Your first system and your journey...

pre cd so turntables and most of the Japanese speakers looked good but were not that great sonically.

Yeah, none of us really had any idea what great sound was until the CD came along and showed us all how its done.

Radio Shack got me through Jr High. Then I graduated from delivering newspapers to delivering Big Macs. With $2.35/hr burning a hole in my pocket the extra money went into trips to Jafco to audition everything, which it came down to efficient JBL vs power hog Advents. Gradually as things went on sale got me through my first full system upgrade and off to college with JBL L26, Kenwood integrated, Pioneer TX-9100 tuner, patch cords, and some nice thick lamp cord. Right as I went off to WSU, or maybe freshman year I'm not sure, somewhere around in there I got a Technics SL-1700 semi-auto with Stanton 681EEE. Also a Pioneer RT whatever, forget the model, 10" RTR.

While at Puyallup High I built a Dynaco ST-400. But that beast was too heavy, took up too much precious dorm room space, and made power you didn't really need in a dorm room anyway, so it was Kenwood integrated all through college.

My roommate that freshman year had a Pioneer integrated, JBL L36, Pioneer belt drive table and a Sony 7" RTR deck. Dorm room doors tend to be open more often than not. Guys would be walking down the hall, glance in, see the decks and it would be like their neck was caught in a hook. Hilarious.

Almost forgot about the portable record player. Closed up like a mini suitcase. That would've been 69, 69, something like that. But I can't count that, because it wasn't "mine". As in I didn't buy it. My first system really was a system.

My first? My very first? Memory’s a little hazy but it was probably Realistic. For sure it was bought at Radio Shack with paper route money back in 1973. After riding my bike there many times, and hours of listening to everything they had, moving the speakers around, sometimes pestering sales with questions, other times sneaking around to hook up different speakers to compare. So yeah I been at it a while. Anyway: two hefty bookshelf size speakers, a Realistic (probably) receiver/record changer, some thin lamp cord, and the supplied plastic power cord.

That was the very first one.

PS- the room was of course acoustically treated- DIY egg cartons. Because: Hello!? Thirteen! Paper route money!