Do you rember your first?

I had a few hand-me-down record players, including a Zenith console. But, the first COMPONENT system I bought for myself will never be forgotten.

Pioneer QX-747 Quad receiver - later trade even up for a Marantz 4400 receiver
Pioneer PL-55DX direct drive TT with an AT cartridge I can't now recall, but it had a gold body (cool!)
ESS Satellite 4 speakers - these were made for quad and had 4 small "satellite" 2-ways and a 12" bass reflex speaker all run through a crossover box. I challenge anyone to remember these! I still have two of the satellites (replaced dirvers) which I use in the bedroom. Plus, the 12", which has long since melted away, was housed in a beautiful zebrawood-veneered cabinet with a texured vinyl top that I use as an end table, of sorts, in my stereo room.
Pioneer CT-F9191 Cassette Deck which I still have as a memento to the past
Sony ST-3950SD tuner which I STILL use!!
Teac 4070G Reel-to-reel deck which I traded for something in a VERY BIG bag.

Of course, folks spend more on a single set of speaker cables than I spent for all of this stuff.

Ah, the memories..................

How could I forget? My first system was comprised of a Heathkit hi-fi amplifier (early 70s vintage) that my Dad put together along with a hand-me-down turntable and a pair of Dad's homemade speakers. Dad built a variety of Heathkit stuff in the 60s and early 70s and I remember some of the pieces quite well.

It wasn't until I was a teenager with a part time job that I was able to move up the foodchain a little bit. I will never forget the Technics receiver I got for Christmas, and the brand-spanking-new Infinity loudspeakers that I purchased at Pacific Stereo circa 1978. Shortly afterward, I talked a friend out of his old Garrard turntable for around $20 - boy, I was all set!

Ohhh, the memories...

First component I bought was a Fisher CR-4013 (?) dual-speed cassette deck. Before that I'd owned various suitcase portables.

First time I was blown away by sound quality was a pair of AR 9s I heard at a store in the mall. I don't remember what was upstream from them.

"Warrenh":

Do I remember my first hi-fi audio system??? I sure do. Like it was yesterday. And that will be 20 years ago this year.

After starting out with a Sears AM/FM Stereo Receiver/8-Track Player/Recorder back in 1978 (with a separate BSR Record Changer to come a year later), I bought a Polk Audio Monitor 4 Bookshelf Speaker System in the Spring of 1983. I was a freshman in college that very same year. Christmas Day of that VERY same year, I received a JVC R-30 Stereo Receiver as a Christmas present. What followed after that was a Luxman K-220 Stereo Cassette Deck back in 1984, and then an NAD 5225 Compact Disc Player in the Summer of 1985, and was finished off with Monster Cable cables back in 1986. And in the course of the last 20 years, that system.... thanks to another system that was in between that one and the one I have now has transformed into the one I have now (which today, is a KEF/Adcom/Magnum Dynalab/Pioneer Elite/Nakamichi/MIT system). Oh..... and might I add, Michael Jackson had the top selling album that same year (Thriller), and surely, that was a "MUST HAVE" back in 1983, and as bad as I hate to admit it now, it was a great album to demo a system with back then.

My first hi-fi was decent for what it was back then, but I tell what, the system I have now will beat the living shit out of the system I had back in 1983. Well..... so much for progress and all. But man..... those were some great memories. What I wouldn't do to be a teenager all over again.

WOW!!!!!!

--Charles--

Hey guys. I appreciate your recollections. I can relate to many of them. Thanks for your feedback. peace, warren

P.S. don't let me stop you!