Your First System

In 1975 I turned 16, other kids bought their first car, I bought a Phase Linear 4000 preamp, 400 amp, Bose 901 Series II Speakers, Thorens TD-124 turntable with (I think) a Grado cartridge.

By 1977 I graduated High School was selling gear for a local high end shop and had moved up to Quad ESL-57 electrostats, Audio Research SP3A preamp + D76A amp, Panasonic SP10 turntable with Rabco SL-8E arm and Denon DL-103S Moving Coil Cartridge.

Today I have kids, my system is mainly for Home Theater, all Martin Logan's (Prodigy R/L, Theater CTR, Request SIDE, Aerius REAR, Descents) with Lexicon MC-12 preamp, Bryston amps, and a modified Oppo bdp-95 blue ray player. For fun I just built two Danley Sound Labs DTS-10 tapped horn subwoofers driven by a QSC RMX 4050HD on a dedicated 20 amp circuit. (I've been lurking on audiogon to pick up a used turntable and get back to vinyl)

However to this day I can still remember the thrill of sitting in front of my Quads, mesmerized by the most incredible detail, ambience and soundstage I'd ever heard. It hooked me for a lifetime of audio enjoyment.

Back in 1996 I bought a JVC digital front (CD player don't remember the model) but it was about 150 $; JVC receiver RX 316 R (about 250 $). Before almost immediately switching to Magnat Transpuls 3000 3-way speakers that I bought on sale in Vienna, Austria for only 100 $ (MSRP of 600 $), I used an old ReVox monitor speakers (don't remember the number) 25 Watts only.

In 2004 I put together my first sound system: a Marantz SR4200 with Paradigm Monitor 5 v3's, Titans for surrounds, a CC350, and a PS1000 sub, and a Panasonic DV-578. The only changes I ended up making in 8 years was adding a PS3 for blu rays more than games, replacing the Marantz with an Onkyo TX-SR805, and replacing the DV-578 with a Panasonic DMP-BDT210. It was a reliable mancave HT setup, but too ugly to have in the living room.

GE 8 track. It actually had ok sound for what it is. I enjoyed Beethoven symphonies and the sound of music when I was a teenager...

Brings me back memories of grateful parents who have given me all my toys... then they bought me a complete Pioneer system which sounded much better - I thought it was sonic heaven then...

Strange how much I enjoyed that system, even more than I am doing now with my 60k+ system... Is it my age, or do we simply get used to higher quality, and it stops being amazing after awhile?

Liquid-Smooth, I was just reading your last paragraph and thinking back how much I enjoyed my first system. I seem to remember enjoying it as much, if not more than my current systems. I guess it may seem that way because it was a starter system and the real attention grabber, whereas now I'm more accustomed to having great sound as the norm. Great memories though!