True Audio Stories! Do you have any?

Don C

Well-Known Member
Jul 20, 2013
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Story #1 1976 Milwaukee, WI

I was just out of college looking to buy some audio equipment and went into a store called Wacks Electronics. It was high end for the times. On the outside they claimed they had over 100 tape decks for sale. Well I don’t know about that, but they had lots of stuff I had never seen before.

After chatting with the owner, he knew, I knew, brand name stuff. I said what is your best setup?
He took me to the back of the store, up a flight of stairs, to a locked room. This room was for special customers only! Not the typical “riff-raff” off the street.

In the not too large room were speakers made up of three big 6’ tall flat panels on each side, that I had never seen before (Audio Research Tympani IIIc), an Audio Research SP-3a preamp, and an Audio Research D150 power amp. I do not remember the turntable.

The power amp was huge and weighed almost 200 pounds. Three big meters, a large knob in the center, and many switches. It looked like something out of a 1950s science fiction movie. With this in your listening room, everyone knew you were either dead serious about sound quality, or totally crazy! Only about 125 of these monsters were ever made.

The owner flipped the on off switch and the meters lit up. Then slowly turned the big center knob, which gently turned up the voltage with the built in variac! Cool! Then he played a record. For the first time ever, I heard realistic music coming out of the speakers! Not just sound! I was “blown away”, but could not afford this equipment.

A few months later I bought a pair of Magnepan IIa speakers, Great American Sound (GAS) Thoebe preamp, and GAS Son of Ampzilla power amp. I thrilled many listeners with that setup for many years. Nobody ever said I had less than great sound!


Story #2 1988 Twin Cities, MN

I was talking to an audio friend at work about an ad in the paper for an older pair of Magnepan Tympani speakers. The Tympani line was no longer made. He knew I owned Magnepans, and asked if they were any good. I told him to not think twice, and buy them! Then I told him story #1. He was skeptical, but thought if he did not like them, he could resell without a loss.

The seller said he did not have the boxes, but could deliver. To his amazement, a long stretch limo rolled up to his house with the speakers in the back. The driver who helped move them in said the seller was the recording engineer for the “artist formerly known as prince”!

He temporarily set them up in his bed room, and was unimpressed with the bass. I asked him how far were they were away from the rear wall? He said one foot. I told him, move them four feet away from the wall! The next day, he said the bass was “unbelievable”! I have never heard more realist bass, and “life sized” sound! These were an absolute steal!

Story #3 2004 Plymouth, MN

I was waiting in the Audio Research lobby to pick up a preamp they repaired. The receptionist/secretary/phone operator was sitting at her desk ignoring me. A good looking middle aged brunet. A photograph of a huge M300 mono block amp was hanging on the wall. I asked her if that was a Bill Johnson design? She curtly said, “they are all Johnson’s designs”! Then she turned away.

I started to tell her story #1. She continued to ignore me. When I got to the Tympani part, she turned, and pointed her finger directly at me, and said “Timpani IIIc……..I have those in my living room”! Time seemed to freeze! For what seemed like several seconds, we gazed into each others eyes in silence. We had a “cosmic connection” and my jaw dropped! Wow! A female with Tympani’s in her living room, how rare was that! She looked embarrassed, and immediately turned away, returning to ignore me. Later found out he lady receptionist /secretary / phone operator’s name is Ruth Gustafson, the wife of Leonard the service manager.

The Tympani IIIc was distributed by Audio Research, with “Audio Research” on the connector plate, not Magnepan. After Bill Johnson retired, and sold the company, there was no longer anyone in the lobby.


More Stories:

In the 90’s I met a person that worked for many years at Magnepan. He had fond memories from afternoons listening to speakers for evaluation (like other employees) in the lab. He remembers that Jim Winey had tight control over decisions, and caused lots of delays because he could not be found for sign offs, and was at home studying (not drinking) wine. He recalls the worst ever speakers returned for rebuild, was a set of badly beat up Tympani’s owned by country singer Willie Nelson.

A story from the internet: there was an employee at ARC that had a baby born premature and after insurance, left him with a $30,000 bill. Bill Johnson felt sorry for him, and wrote him a personal check for $30,000. What a kind man! The employee was Jim Smith.

