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What were your humble beginnings on the path to high end audio?

Recently there has been a discussion as to the “price point where mid fi tops out and hi end systems begin”. I’d be willing to bet that there are not many folks who started out in this field of interest spending $100K, $50K or even $10K. Going back to your very beginnings, what was your first serious audio system?

I’ll jump in the wayback machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and give you a look at my beginnings.

My journey began at around age 13. I started out with a Lafayette KT-630, stereo tube amp that I built from a kit in my 9th grade, “electronics shop” class. The speakers were built at home from plans in the 1968, July issue of Mechanix Illustrated. I upgraded the cabinet construction from plywood, to solid mahogany. The twin woofers in each cabinet were also upgraded to 5” from the specified 4” units and the tweeters were also upgraded from the specified 2-3/4” units to the deluxe 3” units. The inductors in the 6db per octave passive crossovers were hand wound and the caps, terminal strips, L-pads, magnet wire and grill cloth were from Lafayette Radio Electronics as were the woofers and tweeters. The turntable was a purchased Garrard SL72B with a Shure M91E magnetic cartridge.

Check out the amp specifications on page 42 of the Lafayette 1968 summer catalog #648.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Lafayette-1968-Summer.pdf

The raw speakers are shown on page 55 of the Lafayette 1971 catalog #710. Woofers, 99-F-01554, figure D. Tweeters were at the bottom of page 55, 99-F-00499. The Garrard SL72B is on page 69 of the same catalog.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Consumer/Lafayette-1971.pdf

I still have the speaker systems and the amp and they all still work! Alas the SL72B is long since gone. I mowed a lot of grass and shoveled a lot of snow in the neighborhood to buy all that high end gear at age 13! :-D By todays standards, not very impressive, but to a 13 year old in 1968, it was awesome!

So to reiterate, what was your first serious audio system?

P.S. - If you are interested, check out some select old Lafayette, Allied Radio, Heathkit, Radio Shack, Olson and other old catalogs from what I think of as the “good old days” of electronics and my youth.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Electronics_Catalogs.htm

vintage_heath
prof
3,479 posts
 
My father was something of an audiophile, so I grew up listening to Kef 105.2 speakers and a Carver Cube/Holographic sound amp system.
It sounded absolutely incredible.

In the 90's I met my wife and when we moved in together she brought in a Harmon Kardon receiver/amp and old Thiel 02 speakers (monitors, box-shaped, even before Thiel went to time/phase coherent designs).
Those speakers never failed to entrance me with their beautiful tone and incisive, neutral sound.

Upon hearing a friend's Quad ESL 63s I got bitten by the high end bug, bought a pair, and the journey I'm still on essentially continues (many speakers since).

But I still own those old Thiel 02 speakers.  I simply can not get rid of them because they remain, in some ways, a benchmark.  They combine warm tone, with sparkling transients, and an absolute air-moving palpability within their frequency range, that still blow me away.  Sometimes no matter what far more expensive speaker I own, I setup the 02s and think they do some things "better."


deecee's avatar
deecee
105 posts
 
Ha! I started with dumpster diving into a Lafayette Audio junk bin and buying a $5 mono tube amp (that's right just ONE) and buying a run of the mill 12" woofer that I hooked up to a portable Sony TC-60 cassette player.

Later I "upgraded" to adding a cheap tweeter (out of the same bin) and soldering a cap as a "crossover."

If I recall this was circa high school freshman. Later I had on a long term load a Realistic 2W per channel receiver.

At this stage I received a junked speaker and was proud of my actual  mismatched speaker for real stereo.

My brother (out of pity) bought me my 1st pair of real speakers for Christmas, a set of the smallest Advents (I forgot the model name). 

Later, I managed to scrape up money to later buy his Kenwood Integrated and soon bought my 1st table, a Dual 1218 (1219?).

I traded in the itty bitty Advents for Infinity Qa speakers and bought a NAD tuner (4155?) which I still have today, unused but still working.

I later bought the Nakamichi 410/420 preamp and power amp and soon upgraded to a Technics SL-1300 Mk.II.

After some shifts back and forth with various pieces I got a pair of VMPS Towers which to this day was unmatched in bass response of any system I ever owned.

I also ended up buying from a starving grad student Aragon 4004 Mk. II amp (still in operation) and 18K preamp.

The preamp eventually was replaced by an Audio Alchemy DLC with external power supply.

It goes on & on until my current system:

VPI Scout 2/JMW-9/Benz Micro Wood SL/Graham Slee 3/Sony DVP-S7000/Schiit Bifrost Uber/Sonic Euphoria PLC/Aragon 4004 Mk II/Aerial Acoustics Model 7
broockies's avatar
broockies
31 posts
 
You're right, pc: to re-frame a familiar phrase "Beauty is in the ears of the auditioner"!  Like so much else in life, appreciation of reproduced sound is a subjective (personal) experience.  I'm weary of the unending commentaries assuring that this or that amp., speaker, cartridge etc. is
unquestionably the best.  Every such report should begin with the qualifier "to my ears - - -".
Audiology tests confirm that EVERYONE"S hearing is unique. Add this
variable to the variables in equipment performance plus your own sound "memory bank" and the sonic perception will be a personal one.

Some of us may be heavily influenced by cost as a measure of "high quality" sound.  In the end, however, it's not what others hear, but what YOU hear that counts !
Bo


jpsreno
77 posts
 
I saved and saved  so my first real system which I took to college included AR 3a speakers, JVC preamp with equalizer,  DIY Dynaco Amp, B&O turntable and a Sansui tuner. Then I added micro-acoustic tweeters to the AR's, my friends called them hiss boxes and an Akai 10" reel to reel ...  that system put me on this nearly 50 year journey.
buellrider97
412 posts
 
1973, Dynaco SCA 35, Dynaco FM 3, Garrard 40B w/ Audio Technia . Bulk 10 ga speaker cables, cheesy red , white and yellow Interconnects . Advent small speakers . Then I switched to JBL L-19’s , homemade shielded interconnects , 8 gauge copper ( AC lamp cord ) crimp/solder terminations. We had Layafette too, but had a huge radio/diy store called Sparkeys . It was like a Costco version of Layafette .  After that I switched to Dynaco MK III’s and built a preamp kit by Southwest Techinal Products . I built many speaker systems as I was a wood shop junkie and the teachers assistant in Electronics . There was a local stereo shop ( Sun Stereo ) that had their own line of local made speakers “ DWD “ . They were lower end items . But at the time they did subcontracted work for ESS. I went there many times for assistance or repairs . The local high end shop was called Audio Sales and they had the “ Tube Guru “.  At the time I was cost driven. Today, I still am . I guess my Niche is small scale with clear imaging . Thanks for firing up “ The Way Back Machine “ ! Cheers , Mike B. 
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