I'm 14 in a detached garage converted into a teenage playground with a waterbed, blacklights, SS Japanese silver behemoths, and speakers hanging inside nets. Admit it you were there once. Anyone have thoughts on the nets as a viable option for speakers? (Can't believe I remember this....pretty hazy in that garage.) Joe
By 73' too many maimed, dead, and unknowingly dying friends. "What ever you do, don't go" was a mantra I heard by all those who did return. The Draft would be ending in just a few months ending seven years of life underground with a lifetime ahead.
In 1967 KJAZ and Tom Donahue's show between 6pm - 6am on KMPX SF Bay Area FM necessity was met with a Fisher receiver and a Benjamin Miracord/Shure TT. STEREO!
We even made a disco ball out of a Styrofoam sphere and pieces of a broken mirror glued all over it, suspended from a giant rubberband, and illuminated by three flashlights. Mid-teen stoner ingenuity! Cranking out a Pioneer SX828, stacked Advents, Dual turntable playing GD, Allman Bros, the Band (hey 1973 was Watkins Glen!), the Who, and even Kraftwerk deep into the umpteenth bowl. Yikes!
My birth year. Earliest audiophile memory is our C28 and 2125 meters connected to a pair of ADS 910’s still in the family. Great vinyl collection and a MR74 tuner that would pull in WPLJ, Z100 and all the stations that could rock the house. My older sister always had club connections so early memories of Studio 54 and the Palladium when I was way too young to be allowed. Never lost that love of crowds. Still enjoy dance music electronica and rhythmic slamming bass. You can take the kid out of Jersey but you can’t take Jersey out of the kid.
@john_g --. My father in law was also in Vietnam and donated his Coral 200s for me as a refurb project. Still in the midst of refurb, but apparently many of those stationed bought thus model at their PXs
Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, Mateus bottles with candles (girls only), incense, black light posters, fake ID, double album covers for separating seeds, and head shops. Good times!
1973 I was delivering newspapers on my bicycle, then riding it to Radio Shack to buy my first stereo, which when lying on the floor using speakers like headphones I could just about get Nilsson Jump Into the Fire to sound like real drums.
There was one party I can only remember as some kind of haze of people scrunched in so tight you could hardly drink your beer without spilling and a stereo screeching out some really loud rock that might have been Rush except I think this was a year or two before Fly By Night so either it was another band or another year but either way there was way way way to many crowded into that room!😂😂Which the beer and the noise and the sweat and cheap perfume and a pungent smoke that I don't think was a cigarette made it all strangely somehow... perfect.
1973 I was still dropping a deuce in my cotton diapers.
Great thread by the way!
First stereo I remember was my fathers reel to reel and 8 track player and turntable, a Sears Mca series w an old Ortofon cart. Played a lot of John Denver, Beatles, Waylon & Willie, some odd grand funk, mahavishnu orchestra, The Who, other stuff!
Then I heard an old thin lizzy LP, ....
anyway, I miss the feelings I had listening to old mom n dads tunes
had a black light zeppelin poster, you know those black felt ones w bright colors. I miss those days. To be young and do it all over with what we know now!
Graduated HS. listening to Steely Dan, The Who, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Ten Years After, Pink Floyd, Beach Boys on my Dual 1218, Panasonic receiver and Jenson 3-ways with 12 inch woofers. Had a console style cassette deck..forget the manufacturer. Got that system in 72...thanks to a Summer job, making a whopping $2.25/hr. No black lights or posters...went through that stage at 13-14. That system lasted until 79 when I got a B&O turntable, Nakamichi 530 receiver, some fancy $600 Yamaha cassette deck and Maggie SMG's.
Junior in high school thankful the war was ending. My lottery number made me eligible for the draft. Had basic stereo. Don't remember the year, but I was the first one to purchase Framton Comes Alive on 8 track in our small rown.
Sure is a lot of drug use in this forum! Or "was" I suppose. I missed all the fun, not being old enough. I think "Year of the Cat" was a few years later btw.
Living in a Central Texas cow town; the closest audio of any kind was Radio Shack. Does anybody remember- Good, Better and Best in there catalogs. I had a pair of Optimus 5's hanging in macromae hangers in the corners of my room. Ahh; Boston - More than a feeling.
Rogers LS3/5A hanging from ceiling, used Dynaco preamp and amp with Van A mods, technics 1200 turntable spinning mobile fidelity Year Of The Cat late at night on a hot thick August night with windows open. Life was great.
