What piece of equipment started it all for you?

daddyjt · July 1

The broken Sony DVD player thread got me thinking about this in a roundabout way. I really haven’t owned much Sony gear (I’ve just always seemed to find something that worked better for my needs).

BUT… my first pair of “real” speakers were a pair of Sony SS TL1 that I bought shortly after I got married in 1990 for $169 (I had to put them on lay a way!). Prior to those, I had a pair of Realistic (Radio Shack) Minimus 7 that sound surprisingly good (I still use them on my electronics bench).

Back to the Sonys - even with only a 6.5” woofer, the “transmission line” enclosure provided awesome bass, and they had fantastic detail - I was hooked on home audio from that moment on.

What piece of gear started your journey? *note - this thread isn’t intended to showcase your most awesome piece of gear - it’s more about “humble beginnings”…:-)

These aren’t mine, but I have some photos somewhere - I’ll see if I can dig them out. For now, heres a stock photo

CGTIII · July 1

Dad's Sansui receiver (800?) that he brought back from Okinawa. Wish I had it.

Emlyn · July 1

My first real turntable was a sort of programmable Pioneer linear tracking model I got on closeout from the Base Exchange at Robinson Barracks in Germany. I think the model was PL-L50.

This is not my video, but the same turntable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSXb0MXimPs

motorstereo · July 1

First things first; a 50cc Honda Cub at 13 yo kickstarted my 55+ year love affair with 2 wheels long before my GE Wildcat and it's ceramic cart came along to destroy my budding record collection.

pitdogg2 · July 1

A Yamaha AX900 and a set of Cerwin Vega D7's.......
It took me 2 years to pay off the loan

gudnoyez · July 1

Marantz Reciever, Marantz cassette, Technics turntable. and some Cerwin Vegas. I still have the turntable with a new stylus on an ortofon cartridge new belts on the Marantz cassette deck.

msg · July 1

motorstereo wrote: »

First things first; a 50cc Honda Cub at 13 yo kickstarted my 55+ year love affair with 2 wheels long before my GE Wildcat and it's ceramic cart came along to destroy my budding record collection.

@Nightfall !

izafar · July 1

https://www.phono.cz/en/amplifiers-hifi/sony-hst-89

Started it all for me

PSOVLSK · July 1

I made the 2 hour drive from my hometown to Dallas in about 1990 if I recall correctly to get a Kenwood receiver and a pair of Kenwood speakers from Circuit City. I don’t remember the model number of either, but they got me hooked. My first “real” system that I bought with my own money.

Here’s the stereo it replaced. A Christmas gift from my parents when I was probably 12 or so.

mhardy6647 · July 2

EICO HF-52 mono integrated amplifier. push-pull EL34 (Mullards) with excellent Chicago output iron.
Wish I still had it. Indeed, wish I had two of them.

EDIT: The big, beautifully ugly EICO was a hand-me-down from my father (scavenged from a church PA system upgrade he had done). Paired it with my parents' old VM changer (ca. 1958) which I had outfitted with a Pickering PAC-1 (IIRC) cartridge and a single Electrovoice LS-12 fullrange driver in a cabinet my father had built in the 1950s. Still have the LS-12 in its original EV box (ditched the cabinet somewhere along the line).

mantis · July 2

I grew up in a family who were mostly all musicians. I also grew up in a family who shopped at Bryn Mawr Stereo and Video. My family was huge on records and always having a nice stereo to play music. My Grandfather was a TV repair man as a side business, he ran the Steel Mill in Fairless Hills PA.

So when I was like 6 or 7 , I got my first kid Turntable. It played 45's. When I got to about 8 or 9 , I got my first actual stereo system. This system played full size 33 records , had a 8 track built in and it was made by Fisher.

As far as the first piece of equipment that really got me going was my Uncle's Polk Audio Monitor 2b's and a Yamaha Receiver. We would go over his house and mostly all I wanted to do if I wasn't playing his Drum kit or Piano was to sit down and listen to records. Even at a very young age , I really liked how damn good it sounded and how much better it was than my Fisher system I had in my bedroom.

My parents had a pretty nice all separate system in Technics , separate Turntable and 8 track player. Later a Tape Deck was installed. My parents had the Panasonic Thrush speakers and a pair of JBL speakers with the foam cubes on the front of it. I loved those grills. They came in different colors L100's I think they were. They came out with a MK II version of these speakers years ago. They are pretty special speakers. I grew up listening to the originals along with the Panasonic Thrush speakers which I think where a direct competator. I liked them both honestly but the Polks I liked even more. I loved the small lean back stands they were on, I loved the silver look and green display of the Technics.

I started doing this hobby as a professional back in 1999 when I was a Certified Nissan and GM Technician and had no idea this was even a job I could have. Crazy how all of this came about for me.

xschop · July 2

My first real piece of equipment was a 30-30 Winchester lever action my grandpa gave to me. Eradicated a few pests out on his small ranch in Campwood Tx.
Have you ever seen a jack-rabbit on peyote?

