In Jr High back in 1973 I had a paper route earned me enough to buy my first system. Today everyone has access to everything. Or at least you know its there, even if you can't afford it. Back then though unless a friend tells you or you happen across it, might as well not even exist. Or might as well, as Seattle might as well not exist, since no way no how are mom and dad driving you to Seattle just to hear stuff you (or hell, even they!) can't afford anyway.
But Puyallup, you can ride there on your bike! Its an hour each way and down in a valley while you live way up on the North Hill but you can do it. So it was I came to pester the guys at Radio Shack and spend God only knows how many hours listening and comparing while saving my paper route money....
It wasn't tubes but it was mine and best of all this was 1973 so we had Dark Side of the Moon, Nilsson Schmilsson, and I had my own listening room- aka bedroom- where I could put the speakers anywhere. Ditto acoustic treatment. Learned a lot about speaker placement even way back then.
Thinking back on it now its hard to say which I liked best, Without You which made my little heart ache, or Jump Into the Fire with the best drums ever. What I do know, I would play those just as loud as that system would go without breaking up. Which in case you ever want to try this, is with the speakers on the floor about 3 feet apart and pointed straight at each other with you laying on the floor with your head right between them. We can make each other happy. We can make each other happy. Waaaaaaa ahhhhhhh!!!! Ho. Lee. Crap!
