshold, Audio by Van Alstine, ended up with Pass separates, then eventually to where I'm at now which has me very satisfied. It is worth noting I kept a Coda CSX that I rotated in and out of my Pass set up.

After the Kappa 7's I had Dynaudio Contour T's center and mains, forget the exact model. Then Revel F52's and now my JBL. Somewhere in there I had Zu Audio, it was back with the CJ amps, for a short.

I've had other things in my system to try but this is long enough

I got a Magnavox suitcase stereo recorder player with speakers in 1962. It saw me through college. A friend had a component system he bought overseas while in the Navy. University bookshelf speakers, Teac reel to reel and Sansui receiver. Even at that humble level I could easily tell it was much better than my suitcase setup.
So, I then bought a used Eico tube integrated, Garrard 40B turntable, Shure cartridge and a pair of Utah co-ax speakers in boxes I built. Exposure to better systems resulted in following setups being better.

I traded in a pair of Bose 901 Series II for a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10's and a Ampzilla amp.

Apogee - Duetta Signature Loudspeakers (circa 1989)

I really liked those speakers and it took 20+ years to find something to replace them with when I did let go of them.

While not the hardest Apogee load to drive, they tended to eat many amplifiers alive back then and until I could afford an equivalent amplifier, I (ab)used an Adcom 555 (thank you Nelson Pass) to drive them.

Showing my age here: Apt Holman preamp, SAE MK IV power amp, Thorens 125 MkII turntable, IMF TLS 50 speakers, and Monster cables galore.

First system:
Marantz 2270 receiver
Infinity Column II
Kenwood turntable with Denon 103

I wish I had kept the Marantz, it would make a nice office system

First super component:
Audio Research SP6b

Took it home, listened to it for a while, decided it was too expensive, brought it back, lasted 30 minutes and I went back to the dealer to buy it.

Welcome to Audio Shark

Originally Posted by Low325

Had hand me downs denon receivers/Klipsch speakers from the 90s.

My first actual bought HiFi gear were the maggy mmg’s I believe in the early 2000s. Always been around HiFi in some fashion and committed myself to only buying not so HiFi till i was more settled in with a new house and now my growing family. As of 2020, I have B&W 702s2, H390 and Torus RM20. Need it to be as simple as can be...that’s how I do things.

Carver, I believe an integrated, and with a CD player but not sure the brand, it may of been Carver or Sony. Klipsch Forte’s where the speakers and cables did not matter during the late eighties and early nineties.

This electronics were bought at the air force base, and speakers naval submarine base.


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I got devorced in 1988 so I spoiled myself with a Carver 2000 receiver, Denon DCD-1700 cd player and Klipsch Forte' speakers. I still have the Carver and Denon in the original boxes. Sold the Klipsch about 10 years ago to a friend. It was a fun system for Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Zepplin and my favorite jazz music.

Originally Posted by Darrel

I got devorced in 1988 so I spoiled myself with a Carver 2000 receiver, Denon DCD-1700 cd player and Klipsch Forte' speakers. I still have the Carver and Denon in the original boxes. Sold the Klipsch about 10 years ago to a friend. It was a fun system for Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Zepplin and my favorite jazz music.

Jesus Darryl we weren’t that far off each other, systems and music that is


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I almost purchased a pair of highly inefficient, but awesome sounding, Infinity Quantum Line Source speakers in 1978 but they recommended at least 400 wpc to run them. That was a deal breaker. They were also pricey. I think around $2500? A lot of money back then. That and the price of a 400 wpc amp nixed the deal for me.

In the early 1970's a Mac integrated amp and a pair of Bose 901. The Bose was very short lived and went back to the dealer for a pair of Klipsch Hersey.

The first truly high end system I ever saw or heard was a system my cousin brought back with him after being discharged from the Marines, circa 1960. It was a full system as I recall but that was a long time ago and I can't remember all the components. I was only 10 years old at the time. I remember the speaker grills were a light tan color. The book shelf speakers looked like Advents. They might have been Scotts? But I'm not sure what brand and models they were. We listened through both the speakers and headphones. Headphones were used a lot back then. The system sounded awesome through headphones or speakers. I couldn't stop listening through the headphones. Neither could my dad. I do remember one of the records my cousin used to demo the system was a George Cates record. It was a Latin style recording with lots of percussion. The system was likely top of the line back then. Can't remember if there was a receiver or separates. I remember there was also a reel to reel tape machine.

