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

[Kreshna]

A Pioneer SA-540. Bought in my teenage years, along with some Pioneer CS-353 speakers, it managed to do a couple of teenage parties without blowing up. I sold it when I was on the upgrade path, but I wished I still had it sometimes.

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Do they have the popular west coast sound if the 70's?

 

[bigaltx24]

Marantz 140 / 3200 combo.

 

[bobschneider]

First was a GE Wildcat all in suitcase style record player, which was a Christmas present in 7th grade. A year or two later I bought a little amp from Lafayette on close out for $20, and managed to splice it in between the Wildcats turntable and speakers. Then I got a pair of Knight speakers (single driver with whizzer cone) from a friend who “found” them. A bit later I bought a used BSR changer from an actual audio store. At that point I was all set. But for some reason I’ve spent the next 45 years “upgrading”

 

[NAD80]

Marantz 2220B to NAD 3140

 

[Ds2000]

The first separate power amp I owned was a Dynaco Stereo 120. It was bought at a garage sale from the original owner along with a Sherwood tuner, PAS-3X preamp, and Marantz Imperial 5G speakers. $60.

 

[sqlsavior]

The first separate power amp I owned was a Dynaco Stereo 120.

Ditto.

 

[hellhound94]

A Marantz 1060 integrated amp that I wish I still had.

 

[MCM_Fan]

Marantz 1030 bought used my freshman year of college in the fall of 1979. Loaned it to my best friend a year later and it was stolen from his place.

Back then. my entire system consisted of that Marantz, a Bang & Olufsen Beogram 3400 turntable that I bought used from a dealer in Fort Wayne, IN and a pair of Infinity Qb speakers bought new, on closeout from a dealer in Coldwater, MI. Total cost: $600, which was a lot for a college student back then, but I spent much more than that on albums that year. The bulk of my record collection still dates to that freshman year of college. Finally, owning a real stereo, my appetite for music was insatiable.

 

[ejman]

Lafayette LA-750. Bought this amp first year of college almost 50 years ago. Advertised as 100 watt amplifier. I though it was wonderful but a little woolly in the bass with my KLH 17 speakers. Took it to a McIntosh amplifier clinic and it turned out my 100 watt amplifier was in reality a 12 watt amplifier at mid frequencies at 1% distortion. This distortion level started climbing up on a nice parabola in the bass region to almost 15% at 20 HZ. No wonder the bass left a little something to be desired...

 

[NEMOaudio]

My first amplifier was the NIKKO TRM-750 from 1978.

 

[Lavane]

My first amplifier was the NIKKO TRM-750 from 1978.

I like the black on silver or silver on black look. Is the lettering orange, or a gold color?

 

[wallacefl]

Sansui au-555

 

[KingBubba]

Mine was the lowest priced Lafayette integrated. It was ten watts but looked just like an amp someone posted recently as a 30 watt amp. It was great for me and loud enough that my Dad hollered at me to turn it down. It was a system with a cheap Garrard TT and a pair of 25a Criterion speakers. I was in love with it, but it also stirred the first feelings of the stereo disease.

I found on on Ebay today. Here's a pic or 2:

 

[restorer-john]

It was a Playmaster 40+40w kit. DickSmith Electronics. Published in July 1976 IIRC, Electronics Australia. I built it several years later.

Mine was champagne gold panel and knobs (as it was the deluxe version) of this:



This is the interior of the 25+25w version- smaller transformer. Not the speaker protector board- I fitted one too in my 40+40w.



Funny, I'd forgotten how neat it was- I gave it to my little sister and I think she threw it out when she got married...

 

[onepixel]

1st solid state amp.


1st tube amp.


1st integrated amp.


1st pre-amp.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Crown DC-300: my first amp: circa 1976 sold to me cheaply because the repair cost at the shop I worked at was too high for the customer.. IMHO a great all around amp for that time, when properly fixed and setup..

Repaired it and mated to my Bull nose large Advents with my late fifties Mac C 8/C8S tube preamps smoothing out the highs/mids with the DC 300 taking care of all the tight bottom end that those CTS 10` woofers could muster..

Didn`t have to buy pot for quite some time, as my fellow par-taking friends gladly often dropped by for a record listening session and provided the "Determining Factor" !!

Enjoyed those early 20`s year`s of my life living in Miami, FL., I did !!

I picked up quite a few broken amps, both SS & tube from 1975 until the mid nineties..

 

[Johnny 007]

I guess the first separate amplifier I had was a solid state Dynaco amp. I built it in the early 70s, along with a Dynaco tuner. The rest of that system was a pair of JBL L100s and a Garrard Zero 100 turntable. Somewhere in that timeframe, I may have had an Advent cassette deck, but my memory is a little fuzzy on that. According to my brother, I had one.

 

[bowtie427ss]

Dynaco Stereo 120 kit, May 1970

I must be a little younger than you. I can't be sure which year, early/mid 70's. My 120 kit was gifted to me in December, and i assembled it the following January on the kitchen table. I was fortunate to have relatives with industrial electronics assembly access. My uncle had my assembled boards washed, inspected, and a few solder joints touched up. That amp somewhat reliably provided several years of extremely mediocre sounding amplification.

 

[Blue Shadow]

I must be a little younger than you. I can't be sure which year, early/mid 70's. My 120 kit somewhat reliably provided several years of extremely mediocre sounding amplification.

Now that opinion of the sound quality, is that from your impression back then or a modified opinion after either getting something better or reading that opinion of others, years later? My opinion of that amp was it was great. Never compared it to anything else and it drove my AR-5s just fine for the 4 years I had it. Hoping whoever stole it got their ears burned by the sound. Took a while to replace it so no direct comparisons which leave a favorable opinion in my mind. I've heard older early solid state here recently (this century) and I see what folks are talking about but I'm not going to throw dirt on my memories of that first amp.

 

[fahfisher500]

My first amp (receiver actually) is the one in my avatar, Fisher 500c. Bought used from a friend's brother who was in the service and getting sent overseas to Germany in the 70's. I've owned ever since and use it daily. Still sounds great!