I’d always been interested in having the best sound system that was feasible for me but there were decidedly “juvenile” ideas as to how to do this along the way….My first real severely-coveted sound system related item was a canary yellow, spherical 8 track player/AM-FM tuner with a speaker on each “side”. This was 1971 and I eventually saw the SQ advantage to a more conventional stereo which wasn’t quite as much of a one box solution (CBS Masterworks 8 track/AM-FM tuner combo with separate, box style speakers). I lived with the ‘Masterworks unit thru high school and, in 1975, saw a magazine ad in the National Lampoon for an 8 track player with “actual Dolby noise reduction” made by Pioneer which I absolutely had to acquire for my first car. Turns out, the retailer nearest me that sold that gadget was one Sterling Home Electronics in Houston and they had things there that were far more spellbinding than a mere 8 track to shoehorn into a ‘69 Ford Galaxie! I forgot about the car stereo and it was at that point that I was officially bitten-by-the-bug.
How long ago did you catch the bug?
My first inkling was about 1972 when a friend mentioned such things as Dual, Thorens, AR, Scott, etc. By '74-'75 I knew about all the Japanese manufacturers (courtesy of a military PX catalog) and about McIntosh. By '76 was using a hand me down all in one Panasonic compact system. The compact system did not last long and very shortly after, '77, came a "proper" 1970's system with such names as Pioneer, Kenwood, Shure, AR, Teac.