Your first “high end” system

Back in '83 I was fortunate to find a whole system for sale with a $5K price tag (original price was $10K). JBL 4343 speakers, a rack full of SAE including parametric EQ, tuner, 2 amps and an electronic crossover. Setting atop all this was Technics model 1400 custom made table from Japan (I have never seen anything like it since), mounted with a Shure V15 type III cartridge. Was the biggest single leap that I took until a decade later.

Acoustat Model 6. VPI Junior with Grado TMZ cartridge. Conrad Johnson PV-7. 2 Adcom 555 Amps. This was around 1988. Currently living out my years in a 10X10 listening room and will never have that quality of sound again. Great memories, though.

Back in 1970, an Empire 598 turntable with an Empire cartridge, a Marantz 100 WPC integrated amp (forgot the model number) and a pair of Rectilnear III speakers. Like Millercarbon, purchased with lawnmowing and farm working money after school and in the summer. I researched everything by reading stereo mags. Anyone remember Hirsch Houck Laboratories writeups?

millercarbon wrote:                                                                               "Right. Its been many years since I read Robert Harley's Complete Guide to High End Audio. But I could swear he says in there that high end is defined by an emphasis on sound quality and nothing else. High End does not mean expensive."
This is absolutely 100% correct.

Bought my 1st record when I was 9 yrs old. I had stereos since then. But my first stand out player was a system bought while in Charlotte, NC from a good Hifi Store. Harmon Kardon 730 receiver with Original Large Advent speakers &Technics TT . Within a few weeks I bought a good Teac Casette deck. The  size of the sound of that 730 is still amazing today, though it needs to be rebuilt. That was about 1978.