Your first “high end” system


1990 or so 

Magnepan SMGa speakers, Adcom GTP 500II preamp tuner, Adcom GFA 545 amp, Thorens TD166 turntable with Shure V15 Type V, Cal Icon CD player 
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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.