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What were your humble beginnings on the path to high end audio?

Recently there has been a discussion as to the “price point where mid fi tops out and hi end systems begin”. I’d be willing to bet that there are not many folks who started out in this field of interest spending $100K, $50K or even $10K. Going back to your very beginnings, what was your first serious audio system?

I’ll jump in the wayback machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and give you a look at my beginnings.

My journey began at around age 13. I started out with a Lafayette KT-630, stereo tube amp that I built from a kit in my 9th grade, “electronics shop” class. The speakers were built at home from plans in the 1968, July issue of Mechanix Illustrated. I upgraded the cabinet construction from plywood, to solid mahogany. The twin woofers in each cabinet were also upgraded to 5” from the specified 4” units and the tweeters were also upgraded from the specified 2-3/4” units to the deluxe 3” units. The inductors in the 6db per octave passive crossovers were hand wound and the caps, terminal strips, L-pads, magnet wire and grill cloth were from Lafayette Radio Electronics as were the woofers and tweeters. The turntable was a purchased Garrard SL72B with a Shure M91E magnetic cartridge.

Check out the amp specifications on page 42 of the Lafayette 1968 summer catalog #648.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Lafayette-1968-Summer.pdf

The raw speakers are shown on page 55 of the Lafayette 1971 catalog #710. Woofers, 99-F-01554, figure D. Tweeters were at the bottom of page 55, 99-F-00499. The Garrard SL72B is on page 69 of the same catalog.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Consumer/Lafayette-1971.pdf

I still have the speaker systems and the amp and they all still work! Alas the SL72B is long since gone. I mowed a lot of grass and shoveled a lot of snow in the neighborhood to buy all that high end gear at age 13! :-D By todays standards, not very impressive, but to a 13 year old in 1968, it was awesome!

So to reiterate, what was your first serious audio system?

P.S. - If you are interested, check out some select old Lafayette, Allied Radio, Heathkit, Radio Shack, Olson and other old catalogs from what I think of as the “good old days” of electronics and my youth.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Electronics_Catalogs.htm

vintage_heath
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stvgray
23 posts
 
Got my first full-time job after college in 1972. A few months later, realized I could actually afford a good stereo. Went to Tech HiFi in Ann Arbor and listened to Large Advents, EPI 100s ... and the most expensive speakers in the store, Ohm F's. They F's blew away everything else. I think they were $400 -- shocking at the time.
My first wife -- bless her -- said -- "You might as well get them. You know you won't be satisfied with anything else, now that you've heard them." She was right.
So I bought them, and an AR turntable with Shure V15III cartridge, and a used Heathkit AR-1500 receiver. Ahhh ... sounded so good! Would love to hear those speakers today and see if they sounded as good as they do in my memory.
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stvgray
23 posts
 
Correction ... first cartridge was a Shure M91E. The V15III was an early upgrade.
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acinspesaispe
4 posts
 
1990- I was finally able to buy my dream system- or at least, the one I could afford at the time. I was frequently in a store called Target Hi-Fi, where my imagination would run wild. At the start however, I had to settle for an all JVC system, speakers included- a CD player, integrated, and the speakers, all about 1,000 dollars worth. Boy, was I happy. I went home, turned up the volume, listened in the dark all night. Next day when I came home from work, my system was gone- stolen. Guess the tennants up stairs loved my first system too:)
jhills
615 posts
 
Although I had the usual foray of auto players (a varety of 8 track and cassetts players) aside from adopting my sisters old Magnavox LP counsel, I didn't develop a real interest in home audio until the mid 70s.
My first, rather humble system, consisted of a Pioneer Direct Drive TT, a set of BIC Venturi speakers and a Fisher receiver. In 1978, after finishing construction of our country home, wife and I decided it was time to upgrade our music system. By chance, we found a new audio dealer, in a community some 90 miles away, who had some wonderful stuff we'd never heard of - amps sa. Conrad Johnson, Audio Researsh, Mark Levinson, etc; speakers sa. Thiel, Spendor, OHM, Magnapan and Vandersteen; high end TTs, CDPs and so forth. Thus began our audio adventure. Having recently invested a good deal of our money into a construction loan, we went the frugel rout - starting with a HK receiver, Polk Audio tower speakers, a Tandburg casset player and keeping our old Pioneer LP player. We soon upgraded to a PSE Studio II amp with a Audible Illusions, Modulis IIC pre-amp, a Nakamichi ZX-9 casset player, Vandersteen 2c speakers and a Thorens TD 105 TT with a AudioQuest B100-M cartridge.
Many fine speakers, amps and components have come and gone since, but I still have my trusty Audible Illusions pre-amp, my Thorens TT, a very reliable ADCOM, GFA 5500, for back up and just recently sold my Nak.
And the journy goes on...Jim

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stvgray
23 posts
 
And I think the F's were $400 EACH.
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