Radio Shack, where else? LoL
Where did you buy your first audio gear?
I bought my first audio gear in a Post Exchange PX store in Baumholder Germany. I was a young soldier about 20 yrs old and bought a SAE amp and Preamp, Bose 901 speakers, Sony CDP-101 CD player and a Thorens TD 320 turntable. Where did you buy your first audio gear? What did you get?
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@fertguy Where in KC did you buy your system? While in high school...1st system 1972 at an electronics store called "Henshaws", a place that sold stereo and CB radios, I got a Dual 1218 with a Shure cartridge, Technics receiver and Jensen 3 way speakers with 12" woofers. In the next 6-8 years, after discovering "David Beatty’s Stereo" my system was comprised of a B&O 2402 tt, Nakamichi 530 receiver, Maggie SMG’s and a very high-end Yamaha cassette deck. |
Olsen Electronics on Dempster Street in Morton Grove Illinois. And then Music-Craft on the same street and town. At Olsen Electronics my mother bought me my first stereo at age 15. It was an all in one deal for $99.00. Probably a week's paycheck for her. Can't remember the brand name. Then a year or so later at Music-Craft a BIC turntable then a Technics turntable, A Sherwood receiver on which the factory handwrote the actual tested watts per channel ( marketing tactic)? then a Kenwood receiver, a pair of Boston Acoustics A60 speakers (because Consumer Reports said so) and 2 different Aiwa cassette decks. I would always buy the 10 pack of TDK SA-X blank cassette tapes. The above mentioned purchases were made between 1979 and 1982. Good times. |
Lots of military stories in the mix, here's another It was 1980 and I was in Cherry Point NC at a USMC airbase, bought mine from a pawn shop in Havelock NC Sansui integrated amp and preamp, oddly a stand alone Sansui AM/FM tuner, a 12 band Sansui equalizer, a Sansui cassette deck, Kenwood direct drive turntable with an Ortofon cartridge and a pair of 5 way Kenwood 999 speakers with 15'" woofers, 2 horns a midrange and tweeter Fun times and thanks for the trot down memory lane |
@fertguy Where in KC did you buy your system? I can't remember the name but it seemed like a high end store. |
Bought my first system in high school in the early 70’s. Went to Tech Hifi in Springfield, NJ and got a low end Sansui receiver, Philips GA-212 turntable with AudioTechnica cartridge. Speakers were EPI 120. Later steam cleaned cookie sheets in a bakery over winter break to make enough money to go back to Tech Hifi and get a Technics cassette deck. First vinyl album bought and played on that system was Derek and the Dominos, Live in Concert. Around the same time, my Dad got a system for our family room. Also at the same Tech Hifi store, he got a Sansui Seven receiver, Elac Miracord automatic turntable with Audio Technica cartridge and Ohm B speakers. |
A pawn shop in Austin, Texas, my freshman year of college at UT in 1988. They had a pair of infinity speakers (I was an avid reader of Stereo Review at the time and knew that brand was at least decent) and they wanted $100 for the pair and I started to walk out of the store twice before they finally came down to something like $25. They matched quite nicely with my cheap Sherwood receiver. I wish I could remember what model they were. That was the start of 34 years of obsession and buying and selling and tweaking that will likely never end. |
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First New Purchase: 70's? Lafayette Electronics, Honolulu, HI. Criterion speakers. Lafayette integrated amp. Parking lot blow out sale. New technology called Solid State. Yup. Someday it will take off and be the "thing" everyone has. First Stereo System: I was about 8 years old. 1962ish. My dad helped me build up one from parts from Salvation Army donated tv-stereo consoles. We pulled radios, speakers, amplifiers and turntables. Built the cabinets. I learned a lot. Some, the hard way. They can bite. Started me into a career in electronics. |
Philadelphia, PA in 1972. I don't remember the hi-fi store. It's long one. I bought a Kenwood receiver, Dual 1215 turntable with a no-name cartridge and KLH 17 speakers with zip cord for cables and little RCA interconnects - all for $500 total. A few months later I purchased a Nakamichi 1000 cassette recorder/player with Dolby B and Dolby C. They served me well. |
