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.

What piece of equipment started it all for you?

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