The first system you had that was "high end/audiophile", by you standards

@whart , I sold the 7C years ago. The pots had become scratchy and the switches needed to be replaced. They were beyond cleaning. I never thought it would be worth much even though it was a great sounding preamp. Imagine that driving two Model 9's and K Horns or KLH Model 3's. (you could not get both volume and finesse in the day) That was ultimate back then. 

The Phase Linear 700 really got an unfair reputation. It was a much better sounding amp then the Crown D150 and driving a 4 to 8 ohm load it was perfectly reliable. With the 7C providing the tube character and the 700 the power it really was not bad at all. Back then I had no idea what real imaging was. Everything was 2 dimensional. I did not know about the third dimension until I heard it in 1979 in a high school teacher's system. It was about that time that I started working with Sound Components and became immersed in the audiophile world. I vividly remember my first exposure to the HQD system. Peter McGrath, the fellow who does those amazing recordings was the owner of Sound Components at the time. He put on this audiophile organ recording to get the Hartleys going and the top Quad on the left side blew. He got a step stool and yanked the blown Quad out of the wooden stand and jammed a new one in there in minutes, obviously very experienced at this. He lit it up again and the Decca ribbon tweeter on the left blew. Took him a few more minutes to replace the ribbon. Between these huge speakers was a matching wooden stand with 6 of John Curl's 25 watt Class A amps in two stacks. Very impressive. The sound was impressive, when it was working. In reality I do not think it was all that great impressive as it was. The Quads and Decca tweeters were not near capable of the volume the Harleys were.

@ihasaguy In 1970 I put together much the same system, except for the speakers which in my case was the Pioneer 63DXs. ALso a Teac 4010s R2R. I used the Shure V15 type II cartridge with the Dual 1219. I thought the Sansui AU555 to be a great integrated.

 

@mijostyn- prices of Marantz 7 tube preamps are through the roof- I’d love to have one that was clean. Do you now regret selling it?
(I thought the "C" denoted "with cabinet," which was extra $, so I distinguish the 7 from its later transistorized counterpart by too many words-- the 7C designation was commonly used at one point to refer to the tube version of the preamp).

The original Phase Linear 700 (not the B with the rack handles and lit up face plate) was a statement piece- sort of industrial looking, but the 400 (I was slinging hi-fi as a kid) sounded better in my estimation.
One of the first true high end systems I heard was double KLH 9s with all tube Marantz gear. This was back before I had the money for any of this stuff- I was a kid.
My "mini-HQD" system with a single pair of Quads, the Decca ribbons and a small-ish powered sub (those were not as commonly available in the ’70s and early ’80s as they eventually became owing, I think, to the home theatre boom in the ’90s) was sweet sounding, but the coherence of the Quad was lost in the mixture of different types of drivers that were added top and bottom. I’d love to set up a full on HQD system but it would have to go in the main listening area- that set up is just too big for the front parlor where the Quads now reside.

I have had quite a few nice components but never a whole system until now.  Several setups are probably disqualified because of the use of black stock RCA and lampcord.

Circa back in my university dorm days (1974) ….. around the same era as General George Washington was hunkered down with the Colonial troops in Valley Forge…

MARANTZ 2270 receiver
JBL L-100 studio monitor speakers with their characteristic “California sound” and orange foam cube grills, 
ELAC MIRACORD turntable with a SHURE V-15 cartridge.

It was considered top-end rig back in the Jurassic era of hi-fi, but this “vintage” gear gets completely smoked by even modest components today.