Audio Epiphanies

[richteer]

We went out to dinner last night to celebrate my birthday, and invited a few friends back to our place afterwards. Most of them have seen my system, but one guy hadn't since I upgraded to my MartinLogan Spires and Nordost Frey cabling. So I invited him downstairs to have a quick listen and he politely obliged, saying that he never really listened to music as an activity: it was usually something he played in the background while doing something else.

I can't remember what the first we played was, but when it finished and the light went up, he had this huge grin on his face. He couldn't believe that such quality was possible from a home stereo, so instead of just listening to a couple of tracks to humour his host (me), he ended spending almost 3 hours listening to different pieces of music! He would have stayed longer but had to get home to his dog.

He concluded that the reason why he never listened to music before was because all the systems he'd heard to date sounded like crap, and that maybe he should start saving for a decent high end system. I said that I'd be more than glad to help him on his journey!

This experience got me thinking: how many of you guys have given your guests similar epiphanies? I think the only way to really convince people what a real high end system can do is play it for them. My friend certainly got the bug after just a couple of hours!