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How old were you when you got your first Hi-Fi?

godzilla

godzilla

Well-Known Member
I know quite a bit of us have been into listening to music for a long time, but do you remember when it was you got into listening to music more than just listening to the radio and when did you get your first Hi-Fi?

I was about 6 or 7. In between sneaking listens to Red Foxx on the Soundesign stereo in our basement I'd pull out my Mom's records. She had the standard 70's faire...Carol King, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen/E Street, Zeppelin and my first recollections of Black Sabbath. She had Paranoid! It wasn't unitl a couple years later when I had a system of my own and then joined my first Columbia music club..."10 8-tracks for .10 cents". The music obsession began. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" was the first one I ordered.
 
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I never owned anything I (or anyone else here, for that matter) would consider "Hi-fi" until after I joined AK.

So how old...? 40, at the time. :smoke:
 
I was 5, and my dad was listening to Sam and the Shams. We had a big Zenith tube TV and stereo in a real pecan cabinet.

The record was skipping, and I told my dad to put a dime or a penny on the top of the tonearm. He looked at me for a second, and then he did it. It worked! (Natch.)

I loved music anyway, but that's when I started to love gear, too.
 
My first HiFi was just that, HiFi. I was about 10 or so and the HiFi was a hand-me-down portable record player with a built-in speaker that I got from my sisters. I proceeded to wire it into the home made switch panel that I made to control what played through which speaker(s). I had a scavenged and resurrected B&W TV, a Magnavox AM tube radio, a battery powered tape recorder, my dads Zenith Trans Oceanic SW radio and a bunch of scavenged speakers all wired and switched so that anything could play through any speaker. Not exactly quality but there sure was quantity and variety. It's kind of scary to think what impedance some of those old sets were asked to handle. I learned a lot by experimenting though. One interesting thing that happened was one time when I was moving a salvaged round 10" speaker that I salvaged from an old TV. It was playing some music when I temporarily set it down on a plastic trash can and it fit in just right. It really came alive and sounded great compared to just sitting out in the open. I instantly learned the importance of what a speaker baffle could do. Later on I bought a Fisher KX200 tube amplifier in a kit when I was in High School (in 1966) along with various other pieces of stereo equipment like a Garrard SL95, a Realistic TM-6 FM Stereo tube tuner, a Realistic 999 RtoR deck, a Dynaco SCA35 and some Fisher XP8 speakers. I still have the Fisher KX200 amp, The Dynaco SCA35, the TM-6 tuner and the XP8 speakers.

Man, that took me on a long trip down memory lane!
 
First stereo that was actually mine was a Sanyo 8-track all in one with a BSR changer. Actually sounded pretty good. First "hifi" was a GE model MS-2010 tube integrated amp i picked up in the early nineties for five bucks at a garage sale.

Oh yeah- I was 12 when I got the Sanyo, and 13 when I bought the GE.
 
I got a Soundesign all in one thingie when I was 14 for Christmas.

I bought my Sansui 8080DB/SP-5500X brand new when I was 16.
 
onepixel said:
I got a Soundesign all in one thingie when I was 14 for Christmas.

I bought my Sansui 8080DB/SP-5500X brand new when I was 16.
Click to expand...

Wow a NEW 8080DB at 16, you must have been the envy of all your friends! Unless one had a 9090DB that is. :D
 
I think about 13 or 14 I bought a demo Airline Stereo at Wards one of the metal grilled speakers had a dent in it. AM/FM only. Used that thru hi school then in College I got a nice little GE portable cassette deck to record lectures with and hooked that up to the little Receiver giving me a mono source. That would have been 1976. Next time I had anything other then auto stereo was in the Navy 180 I bought a Toshiba Boom box that got stolen. When I got home I bought a Pioneer SK-21 Personal stereo (which I still have and still use every time I go into the shop.

When the wife and I moved into together a couple years before getting married SHE had a Pioneer SX-3000 (1973) receiver and Onkyo TT that would have been in 1981ish.

The first time I have a real stereo was when I got the Shrine up and running in 2006.
 
I got a Sears all in one receiver/cassette/8-track player with cabinet and separate TT with a pair of speakers for my 15th birthday in 1978. I've improved on that system over the years ;)
 
outshined said:
I was 5, and my dad was listening to Sam and the Shams. We had a big Zenith tube TV and stereo in a real pecan cabinet.

