I never owned a 56k until they were obsolete... I remember saving up for months, then selling my flatbed scanner in order to afford a 14.4 US Robotics that was on sale for $125, and that was the fastest modem I ever owned. I can remember downloading wolfenstein 3d off a BBS and it taking only 20 minutes.. (at the time a 1mb game was insanely large...)
By the time 33.6 modems were widely available and 54k was proposed through compression etc I was able to get cable, and never turned back.