I also met Frank VanAlstine at Macintosh user groups, and the local audio club. He was a little boisterous and opinionated, but nice. He modified Dynaco audio, the ARC SP3a, and Magnepans by putting clay globs on strategic spots, to improve the sound ( LOL). He also was a car racer. Made good audio products for not high dollars.

Met Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere also. Posts all over the internet, and is an expert in audio. Has been around a long time, with fanatic followers of his tube amps. A great person.

Also talked to James Bongiorno over the phone several times, when I bought a Son of Ampzilla 2000 in 2006. Liked his designs (Great American Sound (GAS), Sumo Electric, and Spread Spectrum Technologies). At times he was abrasive and opinionated. Tried to order another Son of Ampzilla 2000, and he said he was having tests for a lung transplant, and had not sold anything for months. I had sent a check for $3500 (he cut me a deal). Two days later he called, and told me he would change my order, and hold my money for a new amp, to be called Ampzilla Forever. I was suspicious, and figured he would be dead, and it would be forever before I received it. The next day I called the bank and put a BLOCK on the check! Several days later, he left me a voicemail with many swear words. A few weeks later he died.

My all time favorite store was The Audiophile Sound Studio in Middleton, WI, several miles west of Madison. The store was a large house with seven listening rooms. They had many, many, super audio products around the late 70's early 80's.

I heard the full blown official Mark Levinson HQD system. Stacked Quads, Decca tweeter, 30" Hartly bass, eight Levinson JC2 Class A amps, Levinson crossovers, and driven by a giant John Curl modified Studer tape deck. The tape deck used 2" wide, two track tape, running at 30 in per second, and they played second generation Mark Levinson Jazz recordings made by Mark.

They also had the giant Dayton -Wright X10 gas filled electrostatics, and Harold Beverage 8’ tall coffin electrostatics, with tube amp in the bottom, speakers.

The store went under in the 80's
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
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Abso!utely fascinating! :cool:
________

I don't have stories of that audio caliber, just others on music caliber (live artists, that sort of jazz).
I passionately enjoyed reading yours, Don. R.I.P. Prince
 
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witchdoctor

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2016
337
5
148
OK, maybe not so dramatic but here goes.
A coworker needed a cassette deck so I went with her over to a local electronics store called the wiz. While she was shopping I wandered into a room that had like a hundred speakers setup and suddenly heard "music" that sounded better than anything I expected in this low end hifi store. I approached the sales person and he told me I was listening to Mission 731 speakers. I bought them and a Philips receiver, took them home and got hooked on this hobby, I never heard of home theater but within 6 months I had the matching towers, center, and subwoofer for that Mission system and I have never looked back after that day.

Story 2

My paradigm active speakers are considered by some paradigm dealers and sales reps to be the best speakers they have ever made. I needed to get stands for my active 40's and called mapleshade to get a maple stand called a buttress. I get the owner Pierre sprey on the phone and he tells me I should get the bedrock stands instead. Bedrock stands put the speakers on the floor tilting back firing at the listening position. I thought the idea was preposterous but he was pitching me stands that were actually LESS expensive than the ones I wanted! I had never been "down sold" before and I could return them in 30 days. When I put my speakers on those stands it was shocking, they sounded 2 to 3 times better, more bass, more dynamics, better sound stage, everything. That was just shocking from just putting the speaker on the floor with the maple stands.

story 3

Fast forward 10 year, I wanted to add 4 height channels for an auro 3d system but was at a dead end. auro recommends getting the same speakers all around and paradigm active speakers are out of production and rarely do you see them online. I thought I was going to have to settle. Then I saw an ad on craigslist that listed a bunch of stuff for sale and said paradigm speakers but not the model. I called and it was great news, He had two active 40's plus an active center channel. I had been using an active 40 at center and two active adp's as surrounds, two active 20's as wides, and two active 20's as rear surrounds.. I always had to boost the center channel a few DB because sometimes voices were buried in the mix. In all my years I had never seen an active center channel on sale anywhere. Auro specifies no dipole/bipoles speakers only direct radiators. This meant I could now have the perfect matching center channel plus matching active 40 speakers all around! These speakers almost never come up for sale and I was very lucky to score exactly what I wanted right when I wanted to expand. Now that I had matching active 40's I could take my 4 active 20's from surround duties and move them up to height channels. This is the system I enjoy today.
 

fas42

Addicted To Best
Jan 8, 2011
3,973
3
0
NSW Australia
I've mentioned this first "good stuff" from my system happening over 30 years ago, many times - but I'll plug it in here, just to add to the list ;) ...

