What's the speaker that "started it all"?

rskarvan

Monitor 10's powered by carver.

organ

Disco Kenwood speakers hooked up to an el cheapo Technics receiver. I used to think that system was the bomb.

scottdwagner

1986...I was 16 years old and my birthday present was a setup of Monitor 7's run from an NAD integrated that I bought from my summers work. The cat's meow... They were with me all the way through college, then were moved to my rears in residency. They survived all sorts of environments, from their taj mahal treatment as a high school student, to being ignominiously slapped with "thank you for pot smoking" and "zappa" stickers in college. Sadly, they ended up in the garage collecting dust until I sold them to spasticpitbull. Shouldn't have...

mantis

My Uncle was into Polk audio back when Monitor 10b's where new. He had this really nice Yamaha 2 channel receiver that sounded great. I loved going to his house and sitting there listening to them.

Lowell_M

I got a Pioneer 60wpc receiver for Christmas when I was 13 and bought a pair of speakers from Rat Shack. Since then the upgradits started very slowely and are beginning to build to a uncontainable rate.

Gaara

First real hi-fi experience was with a pair of Polk LSi9s. First heard them in a shop in NY that was 2 hours away as they were the closest location. Then I heard them with a Parasound Halo amp and Pre plus my Pioneer Elite dvd player as a source. I was hooked, I actually bought the amp off the rack soon after.

Joey_V

Klipsch Promedia 4.1 back about 6 years ago. Girlfriend (same one as now) gave it to me for Valentine's Day and I've never been the same since.

Brings back memories... .

BottomFeeder

My dad's RTA12's, then some Klipsch Forte's, now back to some RTA12C's.

MSALLA

EPI's I got as a gift in 81'. I didn't go nuts until I bought some monitor 40's (that I hated) and found this site when I registerd them and you kind people showed me how to really blow some cash...........Thanks for that by the way.

candyliquor35m

Polk SDA 2B. The seller almost changed his mind when I took a carver amp and sony cd player over there to demo them with.

I listened to them for a good 10 years before I found this website and upgraditus set in. I still have them and use them.

woofiepaws

LS 90's bought new a long time ago. Still have them...damn I need another amp....

ohskigod

I still have fond memories of my LS90's. that speaker was a jack of all trades that could take some abuse. clean, especially at high volumes. They were my theater speakers for over a year, and changed them only to upgrade to LSi. it was an upgrade, but not too much of one.

ND13

Smaller Advents driven by Marantz 1060 integrated with a Phiilips TT and Rogers R2R as sources. Still have the r2r and speakers.

Jstas

My dad's Sansui receiver, I want to say it was a Model 6060 but I'm not sure. It was O L D, old, like late 60's or very early 70's old and none of the Sansui "enthusiasts" sites go back that far. It may have even been an import from Japan. He had a pair of Electro-Voice two-ways hooked up. Along with an old Realistic turntable and tape deck. It was a nice stereo for the time.

The Sansui lasted about 40 years before it broke to a point where I could not find adequate parts that didn't cost a fortune. That and one of the tweeters on the Electro-Voice speakers bit the dust. It was replaced with a Kenwood integrated from the late 80's or early 90's. That kinda "fell out" of The Magic Closet at The Grand Estates along with a nice pair of KLH Model 6's. We replaced the old Realistic turntable with a newer Pioneer one in like 1992 because we couldn't get styluses for it anymore. The tape deck got replaced at the same time with another Pioneer unit. There is a fairly good for a "next to nothing price" RCA CD changer added to the mix.

That kind of "started" it for me. I was heavy in to car audio when I was a teenager but after college, I wanted a stereo for myself. I built a tube amp, picked up a Carver C-1 pre-amp from Troy D and a pair of KLH 17's that came from RuSsMaN but I think George ended up with them and that's where I got them. They were green, I still have them. I need to refinish them one of these days, that green is awful! I also had an old dbx CD Player I picked up from George in non-working condition and I made it work. I grabbed an Onkyo tuner off of eBay and that was my first rig. I still have all the parts too.

Oh, dad had his gear long before I was born. Got in it '71 or '72 I think he said. I had my first Hi-fi awakening at The Wiz in Moorestown, NJ when I was standing in front of a set of SDA SRS's back in like 1987.

Pauly

scottdwagner wrote: »

1986...I was 16 years old and my birthday present was a setup of Monitor 7's run from an NAD integrated that I bought from my summers work. The cat's meow... They were with me all the way through college, then were moved to my rears in residency. They survived all sorts of environments, from their taj mahal treatment as a high school student, to being ignominiously slapped with "thank you for pot smoking" and "zappa" stickers in college. Sadly, they ended up in the garage collecting dust until I sold them to spasticpitbull. Shouldn't have...

And it was these that got me started on vintage polks. Sold these to my buddy who still has them and jams them all the time. From there i went to 10's then to SDA's. Sadly i dont own and vintage polks at the moment. But that will change soon........

Dont worry Scott they are still in the Polk family and If he ever sells them he has to sell them back to me.

bdaley6509

Infinity 9 Kappa @ Hammond Electronics. I could not get over the size of those speakers. Owned 2 pair since first seeing them, but have moved on to better things. Still a gorgeous speaker.

