You never forget your first car, your first apartment, or your first stereo that made music feel real. That’s because “firsts” are the spark that starts the fire.
For me, that fire was lit by the first real system I ever owned. At the heart of it was a little phono preamp—our very first design at PS Audio.
The turntable was an AR-suspended, belt-driven, solid as a rock. I fitted it with a Shure V15 cartridge, which, in those days, was what I could afford (I wanted a Decca cartridge but that was out of my financial reach).
The amp? A used Dynaco power amplifier that was built from a kit by the original owner. Gloriously imperfect, but it had soul, and it brought everything to life in a way that was shockingly real to my (then) virgin ears (and was sooooo much better than my original Kenwood integrated).
And then there were the speakers—a now-extinct brand called Phased Array. I don’t even remember much about them except how they made me feel. That system didn’t just play records. It played music.
My first high-end system.
It’s funny. I’ve had reference-level systems worth more than a new car since then, but none ever replaced the thrill of that first one. Not really. Because what I heard wasn’t just better sound—it was literally life-changing.
And for many of us, that first system?
That’s when we stopped listening to gear and started listening to music.