I had gone digital, finally - the best Yamaha CD player, a monster Perreaux power amp, small B&W bookshelfs that were a 2nd hand buy from a friend - I used the latter rather than more ambitious speakers that were in the house, because their sound was promising, and they were easy to get inside of, and fiddle with the parts. The Yamaha had volume control, and I wasn't interested in a variety of sources, so I had made the system as simple as possible; and began playing with it, trying to improve the sound. Steadily getting better with each optimising, I was removing complexity rather than adding new bits, and the sound was ever more promising in the areas that matter - getting the replay to just sound more like real music.

One day, after one more tweak, it happened! Magic sound, that conjured up real people, playing real instruments, in a real space that wasn't the lounge room! I fell off the proverbial chair, and investigated all the aspects of the presentation. Completely invisible speakers, even with my head smack bang against the tweeter I couldn't hear it "working" - the musical image hung in space and was rock solid; no matter where I put my head, the musical "hologram" retained full integrity! I was flabbergasted, I had never heard this type of thing from an audio system, ever before ...

And so my audio journey began in earnest ...
 

Jim Smith

Industry Expert
Dec 14, 2012
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I have LOTS of stories, but here is one:

It was the 2003 Stereophile Show in San Francisco. Our show room featured BAT, Cardas, Grand Prix Audio, Running Springs Audio, and Avantgarde Acoustic. I was the North American distributor for Avantgarde. I always ended up having to voice the demo systems to the rooms, and this show was no different. I had voiced the system as I always did. However, this time I needed to overcome a certain sonic issue (we had a particularly nasty bass problem in the room).

This was initially addressed by bringing in a friend/technical expert (Richard Rives-Bird) who proceeded to equalize the bass system with his Rives PARC so that it was exceptionally flat – no more nasty peak at 50 Hz. Unfortunately, that’s how I felt after listening to this amazing technical achievement – flat.

After deciding that I had to make sure that I properly addressed both aspects (technical & musical – meaning that I had some listening and adjusting to do), we went on to receive a level of universal acclaim that – honestly speaking - I didn’t expect.

Two well-known reviewers (Robert Harley of TAS and Srajan Ebaen of 6moons.com) commented in their publications about this acclaim. They were amazed to see the audience stand up and applaud (!) at the end of each demo session, something that they had never seen. Actually it was the first time for me as well, and I had attended/participated in dozens of shows, going back to my ARC/Magnepan days in the 70s.

Twelve years later (!), Robert again wrote of this phenomenon, in a recent issue of TAS: "The same system at a San Francisco show elicited a standing ovation with wild applause at the conclusion of Pink Floyd’s The Wall—the only instance of such a reaction to a show demo in memory." —RH]

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...lifier-and-rex-ii-monoblock-power-amplifiers/

... Actually, the audiences only gave us standing ovations about 75% of the time, but it was still amazing to see!

If I had simply settled for technically excellent sound, we would still have had a good show. But we had lines of expectant listeners down the hall and around the corner, waiting to hear our demo, because it was the musical impact that brought the listeners to their feet with applause.

The implication for me was/is that it’s not enough to achieve technical excellence when voicing a system to a room - we shouldn’t leave it at that. That is the starting point. We then need to apply the technical excellence to achieve musical involvement, IMO.
 

witchdoctor

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2016
337
5
148
I have LOTS of stories, but here is one:

It was the 2003 Stereophile Show in San Francisco. Our show room featured BAT, Cardas, Grand Prix Audio, Running Springs Audio, and Avantgarde Acoustic. I was the North American distributor for Avantgarde. I always ended up having to voice the demo systems to the rooms, and this show was no different. I had voiced the system as I always did. However, this time I needed to overcome a certain sonic issue (we had a particularly nasty bass problem in the room).

This was initially addressed by bringing in a friend/technical expert (Richard Rives-Bird) who proceeded to equalize the bass system with his Rives PARC so that it was exceptionally flat – no more nasty peak at 50 Hz. Unfortunately, that’s how I felt after listening to this amazing technical achievement – flat.

After deciding that I had to make sure that I properly addressed both aspects (technical & musical – meaning that I had some listening and adjusting to do), we went on to receive a level of universal acclaim that – honestly speaking - I didn’t expect.

