I think the foundation was laid at 3 years old, playing my parents’ collection of 45s on an RCA 45-EY-3 changer with a tube amplifier.
I believe that this seminal and extensive listening of rock and roll, blues and pop music with a tube amp set my expectations of what the realism of records should be. In the late 60s, my first dissatisfaction with an audio playback item started when we got a brand new solid state GE record player and really good new albums from my aunt for Christmas. Not only did it sound thin, but the voices didn’t sound realistic when I compared the 45 of the Coasters Searchin’ on the RCA vs the GE.
Like this but ours was burnt orange:
In 1970-1971, I got into reel to reel using my dads Panasonic he was using to practice for the Columbia School of Broadcasting:
Our TV was an old B&W Hoffman that had an RCA jack that I would connect to one output channel of the tape recorder to get a richer sound with more bass from the Hoffman than the little speakers it had builtin.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/d8/73/a1d873f172facc69fca189c5ee9d772e.jpg
I bought a Tom Jones 7.5 IPS reel tape, but would also drag the machine to my aunt’s apartment where I’d record Abbey Road, Santana, and my mom’s Tom Jones albums on blank tapes my dad got cheap from work. He knew a guy that was taking unwanted computer tapes, slicing them to 1/4” and selling them cheap. She had a really nice looking and sounding KLH FM/Turntable with a Koss headphone adapter. I frequently listened to her records on that system and it sounded great.
These are the headphones and adapter I listened with the KLH:
As I read your post, it seems like you still own it, right? If you do, have you ever played some discrete, hi res surround music, 4.0 or 5.1? There’s quite a bit if classic rock, like Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Yes, and Neil Young available if you know where to look and it sounds so good.
Wish You Were Here, Fragile, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 96khz/24 bit in 5.1 is really spectacular. There’s also quite a few old timey bands in Quad/4.0 like Simon & Garfunkel, America, Santana, Jethro Tull,Pink Floyd, etc. which were mixed back in the early 1970s Quad mixes for 8 track and records in SQ or CD-4.
If you like that kind of music, DM me and I’ll tell you how to configure it all and where to get it all.
Thank you, but I actually sold everything except the Sony receiver. Now I still have a Denon receiver for movies with an Emotiva power amp, Focal speakers and a SVS sub. However I am actually start to like more and more 2.1 setup now. I am planning to buy a Luxman in the next few months which will be connected to my current Denafrips Ares 12th DAC.