Your first amp?


What was it, when did you get it, and what did you really want?

I'll start, 1977, really wanted a Pioneer SX650 ( a powerhouse at, I seem to recall, 35wpc) but just didn't have the dough. Wound up with an SX450 (15 wpc) and gotta say, within it's power limitations, it was pretty decent.

Ah, back in the day when musical happiness was a receiver, a turntable, decent speakers (the JBL 100 Century was real nice), and to splurge, a cassette deck. In fact, I would say, in 1977, my 'dream system' would have been a Pioneer SX850, the L100's, a Philips GA212 turntable with a V15 type 3, and a Tandberg cassette deck.
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Those are awesome first amps. It's both gratifying and sad at what satisfaction modest amps brought before we learned otherwise. I loved my Pioneer and was truly sad when, just within the last five years, a relative I gave the SX450 to, told me he threw it out not because it died (it was working well) but because he no longer wanted that sort of "old fashioned" music system. I would have taken it back in a heart beat. But so it is, once I gift it, it's the recipients to do with as he pleases.
Dynaco 70. I had a TransAudio receiver which was a Pacific Stereo house brand before it when I was 12 but I don't really count it. As soon as I understood that the equipment choice affected the sound, I immediately bought Dynaco. I did however end up working at Pacific Stereo during college and selling tons of TransAudio!!
I bought a KLH Model 20 system in maybe 1970 that sounded amazing. This was the "turntable with amp" model without the tuner, and the speakers just kicked ass.
I bought a 90wpch. NAD DC amp that blew one of my new B&W DM7s in 1978. My first lesson on headroom. I promptly traded it in for a pair of Meridian 105 monos with matching pre.
I have very fond memories of a Heathkit W4AM mono-blocks with matching preamp. Very cool set up modified to push pull at 50W a channel. Class A at 27w. We were the proud owner of these through Junior High School. We received them as a gift from my uncle and dear ole dad. I later migrated to a Realistic STA 2000D receiver with 75 watts a channel, rotel turntable and AKAI tape deck. Very SPOILED high school kid(lol) who worked long hours at fast food to get all of this. We also managed to build custom made speakers for both systems. I have been happily engrossed with the hobby ever since. I think I will enjoy our Wyred for Sound seperates now. Haven't been this exited since then.