2. best-of
  3. 1094491882

Your First System

This should be good!!! Most of us have been in this expensive hobby for years now and have worked our way up to components we only dreamed of. I want to know what was your first system of separate components going back as far as you can remember. My first consisted of a Pioneer SX-680 receiver, a Technics SLD-1 turntable (I think that's the right model #), a Sharp tapedeck, and KLH floorstanding speakers. I was 16 at the time and thought I was the biggest badass on the block. Now, 20+ years later I have a ML 334, Meridian 507 CD, CJ PV10A, Canton Ergo 900 speakers, and a Transparent Power Isolator 4. I'm in the process of upgrading to a ML 390. It goes without saying the IC's and speaker cables are top notch as well. I know my system is WAAAYYYYY down the foodchain compared to what I've seen here but It would be interesting to see what everyone started out with.
pcook15
ukesteve
1 posts
 
AR-XA turntable
Dynaco SCA-35 integrated amp
AR 4x speakers
wynnosu's avatar
wynnosu
23 posts
 
Sansui QR500 four channel receiver, Lafayette four channel 8-track deck, Dual 1229 turntable, four Sylvania bookshelf speakers, Lafayette headphones.

After having an 8-track player at home and In the car, it seemed like I was In the big time. I just KNEW quadraphonic was here to stay!
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Sansui speakers,recviever and AR turntable brought it back from Nam,Dude!!
closdesducs's avatar
closdesducs
60 posts
 
My first system which I bought from a hifi store on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood the first week after enrolling in college consisted of an Onkyo TX-1500 mkii receiver (which I still have and other than a missing power button, works great!) that put out a whopping 17 watts per channel, a pair of Bose 301 speakers (how I envied the Navy ROTC guys who bought their Bose 901's in Japan at great discounts), an Akai tape deck, a Technics SL-Q2 turntable with an Audio Technica MM cartridge (couldn't afford a Shure V-15 Type IV back then), out of the box RCA interconnects and "honking big" (at that time LOL) Monster Cable speaker wires. I used this system up until 2005 when I finally focused my energies on upgrading to my present system. I'd ship that college system back and forth between Hawaii and Southern California and fortunately, never had any issues with the US Postal Service (I must have been born under a lucky star). Good times!
arcamguy
83 posts
 
Nine years later, this thread is still going, because none of us who loves music forgets that first system...and the joys of getting it home and taking it out of its boxes. I have two "first" systems.....as a high school freshman in 1971, bought a super-cheapo from a company called "Soundesign:" it may have pumped out two channels of sound, but even to my very untrained teenage ears, it was lacking. (After I went to school, my brother and sister played it to death.) Fast forward to 1980, a fresh college graduate in Washington, DC... bought my first system from a stereo dealer long-gone: Myer-Emco. My receiver was a Toshiba SA-725; my speakers were a pair of Avid 102A's; my turntable, which lasted me for years, was a Yamaha YPB2....which came with a Signet TK3C cartridge. I'll never forget calling a cab, loading in the boxes, and taking it back to my DC apartment. When I finally got it all set up, I put on Rickie Lee Jones and thought I'd never heard anything sound so good. The whole thing cost me $750 dollars in 1980.

In the 33 years since, I've been through several changes of systems.....but still have that Rickie Lee Jones (now CD); it's my ritual.....it's the first album I put on whenever I have a major system upgrade. It's my tradition.

Jeff
More to discover