HzTweaker · July 4

It all started when my Mom's boss gave me his blown PolkAudio PSW50 under the conditions that I'd repair it myself. I tried to do so with original parts from Polk CS, but after receiving the first unit damaged and then the second driver damaged my young (I think I was 14 maybe 15yo) and impatient self got a refund from Polk CS. I took the money and bought a similar size bass tube from radio shack, used the driver from it and voila a fix sub. I used that for quite a long time in a decent 5.1 that I slowly pieced together with Bday/odd job money and Christmas presents before the amp finally bit the dust.

The next wave was when I bought my Polk Monitor 10s and my vintage Kenwood receiver (as shown in my profile pic) ~11 yeas ago. That lead me down the rabbit hole to where my HiFi currently is posted in my signature now!

BlueBirdMusic · July 4

It had to be my WEBCOR Festival FONIGRAF - Model 1852 Record Player that I received at Christmas in the late 1950's to early 1960's.

Also, my father played a fiddle and I saw him call and square dance. (I can't dance.) It's strange too that an old acoustic guitar was in our house but no one ever played it until my brother played it in the late 1950's after learning to play the flute in elementary school.

This is a picture of the original little booklet that came with the WEBCOR. I have saved it for many years. I do not have the record player.

pearsall001 · July 4

Gotta go way back to 11/25/88!!

B&K ST 140 amp
B&K PRO 5 preamp
PRO-AC Studio 100's w/ stands
Van Den Hull speaker cables

I've been emptying my wallet ever since. LoL!!

I even kept the original receipts!

rebelsoul · July 4

Dad gave me a carver 1.5 t / original time windows/

gmcman · July 10

Emlyn wrote: »

My first real turntable was a sort of programmable Pioneer linear tracking model I got on closeout from the Base Exchange at Robinson Barracks in Germany.

Long story and Interesting you mention this....to start, it's hard to pinpoint a certain piece of gear, but as a kid in grade school and jr high, I did like to take the time to record a cassette with the best SQ as I could... either from a 3.5mm patch cord, or using the mic near a speaker, so the passion was brewing.

Around 1986 after Top Gun was released, I went into the speaker demo room at Robinson and they had the opening scene of "Top Gun" on LaserDisc using Carver components playing through some Bose 901's. I cannot comment on the overall SQ, but it was crazy loud and I was impressed with the Carver gear, but never owned any. I think that was my push into spending more time at the Audio Photo Club on Patch which was closer to our house. This was I believe the start into my hi-fi journey, anytime we went to RB I told my parents where they could find me....

I also want to say later on there was a Yamaha Centennial set at Robinson..the MX-10000 and CX-10000 on display there as well and that was really cool.

We ended up with a Sony rack system and a pair of AR 48LS speakers, was an upgrade from what I was using and made many mix tapes with that system.

Butter · July 10

When my brother came back from Vietnam, he brought back a nice system with a reel to reel player. I don’t remember any of the specifics but holy crap was that cool! About five years ago, my wife and I were going to an estate sale on half price day where I saw my Polk SDA one b’s. Just sitting there staring at me. And like I say it was half price day. They were in perfect condition and heavy as hell. I looked at my wife and said do you care? And she said, of course, not. Not realizing that I had just climbed down into a rabbit hole. 😂 and here I am.

SCompRacer · July 10

When my brother came back from Vietnam.....

GI's bought a lot of gear overseas at Post Exchange stores or during R&R in Tokyo. Fun fact, Doug Bradley, a Vietnam vet and co-author of We Gotta Get Out of This Place, said American GIs in Vietnam bought 178,000 reel to reel tape decks in 1969 and 1970. There are Vietnam vets in the forums that still have their decks, sometimes looking for help to keep them going. Top brands included Sony, Teac, Akai, Pioneer, and Sansui.

The Teac 4010S was a popular one I'm familiar with. They were used for music and for recording letter tapes to send home and playing tapes from home.

indyhawg · July 18

Emlyn wrote: »

My first real turntable was a sort of programmable Pioneer linear tracking model I got on closeout from the Base Exchange at Robinson Barracks in Germany. I think the model was PL-L50.

This is not my video, but the same turntable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSXb0MXimPs

That was also my first turntable.

Willow · July 20

Shoot, I was probably about 11 or 12, living in Toronto. I clearly remember taking an escalator at Sears one day with my mom and there it was. A Toshiba, dual cassette, am/FM tuner, turn table on top, equalizer in the middle. I wanted that. Not long after that, a woman was driving around the neighborhood and asked a bunch of us if we wanted a job. I listened, took her card and went home to talk to my parents.A week later I was delivering newspapers. Back then it was only a Sunday run but I also had to go door to door to collect payment and hand over a little ticket stub. I'd oftentimes get tips. Saved up and went back and bought that Toshiba. It was 350$ back in the 80s and being 11 or 12 that was so much money. I eventually added a stand alone CD player and then sold it when I was in my 20s.

skrol · August 1

I started with a little portable GE cassette player. I soon found better sound by mounting a speaker in a cardboard box and playing through that. My father agreed that it sounded better but was pathetic. So, we built a sealed wooden speaker cabinet to match an 8 inch full range, dual cone speaker that he had laying around. That led to my dabbling with a 2-way sealed enclosure, then ported.

