Lava Lamps and bongs! Bonging away!
1973
I'm 14 in a detached garage converted into a teenage playground with a waterbed, blacklights, SS Japanese silver behemoths, and speakers hanging inside nets. Admit it you were there once. Anyone have thoughts on the nets as a viable option for speakers? (Can't believe I remember this....pretty hazy in that garage.) Joe
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Interesting. Its 1973. I'm 16 in a basement bedroom with some speakers, forget the name but they were bought from Radio Shack. Usually they would go up on a dresser but if placed on the floor the right distance from the walls and you lay on the floor with them pointed right at you they put out pretty good bass and you can play Nilsson Can't Live Without You and Jump Into the Fire and it is just ear-splittingly joyously satisfying! |
Speaking of Joe’s Garage; the first time I heard that album was a guy down the hall from me in the college dorm I was living in. Can’t remember the guys name but he had a pair of the original Magnepan SMG’s floating off the ceiling firing directly down to the floor using a net. He obviously knew to keep them a foot or so off the ceiling. Had a couple bing bag chairs for serious listening. I think it was just a simple cotton fishing net that complimented well with the old natural Maggie socks. Hope this helps. |
1973 . Jr in HS,. Was getting a little tired of my complete Webcor system that my grandfather had helped my purchase. He was a big Pete Fountain fan, and had a big console stereo that to me was awesome. I graduated HS, got a job bagging grocery’s. I then proceeded to borrow enough money to purchase my first hand picked "system" . My first loan, first line of credit. LOL I was so proud, and at the time, sounded pretty dag gone good. Sony 80 watt receiver ( STR 6800), Marantz turntable ( 6300 ) Infinity (1001 A) speakers , and a Technics equalizer ( SH 8020) . Wasn’t very long till a salesman talked me into something new. Nobody had one in our gang... Something called a sub woofer. I bout fell over when I came home and fired that thing up. M and K sound. I forget the model number but it was triangular shaped. Thanks for the walk down memory lane |
I was 8 yrs old then and just got a cassette tape recorder. I marvelled at the big stereo systems with reel to reel tape decks and speakers that weighed as much as I did then. Finally this year I bought a nice TEAC A-3300SX reel to reel deck, my first ever, and so far collected some nice pre-recorded tapes: The Doors “Strange Days”, The Moody Blues “Days of Future Passed” and Cream “Best of Cream”. The sound is magical and alive even at 3-3/4 IPS, and the lava lamps are doing their thing.... good times! |
1973 - Senior in high school. Bought my first stereo from the now defunct appliance retailer I was working at. Pioneer SX-525, KLH 17's and an idler drive cheapo Garrad TT with a Shure Cartridge. No nets or ceiling chains. Just sat it all on a stand of some sort. The audio bug had already hit me. I was already thinking of the next upgrade. |
In high school my friends brother was at MIT and he helped us design what we called Bose 1801s Twice the size of the originals. He calculated the interior volume etc., and we build those suckers. Had a realistic 18 band EQ and we had them suspended from the basement ceiling by cables. They sounded awesome. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon was spectacular! I bought some power amps from Tech HiFi and Johnny R from Audio (John Rutan) Connection was the sale guy! Either Phase Linear or SAE power amps I forget now. Thanks for posting the memories! @audioconnection - remmeber Tech HiFi? |
1973 - first year post high school, hair down to my ass, working at Columbia Records (factory), driving a 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 two cycle. Dynaco Quadaptor, 4 Martin floorstand Speakers, Thorins turntable, dynaco preamp and amp. But me wonders if the OP was asking viability of speakers in suspended nets, I've found having speakers spiked to the floor, bolted to the stands to be the best sounding, rock solid unmovable so they don't smear the sound. Swinging around is for Tarzan not speakers. |
Getting ready to open the shop; carrying in Tympani I speakers and Audio Research amps--HEAVY! Unpacking many brands of speakers I had dreamed of hearing and finally got the chance. Other separates: Phase Linear, McIntosh, SAE, Crown, etc. Cassette decks and lots of reel-to-reel’s--Revox, Tandberg, tiny Stellavox, I forget the others! Many receivers on the shelves--Marantz, Scott, H-K, Tandberg, etc.; meeting Zane, the B&O guy who probably thought we were nuts but we sold a TON of B&O over the years and even made some stands for them eventually. Good days--lived on the beach for $150/month! |
