Your first “high end” system

DCM Time Windows, AGI preamp, Marshall Leach amplifier, Technics 1200 tt with Denon 103d MC cart.  Also had a Teac reel to reel with Dolby, but I can't remember the model number.  It was a nice system. Don't know exactly when I had it because I can't reference the purchase to any specific life events. I still have 7" tapes I recorded from my better records, but I don't know anyone who would want them, even for free. 

Sansui speakers and receiver with AR turntable and Shure V15 also Sony reel to reel that i got in Nam 1968.

Rega Planet, Bryston B-60 and a pair of Definitive Technology towers I can't recall the model. This would be late 90s.

It's all relative, ain't it? One person's high end is another's entry-level. I've listed my journey in my profile if you want to make the call on where it becomes high-end!

Right. Its been many years since I read Robert Harley's Complete Guide to High End Audio. But I could swear he says in there that high end is defined by an emphasis on sound quality and nothing else. High End does not mean expensive. 

My first system was bought with lawnmower and paper route money. But it was bought only after many hours of studying and scrutinizing and comparing speakers and amps and record players side by side. Hard to remember now, because soon I was able to upgrade it all with the big bucks I was earning at McDonald's. But that first system was probably a Radio Shack receiver with a record player on top, and (Realistic?) speakers.

Dynaco PAT-4 and FM-5. Lil Tiger .01 monoblocks. All built from kits.
JansZen 410 spkrs. (Still listening to now.) Garrard & Teac for sources.
Looking for a 4 channel USB interface to digitize and mix RTR tracks

Back in '83 I was fortunate to find a whole system for sale with a $5K price tag (original price was $10K). JBL 4343 speakers, a rack full of SAE including parametric EQ, tuner, 2 amps and an electronic crossover. Setting atop all this was Technics model 1400 custom made table from Japan (I have never seen anything like it since), mounted with a Shure V15 type III cartridge. Was the biggest single leap that I took until a decade later.

Acoustat Model 6. VPI Junior with Grado TMZ cartridge. Conrad Johnson PV-7. 2 Adcom 555 Amps. This was around 1988. Currently living out my years in a 10X10 listening room and will never have that quality of sound again. Great memories, though.

Back in 1970, an Empire 598 turntable with an Empire cartridge, a Marantz 100 WPC integrated amp (forgot the model number) and a pair of Rectilnear III speakers. Like Millercarbon, purchased with lawnmowing and farm working money after school and in the summer. I researched everything by reading stereo mags. Anyone remember Hirsch Houck Laboratories writeups?

millercarbon wrote:                                                                               "Right. Its been many years since I read Robert Harley's Complete Guide to High End Audio. But I could swear he says in there that high end is defined by an emphasis on sound quality and nothing else. High End does not mean expensive."
This is absolutely 100% correct.

Bought my 1st record when I was 9 yrs old. I had stereos since then. But my first stand out player was a system bought while in Charlotte, NC from a good Hifi Store. Harmon Kardon 730 receiver with Original Large Advent speakers &Technics TT . Within a few weeks I bought a good Teac Casette deck. The  size of the sound of that 730 is still amazing today, though it needs to be rebuilt. That was about 1978.