A small shop in Canandaigua NY, 1985. I would go in and drool over all of this cool equipment knowing I would not likely be able to afford any of it. I got to know the owner very well and built a great relationship with him. The shop was open for about two years and one day he told me he was going out of business and had the deal of a lifetime for me. He offered a B&K pre- and power amp, Denon CD player, NAD 6300 monitor series cassette deck, Mirage M760 speakers, interconnects, and speaker cables for a ridiculous low price. We set it all up and listened to a few CDs I owned and in an hour I was writing the check. Though I have move4d up the ladder so to speak I still own all of that equipment. Save for the Mirage speakers it all resides at a friend's house. I still use the Mirage but my friend matched the rest of the equipment with some nice old Klipsch speakers he got from his brother and he loves the setup. |
Kenwood KA-6000 integrated amp, KT-7000 tuner, AR-XA turntable with a demo Ortofon SL15T cartridge and a pair of AR-4X speakers purchased from Rosner Custom Sound, Flushing, NY. That was around 1967. Later added a demo Revox G-36 RTR. I have photos of just about every system I've owned, but sadly not this one, although I do have photos of that G-36 as i kept it long after I upgraded all the other components. |
* Tech Hi-Fi, Rt.22 Springfield, NJ. A Nikko Receiver, Technics Turntable, Ohm Speakers Tech Hi-Fi’s Catalogs were as good as Playboy ! 😂 * Drucker’s - Newark, NJ (Who Could Forget Their Sunday Ads !) Teac Casette Deck, ADC Sound Shaper EQ * Crazy Eddie’s - Rt.22 Union, NJ Discwasher Record Care Kit (w/Zerostat) Still have the Turntable & Record Care Kit 👍
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Images Sight and Sound Harbour Mall Fall River Mass. Sansui RZ9500 (Stereo5 may know this place) 1990
Leiser Super Store Seekonk Mass Advent Maestro 3 way speakers. 1990 Tweeter Audio store I got one of the better Sony CD players at the time. Don’t remember the model #. 1990 Technics SL1200 MKII from a DJ friend in 1990 Still in use in system #2
Still own and use in Sansui and Advent’s in my garage as a third system. Recapped and transistors replaced in Sansui. Rebuilt XO with film and foil and new woofer foam surrounds and the Advent’s still sing!
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First system in 1973 - I was 16 years old and drove from PA to East Orange NJ to some "wholesale" audio warehouse. I found it through an ad in Stereo Review. I had a pocket full of cash and this place was in a pretty bad section of town. I parked on the street and ran to the front door (the door was "armored", and all the windows had bars). Nothing was on display; you just told the guy behind the counter what you wanted, and he went into a back room and brought out the boxes. I bought a Sansui 881 receiver and a Technics turntable. For speakers, my brother and I went to the electronics store in our hometown. It was set up like an auto parts store, with a couple of clerks standing behind a counter, and all the parts on shelves behind them. One of the clerks helped us pick out woofers, tweeters, midrange drivers, and crossovers for a three-way speaker. We then stopped at the lumber yard and picked up the wood to build the boxes, which we stuffed with extra insulation from the attic. The speakers probably sucked, but boy were they loud! |
My first attempt at HiFi was purchased from a pawn shop near the high School in Santa Monica, California and at a Pacific Stereo store closer to Los Angeles proper (I don’t remember exactly where). I got some nondescript box speakers with 10” woofers from the Pacific Stereo store that the salesman was really pushing, cost me about $200 I think. From the pawn shop I got a rather large stereo tube amp that had a problem on the left channel that no tube replacement could resolve. The component I most remember was a Fisher monaural tubed tuner that pulled in all the stations and had the sweetest sound. It had a champagne gold faceplate, and a preamp section in a separate chassis that was bolted to the tuner’s chassis. I traded it for a Sansui receiver and immediately regretted it. As nice as the Sansui looked, it didn’t sound as good as the Fisher. I made an emergency visit back home and when I returned, I discovered that my housemates had sold all my stuff (including a solid gold watch my grandmother had given me), no doubt for drugs, because, “We didn’t know if you were coming back.” The year was 1972. [I was surprised that responding to this question dredged up so many memories I had long repressed, some good, some bad, and not all shared. The past seems ever with us at times.] |
