It was 1968/69 and I was a freshman engineering student. I used some of my student loan money to buy a top of the line Fisher receiver, Wharfdale speakers with 12 inch woofers, and a Dual turntable with a Shure V15-Type 2 cartridge. I thought it sounded great but I’m sure it would have sounded much better with today’s cables.
The system before that sounded terrible but was the best I could afford before I got the genius idea to use my student loan money on audio equipment instead of tuition. I made some bookshelf speakers using 6"x9" drivers from a car (I was really poor!), then I bought a used receiver out of some old console model that was sitting on a table at Olson Electronics (just a naked chassis) and built an enclosure for it. I then added a Gerrard turntable with a good cartridge. The system sounded truly awful, but primarily because of my homemade speakers. I made many modification to them before throwing them out. I kept the turntable and started the component upgrade path that I’ve been one ever since.
The system before that sounded terrible but was the best I could afford before I got the genius idea to use my student loan money on audio equipment instead of tuition. I made some bookshelf speakers using 6"x9" drivers from a car (I was really poor!), then I bought a used receiver out of some old console model that was sitting on a table at Olson Electronics (just a naked chassis) and built an enclosure for it. I then added a Gerrard turntable with a good cartridge. The system sounded truly awful, but primarily because of my homemade speakers. I made many modification to them before throwing them out. I kept the turntable and started the component upgrade path that I’ve been one ever since.