The record was skipping, and I told my dad to put a dime or a penny on the top of the tonearm. He looked at me for a second, and then he did it. It worked! (Natch.)

I loved music anyway, but that's when I started to love gear, too.
Click to expand...

That's Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs. :D

I built the Heathkit Compact Stereo (all of 10 wrms/ch -- pictured in my avatar above) in 1966. Had a pair of Harmon-Kardon acoustic suspension bookshelf speakers with it. I would have been about 14 when I built that.
 
BroonsBane said:
I got a Sears all in one receiver/cassette/8-track player with cabinet and separate TT with a pair of speakers.....
Click to expand...

Sounds similar to some unknown system I grew up with. My mom had an "all-in-one" unit like that sometime before I was born (in 1980). By 1984, I could load up 33s, 8tracks, and 45s.

Somewhere around '86-87ish, I started to understand "how" things were hooked up.

I don't know if I've ever owned anything really "Hi-Fi", but I know I've been a junky to some degree or another since I was about 4. :music:
 
Ordered a Montevido? all in one tt and 8-track and am/fm from Speigel catalogue(remember them?)when i was 15 in 1976.Been moving up ever since.Especially since joining AK.First album .Pink Floyd Wish you were here.
 
8, started with a locally made Indian system, then Phillips and by 13, a all Legato Linear SONY system with the excellent SS speakers.
 
vincei said:
Wow a NEW 8080DB at 16, you must have been the envy of all your friends! Unless one had a 9090DB that is. :D
Click to expand...

My friend's older brother who was 18 or 19 at the time bought a Marantz 2600. When he came home with that thing his parents freaked. The base exchange overseas had some really great deals, but even then that bugger was quite expensive!
 
Oh man! I still remember the feel and smell of the Soundesign and Lloyds 8-track systems at a local store. I was totally obsessed with this stereo thing! I wired up some old speakers to a fold-up record player, but it wasn't stereo and didn't sound good at all. I HAD to have that Soundesign system. Finally got one for Christmas when I was about 12. I joined the record & tape club too! My 1st 8-track was Leftoverture by Kansas. Then I got a BSR TT, then it was on to some Nova 6 speakers, then a sweet little Superscope integrated. Then it was....well, it really hasn't stopped in all these years!

Tom
 
Now that you all have me thinking....

My first (bought for me, but mine) stereo was a Sound Design all in one type system. I think it was particle board with a fake wood coating, AM/FM tuner and dual tape deck, made to look like separates.

I wish I had pics, as it served me well in my youth.

I often had a generic portable CD player hooked up through the Aux inputs.

I was probably 13 or 14 then. Maybe a bit younger.
 
My first real system that I consider HiFi came together about 2003-2004 when I got a Sansui 2000X off Freecycle, that making me about 16-17. Before to that I had my Sylvania AS-105B speakers for a few years after my dads receiver died making them my first piece of real gear. The Sansui was a big step up from powering them with a crappy little 4watt or so computer speaker amp! Prior to that I had a GPX component stereo with some dinky little speakers and some old car stereo's with some ok sounding 6x9 drivers in a cardboard box. :stupid:

Vintage equipment has changed the way I listen to music is all I can say. :music:
 
When I was 5 I got an am clock radio and listened to WLS in Chicago almost non stop until I was 11, at which time my parents bough a plastic record player for me at Christmas. When I was 15 my uncle gave to me his old Motorola console. the speakers were shot and the turntable didn't work. I pulled the tube power amp and preamp and hooked an fm clock radio to it. I found an old pair of Bozak "Californian" speakers at the curb and used those for quite some time (wish I still had those!). I mowed lawns all summer and bought a Sansui SR 1050 TT from one of my brothers. I went to radio shack and bought a phono preamp and one of their mini fm tuners. Buy the time I was 16 I had a really nice sounding system and loved it! My friends all thought it was junk because they all had new Pioneers at the time, all though everyone of them couldn't believe how good this old junk of mine could sound!
 
Hi-fi was around my house from before I was born, but it wasn't stereo. My Dad had a William design amp he'd built, Garrard TT and an open cab speaker (forget what it was). My own first stereo was at 19. As a university student I bought a Yamaha CA-400 integrated, Dynaco A-10 speakers and a Technics TT. For a small apartment it was just fine.
 
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