At about five years old I got my first equipment. There was s big cupboard in the basement filled with mom canning from the summer. On the top shelf there were two old tube radios. Mom or dad had the step ladder in the basement for some reason and I worked hard to get it by the cupboard and opened up. Lol I had to move it away to get the doors open and reset it up. I climbed the ladder a got one of the radios down plugged it in and it didn't work went back up the ladder and I brought the bakelight beauty down plugged it in and it worked. Carried up two flights of stairs to get it to my bedroom set it on a bench I had in my room plugged it in and found a station. I was in heaven. That old girl lasted about five or six years I turned it on every night and fell asleep to the radio every night. Sad day when it died. That was the start for me the hard work and the reward I got for my efforts i was a little boy. |
Lafayette audio receiver and speakers came first @1974. My journey into the high end followed shortly thereafter when I purchased an SAE 5000 Noise Reduction Unit "click and pop" eliminator from Transcendental Audio in Jamestown NY. |
My parents worked for Pioneer in the 70's so my first gear was hand me down from them. The first really audiophile stuff I bought was from 2 places: Vandersteen 2CE from sound by singer back when it was on union square, and a rogue 66 pre with M120 monoblocks from Jon Rutan at Audio connection in Verona. Would still happy buy from either of these places |
For me it was Electronic Specialty in Charleston, WV around 1973. My dad bought a Sony 6065 receiver, a Dual 1229 and a pair of AR3a's. I remember that shop being very conservative in their approach to audio leaning very much towards "east coast" sound. They about blew a gasket when I later wanted to add an equalizer to that system. We had to specially order it as equalizers went against their philosophy. I found out later in life they were probably right. That shop also hated rock music, which I was very much into. There was a competing store Mack and Dave's that was more of a hipper, younger vibe and had Phase Linear, JBL, EPI, Pioneer etc. Soon after High Fidelity Center opened and offered McIntosh, Nakamichi, Design Acoustics, B&O and Mitsubishi. I was in heaven! |
I have a hard time recalling all the stores I shopped at back in 70's, you guys all have more concise memory than I. Always thought you didn't live in 70's if you remember the 70's.
Only distinct memories I have is going to places like Highland Appliance and Tech Hifif, other audio emporiums existent in Ann Arbor MI at the time. Also recall visiting any number of these emporiums on Woodward Ave, suburbs of Detroit. Some of my earliest equipment Sony and Pioneer receivers, Acoustic Research AR3 speakers, BIC, Thorens tt's, |
The Brick home furniture store early 80’s in Edmonton Alberta, a complete AKAI system of turntable, cassette deck, tuner, integrated amp, with Hitachi tower speakers, and some cheap stand, all in for $1100 cdn dollars and no taxes back then added on. As mentioned, Kelly's Records, A&B Sound, Visions Electronics were the places here in Alberta to buy records/music and stereo gear, Visions Electronics is the only survivor, but no longer has records, and I bought hundreds when records cost $7 or $8 dollars, onsale for $3.99 in the day. |
1974 - Atlantis Sound in NY. Original Large Advents in walnut, Pioneer 939 Receiver (70 watts / side), BIC 940 Turntable w/ a Stanton 681 EEE cartridge w/ the silly little brush attached. Sounded pretty good but Blew two tweeters & a woofer playing the system too loud until I bought a second pair of speakers & then the amp would get hot but never failed. Receiver was decent, powerful, good tuner. Turntable was a piece of junk that seemed to be designed well but built poorly, should have gotten a Dual or Thorens. The stacked Advents are of course legendary w/ not the most extended high end but otherwise pretty good, even by today's standards. |
My first system (early 1980s; I was ~20 y.o.): Pioneer Direct Drive Turntable (don’t remember source) Pickering XSV-4000 Cartridge (Hillcrest High Fidelity, Dallas, TX) Luxman L-450 Integrated Amp (Thompson Sound, Dallas, TX) Luxman G-120A Graphic EQ (Thompson Sound) Nakamichi LX-5 3-head Cassette Deck (Hillcrest High Fidelity) Realistic Mach One Loudspeakers (Radio Shack) Lamp Cord for Speaker Wire Nakamichi and Luxman Factory Interconnects
I worked all summer to save up for the Nak, and dreamed of one day having a big Macintosh amp. Tommy |