What did you start with? AKA... Your first legit stereo rig

RuSsMaN

Hey, I could hear it in BOTH ears, that's not stereo?

Just a random thought that popped into my head from my childhood. I had a plastic 'Firemans helmet' as a very young lad. I'd set that bad boy upside down in the corner of my room and pee in it, then dump it out in said corner and play fireman some more.

Mom damn near killed the cat over that ****, hooo-haaa.

Cheers,
'urine-head' Russ

Tour2ma

And another of the many layers of the artichoke-like psyche of our beloved RuSsMaN is peeled away...

What will the next revelation be??? :eek:

Tune in again next week... Same Bat-Time... Same Bat-Post

Tour2ma

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
I had a plastic 'Firemans helmet' as a very young lad. I'd set that bad boy upside down in the corner of my room and pee in it, then dump it out in said corner and play fireman some more.

Mom damn near killed the cat over that ****, hooo-haaa.

Cheers,
'urine-head' Russ

Wait a minute, just caught the 'urine head' sign-off...

So Mom thought the cat was pissin' on your head?

RuSsMaN

No man, the CORNER, she beat the **** out of that feline for my lack of bodily fluid control.

//Note to self, no more stories on the forum while consuming Canadian whiskey//

MxStYlEpOlKmAn

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
No man, the CORNER, she beat the **** out of that feline for my lack of bodily fluid control.

//Note to self, no more stories on the forum while consuming Canadian whiskey//

Thats what you get for experimenting with drugs urine head! lol!!!

Tour2ma

This is the stuff that nick-names are made of...

bugner

Fun question. Lezz see if I can remember. It would have been about 1970, and I bought a system from Jonas Miller Stereo in Beverly Hills, Calif.

as memory serves, the nut of it was a Harman-Kardon receiver (probably 10-15 watts). This guy was a war horse; many years later I gave it to my brother-in-law, and he used it for years and years in his garage.

the turntable was a Garrard Syncro-Lab (might have been a 72) with a Shure M44-E cartridge.

The speakers were made in the store. They started with single, 12-inch, full-range drivers to which they added a horn tweeter.

I soon added a Sony open-reel tape deck, and that was it.

joe6pak

Like Russ I had a few of those record players. Graduated to a couple of different in home 8 tracks. One was a quad 8 track unit.

Then in 1972 I bought a new Sony intergrated amp, about 60 to 80 wpc, a Sony turntable, and a pair of EPI 202s. Sometime during that year I bought a Teac 4070G reel to reel. That all made a pretty nice system. About 4 or 5 years later I upgraded all but the reel. The reel lasted through several upgrades until a few years ago when it had a major meltdown. That was like losing an old friend. A sad day, but I sure got my moneys worth out of that Teac.

joe

hotwheelman

My first two channel, wish I could remember the model #'s

lafayette receiver with 8 track
utah two way w/ 6.5 inch woofer and 3 inch paper cone tweeter
Those little utahs sounded darn good until I fried the woofers.:D
Garrard turntable that had been part of a portable audio system and was one hell of a turntable, just about bullet proof.


All of it was handed down from good old dad..................:D

HBombToo

My Dad took me to the Kmart tube tester. All marked tubes that failed my Dad bought new but 1 at a time. The masking tape that numbered the new tubes needed attached.

I never picked up anything on short wave but I had all the AM stations documented. My clock radio had fm and thats when I began integrating:cool:

This is a way cool thread.

1/4twin

PolkWannabie

197x ...

Kenwood Receiver
Dual Turntable
KLH Speakers

Later a Tandberg Reel to Reel ...

This was of course before the days of SACD's, DVD-A's, CD's, Cassettes, 8-Tracks ( OMG !!! ) & remote controls.

I still have a fair supply of each, except of course the 8-Tracks LOL, and the gear to play them.

dorokusai

198x

Polk Audio Monitor 10B
Kenwood AVR
Sony CDP
Monster Cable

PolkWannabie

"$50 dollar boombox from wally world - blew the speakers"

Hmmm ... The apple doesn't fall far from the tree ...

madmax

Originally posted by MxStYlEpOlKmAn
$50 dollar boombox from wally world - blew the speakers

I think I'm starting to see a pattern here

My first rig was a 20 watt Lafayette amplifier with 8 track and a Garrard turntable, later updated with a Pioneer turntable. For speakers I had Lafayette Criterion 2x book shelf speakers. Never blew them up and I was only 12 at the time.
madmax

reeltrouble1

Long long time ago...................

1965 Wurlitzer stereo console (from my parents when I was 11) had a turntable in the cabinet and a radio.

first unit I paid for was a group of 1979 Kenwood seperates with an intergrated amp 55 wpc, tuner, cassete deck, turntable and Kenwood 3-way speakers: I still have the turntable.

woodyjacobs

Mid 70's
Magnavox Console stereo/end tables. One octagonal (I think, maybe hexagonal) end table housed the 20w/ch tuner/amp/turntable and 8 track with speakers.
The other end table was storage for records and housed the other speakers.

