Is your now then?

In the late 50's-early 60's my parents bought this "375 watt" console, beautiful woodwork, very lousy sound quality.  One of my high school buddies brought a scope over and found that this system produced only about 8 watts per channel before the distortion climbed "through the roof".
When the Sgt. Pepper album was released, I set in front of one of those plastic stereo portable units with the "fold down" turntable, my first experience of "stereo sound"...and was "hooked" on audio.
I went off to college with a Kenwood integrated amp, Dual 1219/Shure V15, Wollensak reel-to-reel and Large Advents.
Since then I've had lots of other components, am now at a point where I'm pretty much "done" with upgrades!

My 1st exposure to a 'high-end' system was in 1969. Consisted of:
AR3a speakers, Dynaco ST-70 amp, Dynaco PAS3 preamp, AR XA turntable. Doubt it could compare to my current system. That said, I can't help to think that I would enjoy the older system today should I have a chance to listen to it.

I own a ST-70 and a AR XA. Can't seem to justify the cost of the PAS3 and AR3a speakers at current prices to put said system together. 

I don't regret a single upgrade I've made over the years. Yeah, I still do sometimes miss the tone of my ancient Denon 103(?) but I don't miss its terrible tracking and end-of-side distortion. The same goes for the Koetsu Black I had for a while. Yes, there might have been a few missteps along the way (and I'll be damned if I could remember 'em), but what can I say? I'm just happy with my stereo.

Early exposures to the Infinity's, AR everythings, ESS ribbons, the original Ohm f/r Walsh's, Phase Linears', Marantz, Revox, Crown anything.....

Yeah, a lot of that.
Bought when I could, DIY'd if I couldn't, periods when I had next to nil.
A lot of digital of late.

I 'amuse' self and my muse.....it's enough. ;) *s*

I’m not sure if I’ve romanticized the memory of the sound the came out of my Technics SL1800 TT’s into an 85 Watt Marantz 2385 receiver into some big fuzzy brown Cerwin Vegas, but I remember it as visceral and glorious. I’ve yet to hear vinyl sound stronger than it did in the 70s.
And it’s been about 45 years since I’ve heard ’Sinatra At The Sands’ slam like it did out of that rig- and I’ve had some fine & powerful rigs through the years.