I was in the Peace Corps in a remote town in Ethiopia with no electricity, running (or potable) water, medical service or regular transportation (a DC3 would occasionally come and land on an open field). The inside walls of my house were sprayed with DDT to prevent malaria-carrying mosquitoes, a bit of a devil's bargain. But I had a small battery powered cassette player that was my musical salvation. Ten years later and settled back in the U.S. the system-building started in earnest, and now, 37 years later, it sounds fabulous! Jim Heckman
Let's face it, in 1973 "Hi-Fi" translated into bone crushing bass. (Had the term "audiophile" even been coined?) My approach, my first year after passing the Bar, was to trade my AR3's for a pair of Tannoys the size of small refrigerators and a massive McIntosh power amp tweaked with an equalizer set with the ubiquitous U-curve.
1973 one year out of High School. Living in my Folks’ basement. Waterbead, Marantz 2270, Rectilinear 3s, Technics TT. Smoke, women, music good times. a friend had a pair of Bose 901s suspended from ceiling driven by McIntosh. I was astounded by the sound. @Millercarbon...headed to Seattle in September. Love the area and the stores 😉
1973: The genesis point of my audiophile odyssey. Started with a Panasonic receiver with a fish eye tuning dial and plastic, trapezoidal single driver speakers. Also, had a BSR changer (4800?) with a ceramic cartridge. This system was a ubiquitous feature of every dentist's office back in the day. Listening to WDAS FM in Philly led to my fixation on Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players, Graham Central Station and War. Stones, Santana, Hendrix and Yes were like sonic heroin. Then, I got a pair of BIC formula 1s, mounted them venturi side up in the corners of my room and literally shook the rafters. That launched the equipment side of the obsession that continues to this day.
1973. My friend had this album, really different but really, really good. For some reason they cheaped out on the cover, just plain black with this triangle and a rainbow. Then when you open it up, same thing, only a squiggly line. Never could figure that one out. But there was a heartbeat, and one guy when he got stoned enough he swore it was all tied in, an EKG or something, nobody at that age is afraid of dying, and you run and you run. Maybe got a little too stoned myself, now what was the name ...?
'73 was the year I bought my first "big" system: Magneplanar Tympani T-I loudspeakers, ARC electronics, Thorens/SME/Decca record player, Revox A77. My dealer was Walter Davies, now known for his excellent LAST record, tape, and CD maintenance products.
I was in Vietnam until February of 73. Either there or in Thailand (where the Air Force sent me next) I ordered an AR receiver, a pair of AR2ax speakers, a Dual 1229 turntable and Shure V15 cartridge. Various vendors offered "deals" to service members, so supposedly I got a good price. Had it all sent home to Denver and lived with that system for a number of years. Used to read Stereo Review religiously.
OP here. Loved the memory lane excursions. As for nets I would think they would do a great job with the vibration and improving isolation. Getting the measurements right would be a pia. Not to mention SWMBO. Joe
Anyone have thoughts on the nets as a viable option for speakers?
Nets can make for an excellent means to suspend speakers! Getting them exactly the same height and angle would be the problem. The very best system I have heard in the 80's had speakers hanging from chains having adjustable height and angle. The speakers sounded wide open that way. I spoke with Disk Sequerra over the phone about how his Met 7ll’s sounded better hung from chains. He then told me his own big speakers (he was looking at while speaking to me) were also suspended by chains. It opens up the bottom end and over all sound for some reason.
I was in my second year of college at UCSB and had earned
enough money working at a picture frame/headshop the previous summer to buy a
used BMW 1600 for all of $1,200. But the hi-fi bug bit hard, and because I had
my priorities straight (and my roommate had a perfectly fine VW bus), I decided
to sell the BMW and put the money toward a new stereo system.
Getting all the money for the BMW wasn’t easy. A guy showed
up who offered me $600 and (I swear) his monkey. I explained that, while I had
no aversion to monkeys, money wasn’t thick on the ground, and as students, we were
often reduced to rice and canned tuna by the third week of the month. A monkey
would starve living with us. We finally settled on $1,200 and no monkey; a
better deal for all parties, human and simian.
After much angst deciding between unwieldy Tympanis and only
slightly less manageable Quads, I bought a system from Ken Kreisel at Jonas
Miller in Los Angeles: Quad ESL 57s, 33 preamp and 303 amp, and an AR
turntable. Certainly, it was the best-sound coming from any college apartment.
Funnily, I still have a pair of Quad 57s (rebuilt, of
course), which remain as magical today as they were in the tie-die days of Santa
Barbara.
Winter 73. In my room, in a smoky haze with a couple of friends. Playing Cheech and Chong’s “Sister Mary Elephant” and trying to figure out the highest volume we could play it before amp went into protection.
We heard her say “SHUTUP!” quite a few times before amp stopped for good.
I was serving in the military in Northern Ireland in 1973 during the "Troubles". Crazy time, checkpoints and body searches everywhere, bombs going off every night.
My first decent system was my refuge, along with some Guinness and the occasional bit of hashish. Sansui SP-100 speakers, Dual 1229 turntable, Sansui AU-555 and TU-555 amp and tuner.
Loved that system, lost it the divorce from my first wife.
