Your very first amp? What was the first amplifier you had?

[freakdaddy25]

First one for me is my Phase Linear 400 Series 2.
A coworker text me a picture asking if I wanted it and the pre-amp, because his father-in-law was going to throw it away!

 

[Justgotohm]

When I was 16 I bought a MCS 3872 integrated and a pair of Cerwin Vega D4's from a pawn shop, it would get really loud. The picture is not of mine.

 

[motorstereo]

First actual power amp (not a receiver or integrated) was a Radio Shack MPA 250 in 2001
.

 

[Kreshna]

Wonderful repilies, love the pics.

How do you like your first amp? And how did it drive you for further quest for good sound?

 

[DaveVoorhis]

This HK A-401, bought in the 1980s at a yard sale.



It was my own first real commercial stereo amp but not really my first amplifier, having built homebrew audio gear from scratch or from console, radio, and TV parts since the 1970s. I still have it and it moved with me from Canada to the UK, but mainly for sentimental reasons. It hasn't been used in years.

 

[FONSguy]

Dynaco Stereo 120 from a kit. Along with a PAT-4, also a kit. 1974. Used with a pair of Smaller Advents.

 

[motorstereo]

Wonderful repilies, love the pics.

How do you like your first amp? And how did it drive you for further quest for good sound?

I thought it was a great amp and it drove the pair of Pioneer hpm100's I had at the time quite nicely. Both the amp and the speakers are long gone but the gear quest still marches on some 16 years later.

 

[Todd Dodds]

This HK A-401, bought in the 1980s at a yard sale.

View attachment 1066380

It was my own first real commercial stereo amp but not really my first amplifier, having built homebrew audio gear from scratch or from console, radio, and TV parts since the 1970s. I still have it and it moved with me from Canada to the UK, but mainly for sentimental reasons. It hasn't been used in years.

Why don't you use it? Do you need help troubleshooting the purr?

 

[DaveVoorhis]

Why don't you use it? Do you need help troubleshooting the purr?

The cat is in regular use and the purr is still within manufacturer's specs.

The amplifier has been sidelined by better gear, and due to the fact that it's only 120volt which limits where I can put it. I have a spare A-401 with a multivoltage transformer and switch but burned-out outputs, which I eventually plan to use in my original A-401.

 

[JoeESP9]

This.

Fisher KX-90 bought as a kit in 1967 while in the USAF.

 

[whoaru99]

A Panasonic unit, something like this, although I don't recall the exact model number.

 

[soundmotor]

Like, what was the very first amplifier you owned? And when?

I'll parse between family owned or gift and what I bought myself. That was a Technics SA-350 receiver (which went with an SL-QX200 TT & AR93 speakers).

Never had an issue with it and I eventually sold it off to fund a Pioneer. Purchased it from LaBelle's Stereo in Biddeford Maine, summer 1985.

This isn't mine but it looked exactly the same -

 

[guiller]

Audinac AT-510. I was 15 years old. The picture was taken from the net.

 

[whoaru99]

If the question is what is the first new "real" stereo I bought with my money it was a Sansui AU-D33 integrated and TU-S33 tuner combo, in silver.

Had them for a couple months then traded the amp toward brand new Yamaha separate C-40 & M-40. Pretty much been separates ever since, although I have a couple receivers relegated to secondary systems. Still have the TU-S33 in a box, somewhere.

 

[electronjohn]

Lafayette "Stereo 10"...1964-65 or so. Still have it...still works.

 

[gadget73]

The first one I can clearly remember was this. I bought it for myself to replace some much lesser piece of junk that was so unremarkable I can't even remember what it was. I was probably 14 when I got this one.

if it wasn't that exact one, it was the spitting image. Figure this was around 1994, just before high school. No idea what speakers, probably something found on the curb. The first pair of speakers I remember buying were Realistic Nova 9's, maybe 1995 or so.

What replaced it was an Allied 495, which is a re-badged Pioneer SX-1500TD. I got that probably 1996, and I still have it. I'm listening to it now.

 

[Hyfi]

I grew up with Dynacos and Heathkits my brother built, then some mass market Sony , but my first real amplifier was a 1992 Hafler 9180 which I just sold a week ago.
View attachment 1066434

 

[nj pheonix]

I remember playing a car 8 track through car speakers on an inverter.
Later a mono hand me down bogen (something 130).
Too young at the time to know what i was playing with

 

[elrod]

A Harman Kardon Citation 16a

 

[Midwest Ear]

My first amp was a Mitsubishi DA-A-7DC which was my first ever hifi purchase, I had nothing else, just the amp, the start of it all.