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.
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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:
When I was a complete novice to this hobby, I watched a lot of Steve Guttenberg videos on YouTube. At the time he was enamoured by the Klipsch RP600M. The internet community as well. And by complete coincidence, the RP600M was 50% off bundled with a Yamaha RN402 amp. So I purchased the combo deal without hesitation. Steve Guttenberg can’t be wrong?
I set up the Klipwch RP600M and the disappointment was immediate and persistent. In short, there was a suckout in the midrange and the speakers in my work van sounded better. I didn’t understand what Steve Guttenberg was experiencing with the Klipsch RP600M. They sound like generic speakers you’d find in a van or a soundbar. My dad’s speakers (Q Acoustics 2020) just sounded better and less like speakers.
For 2 long years I was basically resisting the urge not to upgrade my speakers. And then I was fed up. I walked to audio shops in Paris and everything else sounded pretty good. But the standout was definitely a DIY cabinet built around the Audax AM21 fullrange driver paired with a Unison Research Simply Italy amplifier. Finally, the vocals sounded realistic. With the Klipsch it sounded like a door was in front of the singer. In the same room there were regular 2 way bookshelf speakers from Davis and Atohm. They sounded veiled like the Klipsch next to the AM21 single driver speakers.
Since the AM21 speakers were too large for my room, I researched small single driver speakers and landed on the Closer Acoustics OGY on a Google advertisement. And yep, they’re the real deal if you’re looking for realistic vocals and guitars.
I don’t think that you have to spend exorbitant sums of money to enjoy realistic sound. You could just go the single driver route and compromise on bass quantity (single driver speakers with smaller drivers don’t do deep bass).
I heard more expensive speakers in showrooms and they all sounded more artificial compared to my OGY, but the sense of scale and bass were more impressive.