Willow

It was my Toshiba all in one style stereo w/ a TT on the top dual casette ,AM/FM and EQ. I worked so hard at saving when I was young I bought it with money from my paper route. Moved on to a Sony PLI receiver and HTIB speakers, that got my attention when watching movies.

mwaarna

My Current setup, i figured might as well save enough and go for the most expensive ones i can afford :-), so I did and went with the LSI Series.

Polk LSi series only 3.1 now, but once i find used LSI Fx's i'll be at 5.1.

-Matti

AndyGwis

I hooked up my Polk Monitor 60's to my first AVR (Pioneer VSX-1015), set it to stereo/direct, popped in Black Crowe's "She Talks to Angels" and cranked it.

I almost wept.

I have been into audio ever since. The Monitor 60's (T-90ebs to be exact) are still there, but the Pio only lasted two weeks. Everything else has been upgraded several times over except the Monitor 60s and 30s (surround). . . everything.

SolidSqual

My dad bought me a Bose Lifestyle 25 for my birthday years ago. This system was amazing at the time and far better than anything I had ever heard! Though I've had many speakers since, I still love those things (despite people's gripes about Bose, they have their place among laymen). At any rate, I sold it to my brother. It's still kickin hard and sounds pretty good.

zingo

A pair of KEF Coda 7s that my father still owns. Not a huge speaker, but sounded great after all I had owned as a kid was Aiwa mini stereos...

McLoki

Cerwin Vega D-7's. (the D9's had really muddy bass imo)

I was in college at the time and could not imagine a better speaker for frat life.

When I got out of school - my first real purchase (after a car) was a pair of SDA1b's.

Michael

Yashu

My stereo was awsome for a kid... but what started it all, was the father of my friend across the street. I forget what exact model of speakers, but they were the consumer variant of a JBL studio monitor. 3-way, 12in woofers, and JBLs famous (and then super new tech) titanium dome tweeter.

He had them paired to an 80s vintage Onkyo receiver.

This was the first time I heard music that was more than just sound. I had some 70s vintage components with big speakers, but they just made a nice warm sound... but no... at my friend's house I heard Music. He had a CD player too! (the irony of me being jealous of his CD player when I had my awsome collection of Jazz Fusion records... well anyway, vinyl was not thought of as cool then) I was immediately jealous. His father eventually got a smaller, matching set for the back to use with pro-logic surroundsound. Last time I heard, they still use the speakers as mains and surrounds in a 5.1 system with B&K components.

I sold my 8-bit NES and all my games (back when 8-bit was all you had), just to afford a pair of JBL 2500 bookshelves. I own them to this day... used to have them hooked to a 2nd system... very nice sound still. I'll bet a little restoration would turn them into top-notch minis.

Now for a 2nd story of even better music at a later age. I had a friend I met in little league... anyway, his dad was a musician in the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His stereo always intrigued me as it looked really interesting and his father treated it like the holy grail... as in... kids don't touch! Well... I do not know what speakers he owned... but I do know the associated gear... you do not forget Mcintosh gear once you see it. One day I asked if we could listen to some music... and so he flipped the switch and the blue lights came on... the tuner lit up with the little phosphor scope flickering blue as he tuned in 88.7, our biggest classical music station. I was already hooked into audio by then (had a subscription to Stereo Review... how many other little leaguers had that?) but the look of Mac gear and the wonderful sound of the orchestral music playing over this art-piece of a tuner... that made just as big of an impression as those JBLs across the street.

Serendipity

As an update to my first post, I think the second speaker that got me into this hobby was Trey's Definitives.

If it were not for Trey I probably wouldn't be so poor by now

BaggedLancer

Monitor 5s with my crappy Aiwa receiver....I've since "upgraded" a bit. Still use the 5's tho!

dkg999

Utah full range's in homemade cabinets driven by Bogen tube mono-amps, Dynaco pre, and a turntable who's brand I don't recall. My Dad used to play the Teresa Brewer and Johnny Cash LP's loud and proud!

gidrah

K-horns driven by Revox separates.

2michaud

Hee, hee. Well, I only have to remember back about two and a half months. I was just wrapping up school (grade 11) and getting ready to go full-time at my job at Burger King (I don't work there anymore thank God). I intended to work there for as many hours as I could for the enitre summer (turned out to be 56 hours per week ) and make as much money as I could to buy a real sick computer. I had been set on this plan since March. But then one night after a 12 hour split shift at the Regurger King I was enjoying a bowl of cheerios flipping through the future shop flyer when I spotted a set of Energy speakers. I had my mind set in 12 seconds. That is what I want.

Of course later after some decent research I changed my plan and got some polks rather than the energyd. Could not be happier with my choices and thanks to the reccommendations from all of you guys in the forum!!

Thanks!

Joe08867

I had Panasonic thrusters when I was real young. My uncle gave them to me. My first passive radiators.

They were ok but I didn't fall in love with audio equipment until I got my Klipsch Heresy. The original ones not the II's. Got old and wasn't supper happy with there sound.

From there to Polk Monitor 10's loved them sold to friend to get my SDA2's.

zingo

No shame is starting out with some Aiwa gear BaggedLancer. (Just look at my first rig!) As long as the key word is "starting out"...