That was actually my parents' system. I got my first in the early 80's, a Fisher rack system. I killed it my freshman year of college.

dragon1952

First legit????

Pioneer SX-1050 receiver
Dual 704 TT
Teac A-4300??? -reel to reel
Fisher Studio Standard cassette
Bose 901 Continentals - series IV???
Soundcraftsman equalizer

Bought from 1977-1979....still have the TT.

First ever -
I had a Sears Silvertone TT with detachable speaker (yes, only one!). The speaker fit on top when not in use and served as the cover. It claspsed together and had a handle so you could carry it. Looked like a freakin' overnight case :rolleyes:

Next-
Christmas present from parents. Sounddesign receiver with built in 8-track and TT. This was in around 1967 and my parent still have this unit in their guest bedroom!

VR3

First - 50 dollar Wally Mart boombox!

Second - JVC MX-G50 Shelf System

Third -
Receiver - Yamaha HTR-5460
CD Player - Yamaha CDC-585
Mains - Polk Audio RT35i
Mains 2 - KLH 900B
Center - Polk Audio CS245i
Surrounds - RT25i
Subwoofer - M&K MX-90

Kept that for about a year! :rolleyes:

Now...a year or so later...

HT RIG:
4th -
Preamp - NAD 917
Main Amps - Adcom GFA-545, 545 II, 535 II
Surround Amp - Adcom GFA-535
Center Amp - Adcom GFA-535 II
CD Player - Denon DCM-280
Mains - Polk Audio RTi70, RT5
Center - Klipsch KV-3
Surrounds - Polk Audio RT35i
Subwoofer - M&K MX-90, Close to replacing

2 Channel Rig:

Mains - Larger Advents, Pioneer CS-E9000
Mains (To Come) - Larger Advents, another pair, Polk Audio SDA 2B or CRS+
Receiver - Pioneer SA-1280
Receiver (To Come) - 30 Year Old JVC
CD Player - POS Kenwood
Tuners - Yamaha, Sansui

What my systems turned into...

Sold the JVC MX-G50 to my Dad, now the system in our game room!
Sold the Yamaha receiver, cd player, KLH 900b, Optimus twistable bookshelves, M&K, to a local friend......
Sold the CS245i, RT25i to Woodyjacobs
Sold the Pioneer Elite VSX-41 to Phoneisbusy!

hahaha

OH YEAH! That POS 50 dollar boombox.......we took that outside and used it to play soccer. Goal was to be the first one that broke it...

I lost, my friend popped it up about 5-8 feet off the ground with his foot, and it landed on its side and broke in half! But! We continued to break it till it was just NO more.

steveinaz

double-tap, see later post...

Dennis Gardner

1976

Marantz 1060 Integrated Amp
Fisher Turntable Model 108?
JBL L100 Century Speakers

Tour2ma

Sweet, Dennis... L100's were an itch I never did scratch (and still have).

I see you've only been posting a short while. Welcome to the Club... and the fray.

KeithV

Realistic 2 channel reciever
Some speakers I can't remember.. They were about the size of monitor 5s and had a wooden lattice across the front. Later on I "upgraded" to a pair of realistic speakers.


(yea i know, but hey, i was like 12)

Gary Robertson

1977 Kenwood KR4070 (40 watts rms per side) Kenwoos Kt5070 turntable with a Negatron cartridge and stylus...A sharp RT-1155 casette deck and Pioneer HPM-100 speakers with Radio shack wires and innerconnects..Good bottom end Foreigners ouble vision was wat popular and the walls shook..

pjdami

Circa 1987 my college rig and first "real" stereo besides a boombox:

Harmon Kardon two channel receiver (bought from a butcher at the grocery store I worked in for extra money. Left channel was blown and I had to repair it. This receiver had a bronzed grey finish to it and was the first digital tuner receiver that H/K made (or at least that is what I was told). Don't remember the model number but it was like 55 watts/channel. $50 plus about $80 for the repair.

JBL J325A three way speakers (bought these used from an audio flea market store). Perfect working condition but grill pegs were in bad shape. $200

Magnovox single disk cd player (why Magnovox? Phillips invented the cd player). Bought this new and was kind of expensive at the time.

Technics tape deck. This one had the 20 - 19K spec in dbx mode. Had Dolby B & C as well.

Sub was a custom built box that weighed over 100 lbs. Two 15 inch Rockford Fosgate 4 ohm speakers that were wired internally in series to make an 8 ohm speaker. Passive crossover was "robbed" from a busted Boston Acoustics 10 inch sub. No amp on the sub.

The H/K ran the JBL's on the 'A' speaker select and the sub was wired up to the 'B' speaker select. I used to play it pretty loud at parties in college and everyone was amazed by the sub. The H/K only shut down after many hours at 1:00 on the volume knob. This was resolved by placing a big **** fan directly on top of the receiver.