Two well-known reviewers (Robert Harley of TAS and Srajan Ebaen of 6moons.com) commented in their publications about this acclaim. They were amazed to see the audience stand up and applaud (!) at the end of each demo session, something that they had never seen. Actually it was the first time for me as well, and I had attended/participated in dozens of shows, going back to my ARC/Magnepan days in the 70s.

Twelve years later (!), Robert again wrote of this phenomenon, in a recent issue of TAS: "The same system at a San Francisco show elicited a standing ovation with wild applause at the conclusion of Pink Floyd’s The Wall—the only instance of such a reaction to a show demo in memory." —RH]

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...lifier-and-rex-ii-monoblock-power-amplifiers/

... Actually, the audiences only gave us standing ovations about 75% of the time, but it was still amazing to see!

If I had simply settled for technically excellent sound, we would still have had a good show. But we had lines of expectant listeners down the hall and around the corner, waiting to hear our demo, because it was the musical impact that brought the listeners to their feet with applause.

The implication for me was/is that it’s not enough to achieve technical excellence when voicing a system to a room - we shouldn’t leave it at that. That is the starting point. We then need to apply the technical excellence to achieve musical involvement, IMO.

Nice story, were you ever able to repeat that experience at other shows?
 

Jim Smith

Industry Expert
Dec 14, 2012
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Nice story, were you ever able to repeat that experience at other shows?

That was the last consumer audio show we did before I resigned as the Avantgarde distributor in 2005.

Never even came close to that at CES, which is primarily trade-centered. Different crowd and different reasons for being at the show...

We were fortunate enough to win Best of Show acclaim at 5 of the 7 shows at which we exhibited, with different rooms and different components. But I never had that standing ovation experience before or after...
 

microstrip

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(...) This was initially addressed by bringing in a friend/technical expert (Richard Rives-Bird) who proceeded to equalize the bass system with his Rives PARC so that it was exceptionally flat – no more nasty peak at 50 Hz. Unfortunately, that’s how I felt after listening to this amazing technical achievement – flat.

After deciding that I had to make sure that I properly addressed both aspects (technical & musical – meaning that I had some listening and adjusting to do), we went on to receive a level of universal acclaim that – honestly speaking - I didn’t expect. (...)

Jim,
Interesting story - what type of adjustments did you carry? Did you change the equalization in the PARC?
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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Jim,
Interesting story - what type of adjustments did you carry? Did you change the equalization in the PARC?

great story by Jim Smith and great question...
 

Jim Smith

Industry Expert
Dec 14, 2012
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Jim,
Interesting story - what type of adjustments did you carry? Did you change the equalization in the PARC?

After Richard left, I worked on the PARC by ear - adjusting Q, amplitude, and overall level. Didn't change freq. We were bi-amping, so the feed to the Basshorns was separate from the mains - it contained the PARC (the PARC was only in the IC line to the Bass amp - did not introduce any veiling on the TRIOs).

All final adjustments of the PARC were based on the musical impact, not the measured flattest response. I had seen Richard's measurements before he left. It was amazingly flat.

I should also say that the crowd response we received was also due to what Richard did. We simply tweaked it sonically.
 

jeff1225

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Jan 29, 2012
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True Audio Story.

I received a bonus at work and was prepared to invest in my system. I went into a famous Seattle area audio salon, cash in hand to buy a pair of Wilson Sophia 1's. I had my credit card out, about to pay for the speakers and the sales clerk asks me: "tell me about the rest of your system." I told him that I love my current set-up with a McIntosh MA6900 and a VPI Scout and was excited to go to the next level with my speakers. The clerk then proceeded to tell me that my gear was "entry level" and I'd be wasting my money buying the Wilsons. I put my card back in my wallet and walked out.

6 months later I walked back in the store and they were a full McIntosh dealer, singing the praises of the brand.
 

KeithR

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I was in the USA Tube Audio room a few years back and asked to play my own music - in this case, Daft Punk's "RAM," which had just been released a few weeks prior. After a minute, the sales woman stopped it in the middle and proceeded to tell me that Leonard Cohen would better demonstrate the Lamms. I said no thank you and walked out.

JA and a host of reviewers use that DP album as a pop reference and it won a zillion Grammys.