I think it was just before Christmas 1981, my father showed me some speakers on sale, Pioneer ProMusica 120 10" 3-way. I was a bit clueless wondering why I would need two speakers to play music from my mono cassette player (upgraded to Panasonic) and if it could even drive them. Then for Christmas I unwrapped a Technics SA-303 receiver. I later added a Pioneer PL-200 turntable and then a Pioneer CT-6R cassette deck (I still have it but haven't used it in years).
A few years later, I picked up a pair of Radioshack Minimus 7 and started messing with cross-talk cancelation. There was limited success. Then I read an article about the Polk Audio SDA. Damn someone beat me to it. Then I noticed Polk Audio was based in Baltimore (my home town). I took a ride to Dundalk to visit Stansbery Stereo where I got to experience Polk Audio in person. I don't think they had the SDAs though. I got my first listen at a shop in College Park. Anyway, it was 1991 and I had finally gotten a good job and had some money to burn. I really liked the Monitor 5, then the 7 and I thought I was going to buy the 10s but then I saw the RTA-11TL was 1/2 off. I didn't care for the 8TL and the 15TL was too big. So I walked out with a pair of RTA-11TL, which I still have. Later I found out that a friend of mine at my church worked for Polk Audio and had voiced the Monitor Series II, had done the TL conversion on the RTA line, designed the 15TL and worked on the SDA TLs and then the old "S" series. On several schematics you might notice the initials ZSP.

I know there are (cough cough) better speaker out there but I have ammassed a humble collection of vintage Polks over they years much to my wife's dismay. I have even installed them in my cars. I'm good with them.

billbillw · August 1

If we go back far enough, I dissected some broken electronics and added a few extra speakers to my Panasonic clock radio when I was 10 or 11. Yeah, It's been a near lifelong obsession. The biggest jump was probably when I got a 5/6-ch Sony car stereo amp that had active EQ. The XM-C2000. It was a gem for the time (at a reasonable price)

tratliff · August 1

Mine was many components. It was when my dad brought home the Pioneer Spec 1, 2, TX-9800 and Bose 901’s. I was about 7 but can remember it like yesterday. I was amazed by the components.

Geoff4rfc · August 5

Had this for years. When I got my first AVR, it had composite connectivity on it. I stuck the player in a cabinet under the display, detached the speakers from the unit and fixed them to either side of the display.

I ordered a pair of bookshelf Klipsch speakers from Costco online and added them to the unit via pinch style cable retention and also fixed them to the wall either side of the display to give me the most ridiculous 4.0 there ever was.

The sound???? Better than you might think, HDMI-Onkyo TX-NR807 to display, composite-Onkyo to Fischer CD player and soon added the TOTL LG blu-ray player.........and yes, you may call me Dr. Frankenstein

skipshot12 · August 5

My Sansui G-9000 receiver circa 1978 at the PX Exchange in Frankfurt Germany.
The gold face version.

joecoulson · August 5

A pair of JL Audio subs in my civic early 90's was my gateway into home audio

WagnerRC · August 5

Welcome back Joe

joecoulson · August 5

Thank You 😊

Conradicles · August 5

Being around honky tonks and all kinds of live venues as my Pops was a professional drummer. That all started and still to this day keeps me excited about music.

jdjohn · August 6

I don't remember makes/models, since my dad really set it all up for me (and my siblings) when I was a youngster.

As a very young kid, I remember my siblings and I having a 45RPM 'record player' - probably equivalent of a Crosley today - with a small stack of 45s. Specifically, I remember us spinning Crocodile Rock by Elton John, Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr. Hook, and Dead Skunk by Loundon Wainwright. I often wonder about the source of those records, since I can't imagine my dad being interested in that kind of music.

Later, when I was a freshman in high school, my dad put a 'proper' system in my bedroom, with a cassette deck, receiver, and speakers. This was the early 80s, and cassettes were the bee's knees. I don't remember requesting a stereo system, which makes me think my bedroom was more of an audio gear storage unit for my dad - maybe to avoid complaints from my mom. Once I had my own money, I remember buying my first cassettes - AC/DC "Back in Black", Van Halen "Women and Children First", and Queen "The Game". I had a few blank tapes as well, and like many of us, I attempted to record current hit songs off the local FM broadcast.

My first car was a '76 Oldsmobile Cutlass, and someway/somehow, my dad procured a Blaupunkt receiver/cassette tape deck for me. He basically installed for me, while I watched. 'We' also installed some Jensen coaxial speakers. The finishing touch was an EQ, which (in turn) caused a terrible RPM hum tied to the car's engine; we never did figure that out.

Fast forward to post-college, and in the first place-of-my-own, I bought a Sony CD player, matching Sony receiver, and a pair of Cerwin Vega speakers. After that, I went into a long incubation period with marriage and children.

What piece of equipment started it all for you?

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