I grew up listening to classical music my dad played on his system which started out as AR 3a speakers driven by a Fisher receiver with a garrard turntable.. Sometime in the mid 70s, he graduated to a Mac receiver, ADS 420s and subwoofer and a Dual turntable.
He then bought the ADS digital delay system which drove a pair of rear speakers. It certainly created the illusion of a more spacious environment but the effect was better on some recordings than others . My appetite was whetted.
In the early 80s, I bought a Denon integrated amp and matching tuner from Glenn Poor’s in Champaign, paired with ADS 410 speakers which I really liked.
My roomate (I was in college) and I went in and bought a pair of used Ohm Fs. Where he found them, I’ve no idea. He also had the DBX 3Bx dynamic range expander. Another roomate had a Hafler amplifier which we drove with the preamp out of my integrated to power the Ohms. It sounded pretty remarkable even though the Hafler was woefully underpowered for the Ohms. Though my turntable was clearly a weak link (Harmon Kardon with an Ortofon cartridge), I can still remember listening to the finale of Shostakovich Symphony 5 in awe. I was hooked.