Back then car subs were just getting started. Home subs were very uncommon (or at least I didn't see many). I thought it was cool to have a sub for a two channel rig. Over time my thirst for bass kind of went away (after college); I thought I had outgrown it now that I was more mature. Couldn't have been more mistaken!

edit: forgot one piece. Rotel turntable which I still have but don't use. I have only about 10 LPs.

285exp

Circa 1976

Marantz 1060 integrated amp
McIntosh MR 65-B tuner
Garrard TT, can't recall model, don't want to
Electro-Voice 2 way speakers

nadams

I just realised that I never actually posted my specs. Well, I started out with my dad's old Realistic integrated amp/tuner/tt with some crappy 2 ways that buzzed and rattled if you turned it up too loud (the cabs, not the drivers).

Then, I upgraded to a speaker box out of my brother's car, driven by my JVC amp. Had 2 Pioneer 12" subs, 2 pioneer 6 1/4" mids and 2 Optimus horn tweeters. Was loud, but not pretty :-)

And then, everything changed when I got my Polks. I would consider that to be my first *true* 2ch rig. You can see the specs in my system showcase. It hasn't really changed except for the addition of peripheral gear. All my rigs have been hooked up to my computer as the main source.....

cfrizz

1981 All Sony system with Turntable, Receiver Speakers & Cabinet. I added a Realistic Tape deck. A few years later I upgraded to a newer Sony Receiver

2-6-90 I got a Rotel Amp, Pre-Amp/tuner, 855 cd player, Onkyo Tape deck & my Polk Speakers.

From there I upgraded to what I have now. As you can see I kept the turntable, cd player, tape deck & speakers

dmalino

found this old thread, figured I'd put my history in.

First rig I had was a Heathkit reciever my dad had built and some Radio Shack speakers with oval full range drivers.

1986: First system I paid for:
Kenwood KA-54 Integrated Amp- Still own, but it doesn't work very well
Kenwood KT45 Tuner- still works fine
Sharp CD player
old Panasonic portable stereo tape deck- got it from my brother. I didn't think much of it until I realized that having level controls is a good thing.
The speakers I made my myself. 8 in woofers but with dual chambers and dual ports made them have decent bass. Unfinished particle board looks pretty ugly though.

2 of my brothers had Pioneer SX series receivers from the 70s

1989: NAD 3300 Integrated amp
Onkyo Cassette deck
NAD 4225 Tuner
used Rotel turntable
Boston Acoustics A60s- looking back I probably should have sprung the extra bucks for ADS L690s or Dahlquist DQM9s
JBL Dolby PL add on device- cheap Radio Shack surround speakers

around 1998 or so I bought an Onkyo 5 channel receiver and a Sony DD decoder. It worked with both my Laserdisc player (1995) and my DVD player.

Bought my Sony STR-DE985 in 2002 along with Polk Rti38s and a Sony SACD/DVD carousel player.

Just got a Cambridge Audio Azur 640a amp and Polk LSi9s

steveinaz

My first "HI-FI" rig:

1. Pioneer SX-780 Receiver
2. Pioneer CTF-500 Cassette Deck
3. Pioneer PL-512 Turntable
4. Pioneer HPM 40 speakers

My first "decent" stereo was a Fisher combo unit that had a receiver with a turntable on top. The speakers were pretty impressive, 2-way in a very heavy and fairly large cabinets for the time. This system was technically not "hi-fi" though. That was about, oh....1973. The Pioneer setup above came in 1975/76 as I had my first full-time job.

dkg999

After a series of Motorola combination 8 track/turntable/receiver units, my first real stereo system was partially salvaged from a local small town theater that was being remodeled into a bank. Consisted of:

2 Bogen tube mono amps. These had kind of a copper colored metal that had the inputs and controls and then a matte black mesh top screen that you could see the tubes thru. Not sure how much wattage they are, but they still sound good (see below!)

2 ElectroVoice theater speakers with dual 16" drivers and dual horns, these are mounted in huge wood cabinets that are wedge shaped so that the drivers are in a configuration like an FXi30, but a shallower angle.

The requisite Garrard turntable and Shure cartridge.

Used a Motorola receiver with tape-out to drive the Bogen amps as the amps only have 1 input.

I still have the Bogen amps, with tubes replaced a few years ago and the volume controls cleaned up as they were causing a lot of fuzzy sound when adjusted. The Bogen amps drive a set of vintage ESS AMT 1B speakers with the Heil Air Motion Transformers. Sounds very sweet and I would rather listen to this combo. than my SDA SRS's (let the flames begin! I love Polk speakers but there is other life out there!). The ElectroVoice speakers are out in my machine shed, the surrounds and cones on the 16" drivers just finally disintigrated with age. When driven by a couple of Phase Linear 400B's, they could really rock a party when I was a teenager!