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Your first stereo system

What was your first stereo or hi fi music system? What do you remember best about it? What were its strengths? Its weaknesses? What music provided you the most enjoyment from it? What did you trade in first and why? My first system was from Lafayette Radio Electronics. It consisted of a very small integrated amp, two small book shelf speakers, and a turntable I don't remember much about. I was thrilled to have the tiny amp, it provided much better sound than an a.m. radio, in such a small package. My system was in the basement of my parents home, with the speakers on opposite sides of my round water bed! The first "up grade" was to a cool looking Garrard turntable with a clear plastic hinged cover. My favorite music of the time was by Jim Morrison and the Doors. That system did its best to light my fire, and the memory of it still does.
richardmonk
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
My first real system was a top of the line Dual 1219 turntable with a Shure M91ED cartridge driving a Dynaco Pat 4/Stereo 120 combo through Dynaco A-25 speakers. The whole smear cost $440 via mailorder plus $9.15 for UPS from Dixie Hi-Fi. Bring back any memories? One time I borrowed another pair of A-25's and ran both pair in parallel in the dorm lounge. The room was quite large and it rocked to Hendrix and Cream for about two hours. Then in the middle of Holst's The Planets I cooked all the output transistors in the Stereo 120. Dynaco made me spring for the amp repair but when it came to cooked woofers, they always fixed them at the factory in Philadelphia for free, while I waited, and no questions asked! About 10 years later, the Pat 4 had become a SAE P102, the Stereo 120 a Hafler DH200, and the A-25's were Big Advents. My ex kept that whole system and blasts it every day 1,500 miles away to her heart's content. The Dual 1219 still spins like a dream in my current system and has never skipped a beat!
randalleron
63 posts
 
fun question; ah the pre-craziness memories. i purchased my first system in '88 or '89: it consisted of a denon 45 watt receiver, nak's entry level tape deck, a phillips cd player and a pair of klipsch kg4 speakers. i cannot even remeber the cabeling. i absoluetly loved it. in my pursuit of loud and louder music i must have replaced the horns in one the kg4's a couple of times--i kept turning the dennon up so loud that i was sending nothing but crap through my speakers! the kg4's were the best buy of the lot; i only replaced them within the last year. i dropped the nak tape deck a few years after i purchased it, no need. thereafter, the denon was first to go, in favor of a carver 150 watt offering. then the cd player was replaced with cal's icon mk ii. that configuration lasted until about 3 years ago. at that point i added cj's pv10al pre-amp and dumped the carver in favor of cj's mv55. that was my first move out of mid-fi and should have been my move into a padded cell. i'm now a cj/wadia/jm labs kind of guy. i can't even begin to guess what's next and/or when. tweaking is fun. and you know what, when i turn up the volume now the music does not get louder, it gets bigger. and i no longer send crap through my speakers.
underhill
2 posts
 
first system circa 1973 - klipsch heresys powered by a 65 watt per channel sherwood 8900 (fm only) receiver. the heresy retailed at $248.00 - the sherwood on sale at the time was $285.00 (closeout). my turntable was a pioneer - somewhere in the area of $200.00. norm .
captain
81 posts
 
Iguess my first system which i can remember as a(cranking stereo) was a pair of GENESIS 3 SPEAKERS which I bought new in 1975-1976 for I think around $600-800?? A sansui top of the line 1010 reciever ( OUCH) and a thorens turntable. Around 1978-79 I got really serious and bought a pair of DAHLQUIST DQ10'S ,an AUDIO RESEARCH SP6 preamp,a BRYSTON 3B AMP and a ROTEL turntable with a GRACE 707 ARM and A SLEEPING BEAUTY low output moving coil cartridge by G.A.S. I still have all of this equipment in storage except for the thorens and the bryston. I REPLACED the bbryston with a BELLES 450 which was superior with the power hungry DAHLQUISTS.I am currently using VANDERSTEEN 3A speakers , an AUDIO RESEARCH SP6E preamp,a FORTE 4 AMP ,BASIS TURNTABLE and a MUSICAL FIDELITY E624 cd player. I AM currently using STEALTH CABLES also. HAPPY AND HEALTHY LISTENING, RICH.
captain
81 posts
 
Iguess my first system which i can remember as a(cranking stereo) was a pair of GENESIS 3 SPEAKERS which I bought new in 1975-1976 for I think around $600-800?? A sansui top of the line 1010 reciever ( OUCH) and a thorens turntable. Around 1978-79 I got really serious and bought a pair of DAHLQUIST DQ10'S ,an AUDIO RESEARCH SP6 preamp,a BRYSTON 3B AMP and a ROTEL turntable with a GRACE 707 ARM and A SLEEPING BEAUTY low output moving coil cartridge by G.A.S. I still have all of this equipment in storage except for the thorens and the bryston. I REPLACED the bbryston with a BELLES 450 which was superior with the power hungry DAHLQUISTS.I am currently using VANDERSTEEN 3A speakers , an AUDIO RESEARCH SP6E preamp,a FORTE 4 AMP ,BASIS TURNTABLE and a MUSICAL FIDELITY E624 cd player. I AM currently using STEALTH CABLES also. HAPPY AND HEALTHY LISTENING, RICH.
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