Another true audio story-

I had a guy reach out to me 10+ years ago about a used audio piece - to this day we chat once a month over the phone. We have never met each other in person!
 

stehno

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2014
1,585
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Salem, OR

With so much lunacy in this industry, where does one begin? Here's a non-threatening one hopefully.

Since 2000 when I started to take high-end audio seriously, I've purchased or auditioned maybe maybe 100 - 125 various products of most all types. Of all those products, I only recall two products (one in 2000, the other in 2006) that I purchased based on "hearing" it first. All other product purchases were based solely on my own research, reading between the lines of reviews / feedback, studying construction images, or simply purchased on a whim.

 

microstrip

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Longtime ago I was listening to a pair of Wilson Maxx playing really great at an AudioShow. Although they were not being played by conrad johnson electronics, Lew Johnson was there listening to the music. As I owned cj electronics - a Premier 9A and a MV125 - I approached him, presented and we started talking. At a moment he told me they had the same speakers at their factory, but later added a comment - and I now own the recent Wilson Watt/Puppy V at home, 95% of the performance for a fraction of the price. At the end of the evening I ordered the first Watt/Puppy V to come in my country. Great speaker and a great match with my room and electronics.
 

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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True Audio Story.

I received a bonus at work and was prepared to invest in my system. I went into a famous Seattle area audio salon, cash in hand to buy a pair of Wilson Sophia 1's. I had my credit card out, about to pay for the speakers and the sales clerk asks me: "tell me about the rest of your system." I told him that I love my current set-up with a McIntosh MA6900 and a VPI Scout and was excited to go to the next level with my speakers. The clerk then proceeded to tell me that my gear was "entry level" and I'd be wasting my money buying the Wilsons. I put my card back in my wallet and walked out.

6 months later I walked back in the store and they were a full McIntosh dealer, singing the praises of the brand.

I was in the USA Tube Audio room a few years back and asked to play my own music - in this case, Daft Punk's "RAM," which had just been released a few weeks prior. After a minute, the sales woman stopped it in the middle and proceeded to tell me that Leonard Cohen would better demonstrate the Lamms. I said no thank you and walked out.

JA and a host of reviewers use that DP album as a pop reference and it won a zillion Grammys.

Those were good reads. Coincidentally I watched a documentary about Daft Punk last night.

 

Tabl10s

Well-Known Member
Jul 30, 2019
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Sacramento
1)The '93 Stereophile show was my first and I was excited. After entering the first room with a famous brand of speaker(can't remember the name), I sat in the front row.

Before the first note had ended on the classical selection, some old guy(directly behind me) jumps up and with eyes closed, starts flapping his arms like a baby bird trying to fly.

I was on the floor looking up at him for the entire song. This scenario happened again at the '97 LA show in the Wilson room(Sheryl Wilson was trying not to laugh).

During the same show, I heard her ask Darryl...

"What color Ferrari should we get?"
 
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Neoteric

New Member
Dec 8, 2023
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62
CA
I guess I was about 10 years old when I opened up the back of my speaker cabinet and discovered a power cord and plug taped inside the speaker cabinet. I had recently begun reading various audiophile magazines in the library. They were way above my head, but I enjoyed looking at the photographs of bitchin’ stereos and trying to decipher whatever all that technical language was trying to tell me. The magazines were filled with articles asking if electrostatic speakers were the best in the world? Having never seen an electrostatic speaker, and not really sure what they were all about, I thought maybe I had latched onto one in my humble garage-sale compact stereo. After all, the stereo was already plugged in, so that extra plug must be for juicing up the electrons that push out all the music in the air. (Note: I still enjoy the same canny understanding of electronics). Anyway, always enterprising (but foolhardy) as a lad, I undid the electrical tape that someone had wisely used to hide the plug and, not quite as wisely, plugged in it in. The next sound you hear will be me, shouting a profanity and yanking my hand back, as smoke fills my bedroom and tiny bits of seared electrical tape explode into the room. After sealing the cabinet back up and opening all the windows to air out the room before my siblings discovered my latest act of idiocy, I vowed to never attempt any DIY projects ever again (promise kept!). I did, however, learn a valuable lesson: Audio writers are fiendish tricksters who prey on the gullible few who would venture into the terrifying world of high-end audio without the services of a stereo Sherpa.
 

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