What Was Your Favorite Stereo When You Started Audio?

[Deleted]

I like to keep an eye on vintage Audio equipment to see what has maintained a following, especially the mass market "made in Japan" equipment.
I thought I was in high cotton when a bought a Pioneer SA-9100 Integrated Stereo Amplifier- 60w/ch & TX-9100 Tuner. Speakers were AR 3a. Added a demo Akia R-R tape & a used Thorens Turntable with Rabco vertical tracking arm. Later added a Teac cassette with Dolby.
I thought it would a looong time before that system would be beat. I came home from class and found that someone else liked it too and took it all. That really hurt my wallet.

So what was your favorite equipment when you were starting down the road of audio?

[Deleted]

I worked at a stereo shop's service dept. during college. We serviced all kinds of equipment. Some customers would bring in really nice components and when the repair was finished I would call the customer to inform them it was ready for pick-up. Amazingly some people just never picked it up. The boss would send letters etc and after a couple months, they were sold for the repair cost. I discovered a way to get nice equipment cheap. Did some wheeling-dealing to get the money for what I wanted, while my friends got nice stuff. Benefits of the business.

edit- Anyone remember "Olson Electronics" Started @ Rocky River Dr store Fairview, OH in high school (Cleveland) then a store in Columbus, college.

[knucklehead]

My first piece of audio gear was a Sansui 500a - a tube (17 of them!) receiver from the mid 60s. I bought it new at the Naval Exchange in Yokosuka Japan in 66. I sold it around 72 after succumbing to the lure of solid state and more power. Never thought I'd ever go back to tube power but I'm really enjoying the sound of the ST-120 driving the song towers.

[1960broookwood]

Bought a NAD 1020 and a pair of 2150 powers amps when I was just out of college--and still listen to them today @ early retirement age.

[MusicHead]

This was my first system as a teenager growing up in Italy in the early-mid eighties:

Technics RS-M260A 3-heads Tape Deck


Technics SU-V5 Stereo Amp:


ESB CS-52 3-way speakers (sealed):


How many fond memories!! It took me almost two years to put it together, with money I earned on summer jobs.

The tape deck cost a fortune, 3-heads were very expensive. The equivalent in Italian Lira of $220 in 1982 or so.

The amp I got it heavily discounted because I actually got the one in black, which was not selling. I remember going to the store, paying cash and then going to get it (by bus!) at their warehouse out of town, as they had none at the store.

My brother still has all of it, fully working. He is phenomenal with his hands and replaced the cone suspension on the speakers' woofers, which over time disintegrated.

[DYohn]

My favorite is probably my current 2-channel system. Much better than anything I owned in teh past that might today be called "vintage."

[hemster]

When I started (not "stated") audio, I had inherited a Philips gramophone from my dad which sounded good but not great. I did not have a measure of what great audio sound was at the time.

Growing up I had an AIWA mini system which made me popular in school and college! Then I bought a turntable and upped my game for a few years. After moving to the U.S. I got separates and never looked back.

[DYohn]

The first system I ever had that was *mine* a Dynaco Dynakit ST70 amplifier that my dad brought home in about 1964. It was broken and had no tubes. I fixed it up and made it work with my own money and time by following a schematic I found in Stereo Review magazine. I had obtained an old RCA 45rpm record changer out of a broken jukebox and a set of old Jensen speakers - I don't remember their model number but I replaced the drivers in them at least five times with various speakers I obtained along the way so really they were just enclosures. I wired it up at age 11 and made it work until I was about 15 and wanted to play LPs. It sounded like crap I am sure, but to me at the time it was pure heaven.

Probably the best sounding vintage system I ever owned was in 1977. I had gotten a several-thousand-dollar re-enlistment bonus from the Navy and spent every penny on a new stereo. I bought a pair of ESS AMT1B speakers, a Phase Linear 400 amplifier, a McIntosh C28 preamp and a top of the line Garrard 401 turntable with the most expensive cartridge I could find which I think was an AKG, and a boatload of albums. This system sounded grand. Good memories, but I would not go back.

