My first attempt at HiFi was purchased from a pawn shop near the high School in Santa Monica, California and at a Pacific Stereo store closer to Los Angeles proper (I don’t remember exactly where). I got some nondescript box speakers with 10” woofers from the Pacific Stereo store that the salesman was really pushing, cost me about $200 I think. From the pawn shop I got a rather large stereo tube amp that had a problem on the left channel that no tube replacement could resolve. The component I most remember was a Fisher monaural tubed tuner that pulled in all the stations and had the sweetest sound. It had a champagne gold faceplate, and a preamp section in a separate chassis that was bolted to the tuner’s chassis. I traded it for a Sansui receiver and immediately regretted it. As nice as the Sansui looked, it didn’t sound as good as the Fisher. I made an emergency visit back home and when I returned, I discovered that my housemates had sold all my stuff (including a solid gold watch my grandmother had given me), no doubt for drugs, because, “We didn’t know if you were coming back.” The year was 1972.
[I was surprised that responding to this question dredged up so many memories I had long repressed, some good, some bad, and not all shared. The past seems ever with us at times.]