Bought my first system in high school in the early 70’s. Went to Tech Hifi in Springfield, NJ and got a low end Sansui receiver, Philips GA-212 turntable with AudioTechnica cartridge. Speakers were EPI 120. Later steam cleaned cookie sheets in a bakery over winter break to make enough money to go back to Tech Hifi and get a Technics cassette deck. First vinyl album bought and played on that system was Derek and the Dominos, Live in Concert.
Around the same time, my Dad got a system for our family room. Also at the same Tech Hifi store, he got a Sansui Seven receiver, Elac Miracord automatic turntable with Audio Technica cartridge and Ohm B speakers.
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@fertguy Where in KC did you buy your system?
I can't remember the name but it seemed like a high end store.
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Lafayette Electronics Fordham Rd ,Bronx,NY
integrated amp AR4, and AR turntable
sounded great
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Early summer 1971, Pacific Stereo in LA; post college graduation and full-time decent paying job: Sony receiver, Advent speakers and a Gerrard TT... the sweet life!
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Lots of military stories in the mix, here's another
It was 1980 and I was in Cherry Point NC at a USMC airbase, bought mine from a pawn shop in Havelock NC
Sansui integrated amp and preamp, oddly a stand alone Sansui AM/FM tuner, a 12 band Sansui equalizer, a Sansui cassette deck, Kenwood direct drive turntable with an Ortofon cartridge and a pair of 5 way Kenwood 999 speakers with 15'" woofers, 2 horns a midrange and tweeter
Fun times and thanks for the trot down memory lane
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Gifted Listener Audio in Centreville VA did a quick web search and bummed to see they closed last year.
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Olsen Electronics on Dempster Street in Morton Grove Illinois. And then Music-Craft on the same street and town. At Olsen Electronics my mother bought me my first stereo at age 15. It was an all in one deal for $99.00. Probably a week's paycheck for her. Can't remember the brand name. Then a year or so later at Music-Craft a BIC turntable then a Technics turntable, A Sherwood receiver on which the factory handwrote the actual tested watts per channel ( marketing tactic)? then a Kenwood receiver, a pair of Boston Acoustics A60 speakers (because Consumer Reports said so) and 2 different Aiwa cassette decks. I would always buy the 10 pack of TDK SA-X blank cassette tapes. The above mentioned purchases were made between 1979 and 1982. Good times.
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@fertguy Where in KC did you buy your system?
While in high school...1st system 1972 at an electronics store called "Henshaws", a place that sold stereo and CB radios, I got a Dual 1218 with a Shure cartridge, Technics receiver and Jensen 3 way speakers with 12" woofers.
In the next 6-8 years, after discovering "David Beatty’s Stereo" my system was comprised of a B&O 2402 tt, Nakamichi 530 receiver, Maggie SMG’s and a very high-end Yamaha cassette deck.
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Radio Shack, where else? LoL
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Tech HiFi in Warwick RI then MSL in Worcester MA! 😎
Mike
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13 years old at the Fort Eustis exchange in Virginia.
1971.
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In 1968 while stationed in Vietnam, I purchased a Pioneer turntable. At the time, I knew zilch about stereo equipment. I shipped it home, but it was stolen and never reached home.
In 1972 while stationed in Germany, I began building a system that I kept for ~20 years before giving it to my son: Pioneer SPEC4 power amp, Soundcrafstman SP4001 EQ/pre amp, SAE tuner, Technics SL-1600MK2 TT, Pioneer PL1000 TT, Rodec mixer, Teac X10R R2R (which I still have), dbx 224 noise reduction unit, dbx 3bx range expander, & Bose 901 speakers w/ chrome stands and active equalizer.
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35 years ago, a little grey market hifi shop in downtown Atlanta. I nice Yamaha AX-500 integrated amplifier. I used that amp for nearly 20 years.
Also 35 years ago, HiFi Buys (still in business in Atlanta) a pair of Cerwin Vega D-3
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@secretguy - FYI, Olsen Electronics had a store opposite from Allied Radio on Western Ave. In Chicago.
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Allied Radio, scrapd plates at U of A dining room,saved up and got a Scott amp, AR4 speakers , a Lear turntable and Koss headphones for about $260. Aw those were the days !!
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Great American Stereo Warehouse, Portland, OR
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My first quality gear I bought from the man, Brooks Berdan in SoCal. It was a Rega P3, Rega Mira integrated, and Vandersteen 2ce Sigs. That was 20 years ago and I still use the table and speakers, upgraded to separates though in that time (Rogue Metis tube pre, also from them). Was a great store while he was alive, best salesman I've ever encountered.
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Technics receiver and Koss headphones in 1972 at about 3000 south State St Salt Lake City, Inkley’s Camera Shop, about 3 years later I got a Yamaha Natural Sound CR 820 receiver, Tannoy Cheviots, Technics Direct Drive turntable and ortofon cartridge at Broadway Music downtown Salt Lake City. I got spoiled early on
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The year was 1979 and I was a young marine stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I purchased a Pioneer SX-1080 receiver with a pair of Pioneer HPM 100 speakers and a Kenwood cassette deck from the base exchange.
