What was your first system? When was that?

When I went to college my sophomore year in 1965 my roommate showed up with a KLH Model 11 portable. Growing up, I’d played piano and trumpet and sung in a choir but we never had any music at home, AM radio and jukeboxes were my standard.

I was shocked by the quality of the KLH and bought my first albums that year. As soon as I went to the big city for my next year of school I wandered into a real audio store and with wonderful guidance from the owner bought a Dynaco SCA-35 kit.

The owner quizzed me about my soldering skills but was satisfied and told me to build it but bring it back to him before I plugged it in so he could bench test it. It tested better than spec, which seemed to impress him and knowing I had no more money he found a pair of small AR speakers in their storage room that had been ordered by a customer but returned because he didn’t like the wood finish. Then he brought out an AR turntable and told me to take the speakers and turntable to go with the amp and pay him for them as I had the money. It took me most of that school year to pay him but he didn’t seem to mind at all.

I’m sure he knew I was going to be back for more but it was clear he loved the idea of helping a kid who shared his passion. He was right, I came back many times and slowly built a better system but I’ve never been happier than I was listening to that first one.

1973 or 1974. 
Dynaco SCA-80 integrated, Dynaco FM5 tuner, AR (something) turntable, Large Advents. Wow was that an awesome system. 

My bachelor program university days circa 1971-1975 ( ...the Jurassic Era in consumer audio....)

JBL L100 speakers
MARANTZ 2245 receiver
ELAC MIRACORD turntable
SHURE V15 cartridge
KOSS Pro-4 headphones

This was considered the cat’s a$$ college dorm system of its time with its heavily coloured “California Sound” presentation with heavily spiked treble and bass that was mirrored by the rock LPS of its time. The reality is that it gets totally smoked by even modest audio systems of today. 

This system replaced my first year college system comprised of

SONY receiver ( model escapes me...)
DYNACO A25 speakers / EPI 100 speakers
GARRARD turntable ( ...cartridge escapes me ...,)

again.... fun for ITS  TIME Emphasis added) . BUT .... “ it’s time” was comparable to the technology with General George Washington and the Colonial troops at Valley Forge.

After escaping from high school in June of ’68, I got myself a job for the summer before starting college in September, mostly to get money for a car and a hi-fi. That Fall I bought myself a Garrard SL55 table and Shure M44e cartridge, a used Fisher X-100C integrated tube amp, and a pair of Acoustic Research 4x loudspeakers and Koss Pro-4AA headphones. After that, I upgraded as often as I could, at least once a year.

!959-Eico kit mono amp, Heathkit FM tuner, Garrard Changer, GE cartridge, Stevens speaker. Sound was fantastic.