richmon said... "driving a 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 two cycle." A friend of mine had one too... one hell of a fast bike! Smoked everything in the day. It wasn’t called the widow maker for nothing... I eventually bought a Kaw 900... that although...pretty fast...the 750 would eat it for lunch... |
1973- Sr. in HS. I had purchased my first system from Tech Hifi two summers before. It was a classic of it's day- HK 610 receiver, dual 1219 tt and a pair of large Advents. That system rocked and I think I'm still trying to chase that sound today. Santana Abraxis, Sticky Fingers, Tumbleweed Connection and Humble Pie Rockin the Filmore are some of the lps I remember from that year. It was also the year that pot and I first met. |
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Ah, the good old days. 16, HS junior, first job at McDonald's to save up enough money for a stereo. Bought it at the flagship Crazy Eddie's in Brooklyn, Cerwin Vega speakers (long since met their maker, but would likely still be welcome among today's 16 year olds, a Kenwood KR 5400 with 35 wpc and still functioning but in retirement, and a Dual 1228 tt just recently serviced to bring back to life since my son got into vinyl, but essentially only played and enjoyed by me. Set up in the basement along with a bean bag chair to listen to the Allman Brothers, and anything by the gods Clapton and Hendrix. The other associated equipment has gotten better, the range of musical styles expanded exponentially to include folk and blues along with equal parts jazz and classical/opera also, but the sheer pleasure and thrill of listening to wonderful music faithfully presented has always been a constant. |
@jtcf Strawberry Alarm Clock the incents and peppermints song was the guy from Lynyrd Skynyrd who wrote the Sweet Home Alabama riff. he wanted to play in a psychedelic band back then. A friend of the band visited with them and that guy sand the peppermints song. he was not a member of the band and never joined the band. Go Figure. |
1973: graduated HS, playing bass in band, Klipsch LaScala's as my PA, a biamped bass rig, and studying Bob Heils book on live sound. Koss Pro4AA as my headphone stereo at home. Great diversity of music! Steely Dan, Doobie Bros, Mahavishinu Orchestra, Beatles, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, Weather Report, Santana, amazing variety. Working in hi end stereo store within a year, selling Audio Research, Phase Linear, SAE, Magneplanar, DQ10s, Time Windows, Infinitys, Thorens Turntables, Dynavector cartridges....demoing Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Supertramp. |
I was serving in the military in Northern Ireland in 1973 during the "Troubles". Crazy time, checkpoints and body searches everywhere, bombs going off every night. My first decent system was my refuge, along with some Guinness and the occasional bit of hashish. Sansui SP-100 speakers, Dual 1229 turntable, Sansui AU-555 and TU-555 amp and tuner. Loved that system, lost it the divorce from my first wife. I still remember finding out that Duane Allman was a sideman at Muscle Shoals and had a ton of music in additon to the Allman Brother Band. This was before the Anthology release of his studio work. Heard him on Push Push by Herbie Mann and the search was on after that. |
Winter 73. In my room, in a smoky haze with a couple of friends. Playing Cheech and Chong’s “Sister Mary Elephant” and trying to figure out the highest volume we could play it before amp went into protection. We heard her say “SHUTUP!” quite a few times before amp stopped for good. It it was fun while it lasted. |
I was in my second year of college at UCSB and had earned enough money working at a picture frame/headshop the previous summer to buy a used BMW 1600 for all of $1,200. But the hi-fi bug bit hard, and because I had my priorities straight (and my roommate had a perfectly fine VW bus), I decided to sell the BMW and put the money toward a new stereo system. Getting all the money for the BMW wasn’t easy. A guy showed up who offered me $600 and (I swear) his monkey. I explained that, while I had no aversion to monkeys, money wasn’t thick on the ground, and as students, we were often reduced to rice and canned tuna by the third week of the month. A monkey would starve living with us. We finally settled on $1,200 and no monkey; a better deal for all parties, human and simian. After much angst deciding between unwieldy Tympanis and only slightly less manageable Quads, I bought a system from Ken Kreisel at Jonas Miller in Los Angeles: Quad ESL 57s, 33 preamp and 303 amp, and an AR turntable. Certainly, it was the best-sound coming from any college apartment. Funnily, I still have a pair of Quad 57s (rebuilt, of course), which remain as magical today as they were in the tie-die days of Santa Barbara. |
