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Your first stereo system

What was your first stereo or hi fi music system? What do you remember best about it? What were its strengths? Its weaknesses? What music provided you the most enjoyment from it? What did you trade in first and why? My first system was from Lafayette Radio Electronics. It consisted of a very small integrated amp, two small book shelf speakers, and a turntable I don't remember much about. I was thrilled to have the tiny amp, it provided much better sound than an a.m. radio, in such a small package. My system was in the basement of my parents home, with the speakers on opposite sides of my round water bed! The first "up grade" was to a cool looking Garrard turntable with a clear plastic hinged cover. My favorite music of the time was by Jim Morrison and the Doors. That system did its best to light my fire, and the memory of it still does.
richardmonk
dcaseyb
5 posts
 
My first REAL system consisted of a Thorens turntable with a Mayware Formula 4 tonearm and a Grado cartridge ( I still have it and use it today!). That was into an Audible Illusions Tube preamp into a Hafler DH200 power amplifier (I still have a soft spot for this amplifier). This was driving the original version 1 Polk Audio 10's with the original phillips tweeters (this was when they actually sounded musical). This was all with Monster cable interconnects and speaker wire. The thing sounded great and I used to impress the hell out of my friends.
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kurtisjeffers
56 posts
 
My first stereo consisted of a pair of early late '60s-early '70s hand-me-down Pioneer floorstanding speakers from my father, a hand-me-down Pioneer receiver (remember receivers) also from my father, and a Pioneer 6-disk cd changer (when these cartridge changers first came out). All of this was wired up with Radio Shack ("You've got questions, we've got dumb, blank stares.") copper wire. Thank god that I no longer have any of these pieces.
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drubin
3,265 posts
 
As a 15-year old in 1968, I bought a "package" system from Cal Hi-Fi in Mountain View, CA, consisting of a Dual turntable (changer) with Stanton 500E cartridge, some non-descript Fisher AM-FM solid state receiver, and a pair of their house brand, 3-way, acoustic suspension speakers (with--wow!--12" woofers). Had I know anything or found a good salesman, I could have wound up with Dynaco and AR stuff just as easily and for the same money, I'm sure. Still, I had that system for 5 years or so, and looking back on it, I probably enjoyed listening to music more during those 5 years than at any other time. It was my age, and that I wasn't yet thinking much about the system, and of course the music that was coming out duing those glorious years.--Dan
joysjane1df7
38 posts
 
Wow, That would be in Germany in 1978... still remembering. A Sansui G-9000 receiver, Technics SL-1400MK2 turntable mounted with a Shure V-15 type III cartridge, and a pair of really loud Bose 901 series III speakers. Yes, not scared to admit that I fell into the Bose hype at one time and actually purchased a pair. Hey, at 19 years of age, and in the military, all I wanted was loud music. All I would need is a cold Binding Bier and I could still hear Steely Dan's Aja playing through those Bose.
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
1957/H.K.40 wt amp grundig fm tuner Norelco huge bass reflex enclosure 18in woofer.Gerrard tt.MONO. Looking back it was prob.crap;but nobody had anything better.1st stereo I heard required the tv and the fm radio.The left signal from one, the right from the other.This was a tv special.Then every Sun,12.00-3.00 pm two radio stations got together.One brodcast the left ;the other the right,so if you had 2 fm radios you had stereo.It was awesome.A year or so latter the 1st lp's in stereo.For many years you could by the mono or the stereo version of the same lp.First all in one;was one of those cabinet types.Those were the days;gas .19 a gallon.
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