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Your first stereo system

What was your first stereo or hi fi music system? What do you remember best about it? What were its strengths? Its weaknesses? What music provided you the most enjoyment from it? What did you trade in first and why? My first system was from Lafayette Radio Electronics. It consisted of a very small integrated amp, two small book shelf speakers, and a turntable I don't remember much about. I was thrilled to have the tiny amp, it provided much better sound than an a.m. radio, in such a small package. My system was in the basement of my parents home, with the speakers on opposite sides of my round water bed! The first "up grade" was to a cool looking Garrard turntable with a clear plastic hinged cover. My favorite music of the time was by Jim Morrison and the Doors. That system did its best to light my fire, and the memory of it still does.
richardmonk
slowhand
610 posts
 
Hey David99, sounds like you are as much of an analog lover as I am. My first system consisted of a Kenwood KT-7300 intagrated amp, a Kenwood KT-7500 tuner, a Kenwood direct drive turntable that had a granite base [that thing weighed a ton], and American Moniter speakers. I have come a long way since then, but I still have the tuner in my system today, and it still works fine. Boy, that really brings back memories.
woodmann
17 posts
 
My first real system circa 1983-4: Dynaco ST-70, Dynakit pre (don't remember model), Dual turntable (don't remember model)with pickering cartridge, The Fisher AM-FM tuner (don't remember model, but was made around '67), Tandberg open reel deck (don't remember model, but it had cool cathode VU meters), Aiawa cassette deck , and these big Sony two ways with a passive radiator. I later upgraded when Radio Shack introduced a POLY 8" woofer....the whole thing sounded like mud! Wish I still had the ST-70 though.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
In 1966 I bought a Dynaco SCA-35 integrated amplifier kit and by the time I was done soldering I'd found enough money to buy an AR manual turntable. That left the obvious problem of a complete lack of speakers. But when I took the completed amplifier in for a bench test, the dealer took pity on me and found a pair of small AR speakers gathering dust in the warehouse because someone had special ordered them in 'fruitwood' finish and then hated it (no kidding.) He sold them to me for just enough money to keep from being embarassed by the deal and I was a happy boy, ready for all the musical enticements of Austin in the late 60's. I had a long and happy relationship with the dealer, High Fidelity, and they more than made back the money they lost on those first speakers.
dcaseyb
5 posts
 
My first REAL system consisted of a Thorens turntable with a Mayware Formula 4 tonearm and a Grado cartridge ( I still have it and use it today!). That was into an Audible Illusions Tube preamp into a Hafler DH200 power amplifier (I still have a soft spot for this amplifier). This was driving the original version 1 Polk Audio 10's with the original phillips tweeters (this was when they actually sounded musical). This was all with Monster cable interconnects and speaker wire. The thing sounded great and I used to impress the hell out of my friends.
kurtisjeffers's avatar
kurtisjeffers
56 posts
 
My first stereo consisted of a pair of early late '60s-early '70s hand-me-down Pioneer floorstanding speakers from my father, a hand-me-down Pioneer receiver (remember receivers) also from my father, and a Pioneer 6-disk cd changer (when these cartridge changers first came out). All of this was wired up with Radio Shack ("You've got questions, we've got dumb, blank stares.") copper wire. Thank god that I no longer have any of these pieces.
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