[Percussionista]

After some wonky disparate low-fi pieces of gear, I bought my first receiver in 1969. It was Fisher's top model, 500-TX, back in the day when Fisher actually meant something, before they sold themselves out. It's a (realistically) 50w/side unit, "solid state" as they said except for the tuning - uses varacter diodes to tune stations - they have locks to help hold the initial drift, but it does settle. Nice wood surround. Still have it, I use an external power strip to turn it on (internal turn-on has been fixed before too), and the balance control is also not very effective. Can drive a third speaker - a center, meant as a fill-in if the front L/R speakers are very far apart. And the most amazing thing of all - I have the service manual ;-) I guess I'm keeping it for nostalgia purposes, but would part with it to an enthusiastic legacy collector too!

Here's it's picture.

[DavidR]

While in college I would drool over this amp and wished I had the money to buy it.

[johnnyd70]

Hey it’s a start.

Attachments:

[Gary Cook]

My early favourite was a Garrard turntable, an AWA 25 watts per channel Class AB integrated pre amp/amp (my 2nd amp, the first was a 10 watt Class A) and a pair of KEF Concertos in DIY cabinets. I never intended to keep the KEF's, they were just a fill in, I really wanted a pair of Tannoy Monitor Golds, with their 10" coaxial driver. Strangely enough the KEF's I still have in storage, they are just in better cabinets, and over the years they grew to 5, plus some spare drivers and cross overs. A cassette deck was the next acquisition, an Aiwa with Dolby NR (OMG), it had timber sides to match the integrated. I added a sub woofer sometime in the 80's, with a DIY pre amp and a 400 watt amplifier. Around the same time I upgraded the turntable to a Denon DD professional series which I still have and use. It was a spare for a local radio station that never got used, still in its original box, so it was pristine.

This is the higher power version (95 watts total), looks the same though.


Cheers
Gary

[vcautokid]

Nakamichi ZX-7.

[mfeust]

The first system I bought on my own was Pioneer SX 780, EPI 120C speakers and they threw in a Philips TT and AT cartridge. Bought at Wonder Stereo in Pittsburgh in 1977.

Mark

[vneal]

The unit I always wanted was a McIntosh MA6200 integrated amp

with Dalquist speakers

LATE 70s

[LCSeminole]

First mentionable stereo system was back in high school and comprised of a JVC RK-22 receiver, JVC KD-V6 3head cassette deck, Technics SL-D2 direct drive turntable and set of Realistic MC-800 speakers. I worked many a odd job from delivering the local newspaper to lifeguarding in the summers and was extremely proud of doing it on my own. Later on in college I moved on to an Onkyo Integra A-8067 integrated amp and Sansui T5 tuner kept the JVC KD-V6 and Technics SL-D2 and got Cerwin Vega D5 speakers. Back in those days I did lust after a Soundcraftsmen pre-amp and power amp, just can't remember the models now.

[MusicHead]

I wanted a Thorens turntable, NAD amp, AR speakers and Nakamichi tape deck.

[Loop 7]

My first stereo was a huge splurge and one that lasted me from 1993 to 2002 with not a single change. Of course I remember the system sounding incredible but if I heard it all new today I don't think I would be that impressed.

A little fuzzy on model numbers but I think these are accurate:

- Adcom GTP-350 (brother has this in his system)
- Adcom GFA-535 (brother has this in his system)
- Denon DCD-XXX (not sure on model number - maybe 695 - sold)
- Denon DRM-400 (brother has this in his system)
- (used) Mission 761 speakers (still have these - had them re-coned and the replaced the caps)

These pictures are ball park and might not be the specific models but they look similar. 

[mack71]

made in Poland -1981y
It was better than many well-known brands.
It is a pity that the company collapsed

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[mgbpuff]

In 1964, married and 3 years into a BE in Engineering degree, I couldn't help myself and bought a Marantz 8B amplifier from the Allied Catalog at a special clearance price of $200. I put it in a closet until I graduated in 1968 because I couldn't afford anything else. I then was graduation gifted a Dual 1018 TT with a Shure 97 cartridge and I bought, again from Allied, a Dynaco PAS-3x preamp and a FM-1 tuner. Locally in Cleveland, Ohio I bought AR-4x speakers. I finally had a decent stereo setup. I added one of the first cassette recorders on the market in 1970 with a self built Heathkit (designed by Henry Koss). I still have every piece except the FM-1.