What did your first "real" system consist of?

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)

Wow..what memories..I came by this hobby very honestly. I was just wee lad in the late 50's into the early 60's. My Dad had a pair of McIntosh MC60's and a C11 pre amp. A then very cool Thorens 124 with Pritchard arm( I broke his grado playing Mickey Mantle in the living room!)and a now stereo pair of the infamous KLH Model 1( twin 12" acoustic susp. drivers in 16ohm config) and the legendary Janzsen 130 electrostatic drivers which fit neatly into the KLH upper space designed for them! He bought 1 KLH in 1959 and ran it mono with one amp before Stereo was the rage..later finding the other speaker and Mc60 mono amp)
( as a side note: He still has the KLH's and just recently found a nice pair of newer Janzsen's after he sold his early 60's models back in the late seventies) and once again has a nice vintage pair that sounds great and was ahead of its time back then!) Im trying to get him to post a system on Audiogon!

Well...what about me? My very first "hi-fi" at age 10 was an early gerrard phono player and a 2 tube integrated amp with controls for volume, balance and "tone".. hooked up to a single 8" Warfdale speaker all of which was housed in the same "hi-fi" cabinet.I played a lot of 45's and cant remember what ever happened to the stuff.

I went hi tech in the 70's with a cool Pioneer receiver and Jensen 3 ways and a Pioneer PL something table and AT cart.
This got me through HS and even college until I woke up in the 80's and discovered there was more to listen to.

My first real entry level rig was a classic now.Heres what it was:

Dahlquist DQ10's
CJ PV 1
Hafler amp(model??) about 60W/ch I think?
Rega planer( orig) TT and an Adcom cartridge

I'll never forget the amazement of my friens at that first real serious system.In some ways I miss it!

Sorry for the above post..spelling. That's Wharfedale... and... friends! Not fiens! LOL!