What did your first "real" system consist of?

mine was a mac 275,with four stacked advent speakers, a thorens 125 turntable,an adc xlm cartrige,an old jvc reciever that i used for a preamp. Thought i died and went to heaven

It certainly wasn't high-end, but in the 70's when I was in high school and earning a bit of money during the summers, I bought myself a Pioneer Receiver (can't recall the model but it put out about 25wpc) and a pair of Advent speakers. My dad still uses that system on a daily basis in his studio, and it has never required repair. It actually still sounds pretty decent.

My first entry level rig did not come till after I was out of school, in the mid 80's, and on my own earning money as a photographer's assistant in NYC. I bought an AR turntable with a Grado cartridge, a BK EX-140 amp, a Moscode Super-It tube phono preamp, and a pair of Magneplanar SMGa speakers. That BK amp was pretty darn good even by todays standards and I sold it about four years ago for about half of what I'd paid almost 15 years earlier (value of dollar not accounted for there). The Magneplanars were novelty speakers IMO and short-lived in my posession. The Moscode was a great little phono pre, and the AR a classic which I only recently parted with after many upgrades. I was spoiled during my days back then as many of the photographers I worked for had great systems in their studio's (most of which cost more than I'd earn in several years at that time). Being exposed to those systems on a daily basis is probably one of the things that gave me some appreciation for how good musical reproduction could enhance my enjoyment of the music I so loved.

Marco

At the age of 13 I bought a system from Tech HiFi in Dedham, MA in the winter of 1973 after returning home from the hospital with a broken leg suffered while skiing in the White Mountains of NH. They had a "starter" system for $199 consisting of a Cambridge Audio receiver, Garrard turntable with a Shure "magnetic" cartridge, and TDC-1 (Tranducer Development Corporation, whatever happened to these guys?) 2-way speakers. They threw in the zip-wire speaker cable. The TT came with its own leads.

I was in heaven with this sytem and it lasted me through my college years. The only thing I upgraded during that time was the TT with a Pioneer table and better Shure cartridge. I added a Technics cassette deck too.

Sansui AU6500 integrated amp
Thorens TD125 TT with an AT cart
Pioneer Project 60 speakers
Akai reel to reel deck

When I qualified for a full tuitioin and books scholorship, I spent the money I had saved for my next year at college on a system.

Harmon Kardon 720 receiver
New Large Advent speakers
Thorens TD160 with Micro Accoustics cart
Tandberg cassette deck (bought used)