I still remember finding out that Duane Allman was a sideman at Muscle Shoals and had a ton of music in additon to the Allman Brother Band. This was before the Anthology release of his studio work. Heard him on Push Push by Herbie Mann and the search was on after that.
Graduated college in 1973. Got great job, bought a red Datsun 260Z! Upgraded my speakers from Corals to Bozaks, got a Citation II preamp and an HK amp, AKai reel to reel, Linn Sondek TT. Yep Life was good! And girls galore!
Just a toddler, barely walking, but would spend hours sprawled on the floor in front of parents’ Magnavox solid state shelf AM/FM stereo radio model 1FM034 Walnut with one built-in speaker and one detachable speaker from main unit, just diggin’ the tunes.
1973: graduated HS, playing bass in band, Klipsch LaScala's as my PA, a biamped bass rig, and studying Bob Heils book on live sound. Koss Pro4AA as my headphone stereo at home. Great diversity of music! Steely Dan, Doobie Bros, Mahavishinu Orchestra, Beatles, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, Weather Report, Santana, amazing variety. Working in hi end stereo store within a year, selling Audio Research, Phase Linear, SAE, Magneplanar, DQ10s, Time Windows, Infinitys, Thorens Turntables, Dynavector cartridges....demoing Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Supertramp.
Strawberry Alarm Clock the incents and peppermints song was the guy from Lynyrd Skynyrd who wrote the Sweet Home Alabama riff. he wanted to play in a psychedelic band back then. A friend of the band visited with them and that guy sand the peppermints song. he was not a member of the band and never joined the band. Go Figure.
I remember playing my dads stereo (when my parents were away).Mountain, Uriah Heep, The Who, and Led Zeppelin. Pioneer speakers that doubled as plant stands for my mom.
Ten years old. Listening to KLH speakers through a Fisher tube amp. Then, believe it or not, reel—to-reel. Long gone, maybe a Tandberg? We made the recordings from albums.
My my dad used to keep the amp and turntable in a wooden chest. I’m surprised he didn’t start a fire.
Ah, the good old days. 16, HS junior, first job at McDonald's to save up enough money for a stereo. Bought it at the flagship Crazy Eddie's in Brooklyn, Cerwin Vega speakers (long since met their maker, but would likely still be welcome among today's 16 year olds, a Kenwood KR 5400 with 35 wpc and still functioning but in retirement, and a Dual 1228 tt just recently serviced to bring back to life since my son got into vinyl, but essentially only played and enjoyed by me. Set up in the basement along with a bean bag chair to listen to the Allman Brothers, and anything by the gods Clapton and Hendrix. The other associated equipment has gotten better, the range of musical styles expanded exponentially to include folk and blues along with equal parts jazz and classical/opera also, but the sheer pleasure and thrill of listening to wonderful music faithfully presented has always been a constant.
1973, a year out of high school and my first exposure to stereo when my future, and eventually ex, brother in law comes back from the service with some Japanese stereo gear he got from the base PX. Been hooked ever since.
1973- Sr. in HS. I had purchased my first system from Tech Hifi two summers before. It was a classic of it's day- HK 610 receiver, dual 1219 tt and a pair of large Advents. That system rocked and I think I'm still trying to chase that sound today. Santana Abraxis, Sticky Fingers, Tumbleweed Connection and Humble Pie Rockin the Filmore are some of the lps I remember from that year. It was also the year that pot and I first met.
richmon said... "driving a 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 two cycle."
A friend of mine had one too... one hell of a fast bike! Smoked everything in the day. It wasn’t called the widow maker for nothing... I eventually bought a Kaw 900... that although...pretty fast...the 750 would eat it for lunch...
Getting ready to open the shop; carrying in Tympani I speakers and Audio Research amps--HEAVY!
Unpacking many brands of speakers I had dreamed of hearing and finally got the chance. Other separates: Phase Linear, McIntosh, SAE, Crown, etc.
Cassette decks and lots of reel-to-reel’s--Revox, Tandberg, tiny Stellavox, I forget the others!
Many receivers on the shelves--Marantz, Scott, H-K, Tandberg, etc.; meeting Zane, the B&O guy who probably thought we were nuts but we sold a TON of B&O over the years and even made some stands for them eventually.
I remember putting a nickel on top of my turntable cartridge to keep the needle from skipping. Toward the end of the table's life, it was up to 30 cents (nickel and quarter, or 3 nickels and a dime).
1973 - first year post high school, hair down to my ass, working at Columbia Records (factory), driving a 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 two cycle. Dynaco Quadaptor, 4 Martin floorstand Speakers, Thorins turntable, dynaco preamp and amp.
But me wonders if the OP was asking viability of speakers in suspended nets, I've found having speakers spiked to the floor, bolted to the stands to be the best sounding, rock solid unmovable so they don't smear the sound. Swinging around is for Tarzan not speakers.
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