In the Summer of ’68 (how many here were then not yet born? 😊 ) I put together my first system: a Garrard SL55 with a Shure M44e cartridge, a Fisher X-100A integrated tube amp, and Acoustic Research 4ax loudspeakers. Not a bad place to start.
The following year I replaced the Garrard with an Acoustic Research XA table with a Shure M91e cartridge.
Three years later I discovered Stereophile (from an ad in the back of Audio Magazine iirc), and the race was on! In ’73 I got myself what many audiophiles were getting: Magneplanar Tympani’s bi-amped with ARC Dual 75 and Dual 51 power amps and an SP-3 pre-amp, a Thorens TD-125 Mk.2 with a Decca arm and cartridge, and a Revox A77 Mk.3. I didn’t care for the Decca arm (I dislike unipivots), soon replacing it with an SME 3009 Improved. I could live with that system today. Actually, I now have Tympani’s and London (Decca) cartridges, but evolved versions of each.