Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Favorite audio moments.....

Trying to ignore politics and beheadings, and jog some interesting stories:

Do you have any audio-related moments that stand out in your mind as a particularly pleasant or unpleasant memory?

I have a few, but will just share one for the moment:

Sensurround Movies. (Hope I spelled that right!) When I was a kid of probably 10, I saw "Midway" at a local theater, and it was one of the first (if not the first) sensurround movie. What an experience! From the opening scene where the pilots were starting up their planes on a carrier deck, you could feel the seats in the theater vibrating, and when heavy bombers were dropping their ordinance, visible from above, you felt each bombs' pressure wave. Common now in home theaters, but at the time, it was unlike anything experienced before!

My memory is that the theater had several very large (maybe 6' square) subwoofers lined up in the front of the theater under the screen. I don't remember everything being a whole lot louder than usual, so I think the subs were literally only working below maybe 30~35Hz.

I really think it has been a large factor in my quest for good home theater! I've seen the movie several times on cable, and I've seen the DVD in stores, only to be dissapointed that there was no mention on the sleeve of reworking the soundtrack to include those effects in the ".1" channel.

Anyone else see the movie in it's original release version... maybe around 1974? And, does anyone know if the DVD has incorporated any of those effects into the soundtrack? I was too afraid of being dissapointed and have avoided buying the DVD...!

I hadn't bought any new audio equipment (other than a CD player) since the mid-70's, so my pleasant audio moments focus on recent purchases. After getting my Axioms, sub and receiver set up we started going over the cd collection and pulling out the favorites. My wife was pretty supportive about upgrading our sound system, but was not too sure about me taking over our living room with the new gear. She is a big REM fan so she put on one of her favorites "nightswimming" and cranked it up. The look of bliss on her face as she heard the new system was priceless. We didn't have a home theater system before-and I was anxious to hear a concert video. I picked up Springsteens "live in Barcelona" and was very impressed with the detail, including Little Steve's voice, Clarence's sax, and the clarity of the piano work. This isn't a wonderfully mixed DVD, but as a new Axiom owner, I loved it. When I finally got the house to myself I cranked up Rod Stewart and the Face's "Stay With Me" to the max. It brought me back 29 years to my first (national act) rock show which was the Faces last show together.

The amazement the first time I saw an RCA CED disc played at my uncle's. My parents bought one not long after - the quality! and the ability to watch movies at home! You didn't even mind having to flip the disc halfway through the movie.

Bren R.

My very first cd player. I had an all-in-one stereo system from Yorx. A complete piece of dung. But it was my first stereo, and I loved it. I got a cd player, and plugged it into the one aux input the thing had, and was amazed. Even on that horrible system, cd's sounded 1000x better than cassettes. I remember laying on my bed and listening to all three of my cd's over and over. That was the begining of this sickness I now have.

In reply to:

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Do you have any audio-related moments that stand out in your mind as a particularly pleasant or unpleasant memory?

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Not a good one but it stands out. Several years ago when I had officially gone audio loco and had a small fortune in gear I decided to play with some of the wiring on one of my Parasound HCA 2205A's........(I had 2 running all 5 speakers bi-amped.........like I said LOCO!).......without unplugging it or turning it off. I thought what could happen? Yeah well a lot happened. In one fatal slip of a wire I blew up the amp and blew both crossovers in my mains.

Needless to say I shut everything off now when the time comes to move stuff around!

The first time I heard Hales was a revelation (um, pun unintentional, but hey...) These were the first speakers that made me go WOW.

Then there were the Magnepans. Those are amazing. The sounds of a Rush drum solo dancing up and down and around the panels...

Then there was the first time I heard M22s. Same deal.

"Then there was the first time I heard M22s. Same deal."

Now I REALLY can't wait for my M60s to come in!

Kinda tangential, but...

The first cries of my son.

Peter
Beautiful answer and great looking boy.
Makes me wish I had children.

I'll make sure to send you a pic of the first time he knocks over my speakers so you can be glad you don't have any.