My dad was no big music connoisseur but he must have been pretty impressed because within a couple weeks we had a new Sylvania console stereo which I wore out over the next several years.

That console stereo taught me how to play guitar. Some of the first record albums we owned were The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, George Cates percussion, early Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Buddy Holley, Eddie Cochran, and The Ventures. The Sylvania console was our main sound system for the next 7 years or so until my parents purchased (for me) a Sylvania 35 wpc receiver, Sylvania/Gerard TT, and 8" Sylvania "Air Suspension" book shelf speakers. Probably the closest thing to a high end system without being truly high end that was available back in the mid '60s. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was replaced by a similar but larger and more powerful Sylvania system...50 wpc Sylvania receiver, 10" Sylvania "Air Suspension" speakers, Dual TT, and Sony reel to reel tape recorder. It was my HS graduation present (1968).

Used? IMF speakers
New? Perraux amp and preamp

But truthfully, it was the 1970’s and everything is now a blur!


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An Odyssey Stratos way back in 2000. A Cary SLP98 and V12 soon followed.

Other than the AR-XB turntable, I don't remember the electronics from the 70s, but the speakers were Pioneer CS-A700. I remember saving my money from a $1.80/hour minimum wage job to buy them.

Audire Model 2 amplifier with a Soundcraftsmen PE-2217 preamp and ADS L-810 speakers. Can't remember for sure on the TT but it may have been a Connoisseur BD-2 with a Sonus cartridge.

I used to love the ADS speakers!

First real high end that I remember was a Nakamichi deck. I think it was a 670zx. Love that deck. Shortly after was KEF 104ab speakers!

Randy

My son still has that Cherry pair of L810 S/2's with factory stands in his Family Room in Md. I still have two mint pairs of the L570 S/2 large bookshelf speakers that I picked up several years back with one pair of the open top metal stands. Really need to move those on as I haven't used them in some time. They have the same "house sound" as the 810 but with only one of the 8" woofers and the silk dome tweeter. Closest thing you can get to them now is Aerial Acoustics which is owned by Michael Kelly one of the last in house designers for ADS. Ultimately the 810's were replaced by Snell Type A's built not to far down the road from the ADS factory. I gave my Nakamichi away a couple of years ago to a neighbor who is a broadcast equipment tech as it needed work that he knew how to do and I hadn't used it for over a decade.

The L810's were a great speaker from my memory. But that was way back in the day for me.

I saw a Nak 970zx for sale and was tempted, but then I reminded myself that I no longer have any of my tapes and I really do not want to get back into taping... but I do have very fond memories of this deck!

A Classe Dr 6 preamp, pair of Classe dr10 amps, and a Mitchell Gyrodec turntable.

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IF I recall correctly...

ARC SP-3a
ARC D-76
ARC D-51
Thorens tt/with SME arm, Decca phono cartridge
Revox A-77 15/7.5 IPS, mostly used to supply copies of my masters, as well as my playback-list tapes to the Norfolk, VA. PBS radio station
Magnepan Tympani 1B's, replaced by Infinity Servo-Statik 1s

Mirage M-5si speakers
Forte F44 preamp
Forte Model 4a amp
AQ wires
NAD CD player
Plateau rack

Originally Posted by Jim Smith

IF I recall correctly...

ARC SP-3a
ARC D-76
ARC D-51
Thorens tt/with SME arm, Decca phono cartridge
Revox A-77 15/7.5 IPS, mostly used to supply copies of my masters, as well as my playback-list tapes to the Norfolk, VA. PBS radio station
Magnepan Tympani 1B's, replaced by Infinity Servo-Statik 1s

You don't mess around Jim.

I started in mid 90s with Adcom pre, McCormack DNA1 Dlx mono and Thiel. The McCormack and Thiel are glued to my room for a long time. At that time, I didn't surf internet and curious if there is something better than what I have. I only visited SoundEx, Sound by Singer...then go home and be happy with my beloved system.