Anyone remember the days before bells and whistles!

I see what you did there……

I always wear a suit whilst listening.  Wish I had some of that invisible speaker cable!

In the summer of 1967, I bought an Eico build it yourself amplifier kit, similar to the Heathkits being sold.  I spent a couple weeks building it, and it didn't sound so good.  I was using 12" three way Jensen speakers, with ported cabinets I built out of 3/4" plywood.  Stained them and bought actual speaker cloth for the fronts.  Took the amp in to my local Detroit Stereoland store and they found a couple cold solder joints.  That little four pound brick of an amp lasted me for several years until I could afford my first separates, which were San Sui units.  I looked on Ebay and I think my unit was the Eico Cortina model.  Was a long time ago.  This little amp got me started in this crazy "hobby"!

BTW, in those days it wasn't "we are pregnant".  It was honey I'm pregnant.  Now go to the father's waiting room while I have this baby and "they" will call you when it over.

That waiting room was a small space with well worn magazines and no TV, radio or stereo.

As a Wilson guy, never owned the great Quads but had many HealthKits and plenty of Zip cord to those AR4ax's. Still have my first good Audioquest speaker cables. Hose sized copper stranded wire with no particular geometry. And an AR turntable is someplace in the garage.  Nice memories of sweet music. Smoked a pipe too.

Enjoy

There were plenty of "bells and whistles" in the old days! ;-) A high-end Fisher setup might comprise two "Z-Matic" monoblocks with damping controls, a "control center" preamp with balance, treble, bass, loudness, rumble filter, various LP EQ settings (RIAA, FFRR, Columbia, AES, and flat for 78s), a reverb box for "spatial" effects, not to mention a wired remote volume control. Even your speakers might have controls for mids and highs, or tube-driven crossovers. Then your sources--tuner, multi-plex converter, reel-to-reel, and turntable. You were lucky if you didn’t break your neck tripping over all the wires.

Now you get hi-rez music with a little box and a pair of self-powered speaks. ;-)