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My 1st system was a college graduation gift from my parents in 1964. I got super interested in audio due to other students in my dorm. It turned out that my uncle handled books for Dynaco and Dynaco had a close relationship with Acoustic Research at the time. So my uncle got a system for my parents at his price, a PAS 2 kit preamp, Stereo 70 amp kit, AR 2a speakers and an AR turntable, a classic system for that time. I had to buy a pickup and I bought an ADC Point 4E, one of the first ellipticals. I only made one error wiring the kits. The Stereo 70 vibrated so much it walked acros the floor. I turned it off and found the error and everything worked fine.
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Lafayette audio receiver ,speakers
then 6 months later, Hifi stereo house in CT Klipsch heresy , AQ cables ,Luxman integrated and cassette deck ,B&O tangial track Turntable late 70s .
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Team Electronics Menominee Michigan, 1976. Pioneer receiver SX something or other, small one only put out 15 or so watts. Also purchased Pioneer PL512 turntable that I still have.
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Lafayette audio receiver ,speakers
then 6 months later, Hifi stereo house in CT Klipsch heresy , AQ cables ,Luxman integrated and cassette deck ,B&O tangial track Turntable late 70s .
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Kansas City Mo. 1978. Just started farming. Sold a load of corn. Bought Sansui AU 717 & TU 717. Technics SB-8000 speakers. Technics TT
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Pacific stereo in Berkeley CA. I was 14. The receiver and speakers were a house brand called Trans audio made by Tandy Corp. For pacific stereo and turntable was a bsr with a shure cartridge.
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@mikelavigne I also bought my first real stereo from Len at Magnolia Hi-Fi in Seattle when it was a neighborhood small appliance store around 1969 or ’70. Gerrard Zero-100 TT, large Advents, Marantz console amp. Anybody remember Jafco on Westlake?
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BTW, still have the receiver.
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Crazy Eddie, Syosset NY. Bait and switch tactics.
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Harvey Electronics on 45st in NYC. Late 1960’s. The area was called Radio Row. I purchased a small pair of speakers to go with my small budget. I had a Fisher Amp (hand me down from Dad when he got Mac gear) and a dual turntable (Xmas gift). I was s card carrying member of the reccord club of America too.
A few years later I got a phase one Amp. Yup it blew up.
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K-Mart (I was very young)
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TV Lenney’s American TV. Place was fantastic. You never paid full price sales people were commission and you could talk them down sll the time. Had a high end listening room that always stocked the best of the best in retail stereo gear. My first big buy was my Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck that I still run in my main rig. Second was a Carver amp that I still swap in and out.
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Allied on south Western Ave in Chicago. 1967 bought a pair of JBL Dorian S12 speakers. Still have them. Don’t remember what turntable or receiver I had.
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Audio Musical in Belleville Illinois. Dixon Smart was the owner and a great great guy.
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1972 Garrard, SP 25 deck, EMI speakers and a sort of no name amp, perhaps an Amstrad. Deck lasted some years speakers soon replaced by Wharfedale Dentons, amp replaced with nameless brand receiver not long after. Graduating in 1978 bought a Pioneer PL 51? deck, Yamaha receiver and Mordaunt Short speakers. Of course a Phillips Mk1 CD player was purchased ASAP even though CD's were few and far between. After that well dozens of everything mostly speakers but through all that time the Road Doublets lasted nearly 20 years with me , my son, my friends and back again. Best combination, Royd Doublets, Garrard 401, SME arm, Creek amplifier.
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Worked offshore summer after graduation came back and my older brother and his bud, a Klipsch rep set me up with a Yamaha 50 watt SS, Philips TT 312 think, and Heresy’s. My little brother has my Hersey, I have big brothers after his passing.
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Team electronics in Dinkytown USA
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1973 at the PX in Japan Kenwood receiver, Sony real to real, Pioneer speakers, dual turntable.
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JC Penney 😆. Then I "upgraded" to a Lafayette receiver. After serving in the AF I special ordered Crown IC150, Dc300 and the 11 band EQ. from the PX. That's when I got the bug!
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Sound Systems, Palo Alto, mid 70's.
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The BX at Scott AFB, Illinois in 1979. A Magnavox rack system that had a receiver with 8-track and also came with a turn table. I think I picked it because the huge looking speakers appealed to me.
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Video Concepts store at the mall. I saved up and bought a Technics rack system around 1986-ish.
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I have no idea. Various joints in West L.A. Alongside my dad. It was a total treat going to them, though.
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Sterling Home Electronics in Houston. Got a Teac A-450 cassette deck there in 1975.
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Tech HiFi. Loves their catalogs.
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Okinawa, Japan...Klipsch La Scala speakers
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Guys.... very cool stories. Olson and Radio Shack. Ahhh those were the good ole days.
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Bought my first audiophile gear off of Headroom.com in the fall of 2002: Sennheiser HD580 headphones, Total AirHead portable amp. The AirHead sucked balls. The HD580 were awesome.
First speaker gear came a year or 2 later, from a combination of a local HiFiBuys (aka Tweeter), Ascend Acoustics (online), and Crutchfield. Boy do I wish I could have that time and money back. When I later heard Tannoys at my first real hifi shop (Audio Atlanta), I wanted to dump all my gear in the trash.
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Radio Shack, so long ago I don't recall the specifics of what it was. My dad bought it for me; we put it on lay away, common at the time (early 60s), and paid it off a few dollars at a time. I loved it. Today, of course, I have get that is far more $$ but far more satisfying. Still, I loved that old RS setup.
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tech hifi on angell street providence r.i. circa 1979-82 (i worked there to earn pocket money as a college student, first as a stock boy then as a customer service/sales person)
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