I started off with one of those Pioneer all in one systems/stacks when I started work in my late teens/late 80s, early 90s. Apart from cheap record players and tape players though my childhood and early teens.
The Pioneer I thought was the bees knees until I was introduced to a friend of a friend who shared my love of music. We quickly became friends, and he invited me around to his house (he was a few yrs older than I, I was still living with my folks 😊) and this was my first OMFG HiFi moment.
He had a full Naim Chrome Bumper set up. From memory I’m pretty sure he had 4 power amps, 2 for each channel, driving tweeter and woofers (quad-amped?)
He had a Linn TT - I think it was a Sondek? I’m not a vinyl guy so forgive my ignorance 🙄😁. I can’t remember the speakers - but definitely Epos or Linn. They were big, black monolithic things sat on his floor.
Anyway, I remember he played me Aja by Steely Dan and Nightfly by Donald Fagan and I was absolutely, well and truly blown away. I’d never heard anything like that. I had no concept prior, of what was achievable with music reproduction.
As I was a single young man, with no responsibilities, a decent job and disposable income, he introduced me to his dealer in Liverpool, UK. About 2 weeks later I had a nice Naim Olive bi-amped system, Epos 11 speakers, Arcam Alpha CD Transport, and an Audio Alchemy DDE v1 (this may be in accurate, it was a long time ago 🙄😁, but it was a DDE)