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Your First System

This should be good!!! Most of us have been in this expensive hobby for years now and have worked our way up to components we only dreamed of. I want to know what was your first system of separate components going back as far as you can remember. My first consisted of a Pioneer SX-680 receiver, a Technics SLD-1 turntable (I think that's the right model #), a Sharp tapedeck, and KLH floorstanding speakers. I was 16 at the time and thought I was the biggest badass on the block. Now, 20+ years later I have a ML 334, Meridian 507 CD, CJ PV10A, Canton Ergo 900 speakers, and a Transparent Power Isolator 4. I'm in the process of upgrading to a ML 390. It goes without saying the IC's and speaker cables are top notch as well. I know my system is WAAAYYYYY down the foodchain compared to what I've seen here but It would be interesting to see what everyone started out with.
pcook15

Showing 2 responses by alpha_gt

alpha_gt
155 posts
 
I was 13 in 1975, and as many of you from that period have already said, I had a Technics 25wpc receiver, worked construction during the summer and bought a BIC turntable, with a $35 Altec Lansing cartridge. I was using some super cheap speakers from my dad's quadraphonic system (blew them up) until the end of summer when I bought some AKL towers at Harvey's Warehouse! I did replace the turntable with an ADC unit at some later date. But that system lasted me until after I was grown and married, I was probably 23 before I moved into the high end of audio. Or at least attempted to.
alpha_gt
155 posts
 
I must have been half asleep when I wrote that, it was an Audio Techica cartridge. But reading most of the other entries, it does seem to be a trend. Almost all of us started out in the mid-fi stereo of the 70's. I remember stores like Sight and Sound, Harvey's Warehouse, and later Circuit City, that sold good mid-fi equipment at affordable prices, perhaps this has something to do with why our hobby is dropping off? This starting point is missing. It's either surround sound systems for movie sound tracks, or nothing, until you jump straight into the big money stuff? Even though there may be affordable systems at your local salon, these shops that were in every local shopping center are gone, and one must seek out the rare salon, which can be intimidating to the uninitiated.
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