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The first time you heard stereo sound ...

1959 at my Grandfathers on his Magnavox and he had Scott seperates and I too remember the Train album and I still have it. The first real headphones were in the high school av dept. to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida 1969 and loud enough for the AV lady Miss Johnston to always keep telling me to turn it down! :D BTW not a chance!
 
.....my Brother built a record player for us from 3 broken ones when I was 5, he was 8....he assembled/built/soldered a small Lafayette kit-radio when he was 5....he always brought home A's on his report-card as we grew up, and I'd leave mine in a book in my locker at school until I got threatened....anyhow, were 45's stereo in 1954 when I was 5?....I remember singing along with the 45's, and how much I LOVED that record player....I became very conscious of stereo at 14, with an 8-track system I bought from Wal-Mart....I guess it was like a tall thin boombox, that had detachable speakers, ran on AC, but would accept batteries for the campsite, you know....that 8-track setup really sounded good to me in stereo.....
 
In the early 50's, when Auntie BBC had some trial transmissions of stereo, with what was then "The Third Programme", a mainly classical music station. One channel, the right from memory, was the normal FM radio and the left was the TV sound - there was only one tv channel in those days! I imagine results were pretty awful! Later Dad upgraded to two Mullard 10-10 amplifiers and a Garrard TT. An extra speaker cabinet was built to match the existing Marconiphone cabinet, which Mother promptly decorated with a crochet'd doily and a vase of flowers (or was it a plant....?) We had the mandatory 12" 78 of the train going through the station.....:music:
 
My Dad was the king of "audiophiles" (at least he thought he was) in the late 50's, He built some HOT stereos over the years. I remember a "Shell" tube amp with a pair of speakers that were "state of the art",(they did sound good) and a reel to reel, with a TT sitting on a huge piece of foam rubber in the living room. He built his first pair of speakers out of 3/4" plywood, they were (are) huge with 15" woofers and horns for the mid and highs, they are still in service in My Brothers Shop, and they still sound great (of course all components have been replaced over the years), eventually Dad went with Klipsch speakers but that first stereo was as good as any I've ever heard, He had the records with the train, the ship and all the stuff to test your "hi-fi" and true "stereo" seperation. Then He would throw on the "Ventures" and rock the whole nieghborhood. Dad is gone but I still have some reel to reel tapes and lots of fond memories of enjoying true "hi fi" sound from someone who not only appreciated it but made it a point to have the best he could afford.
 
The first time I listened to stereo was through headphones. It was LPs played on a Dual 1009, through a pre-amp hooked to a stereo cassette deck and headphones plugged to the deck. Must be between '75 and 76.

After that, I hooked up the family's old Blaupunkt tube radio that had an aux imput and output and a portable cassette radio player using the cassette deck as a mixer/control center.

That was it. I then went on to build a pair of LS3/5A clones that I still have and use and a power amp that worked for a while but was scrapped in favour of a "ready made" one.
 
This is a fascinating link which is prompting me to ask, when did they start broadcasting in FM stereo without simulcast? My father has some cassettes that he made off the radio in 1970 and the WMMR station ID announces the station as being in stereo. The tapes are in mono since although recorded on a stereo cassette deck (a Concord F-400) he was using a monaural Bang and Olufsen portable. I assume in 1970, FM in stereo was fairly new at the time. I work for a company that supplies restoration parts for old Mustangs and I know that in 1966 you could get a mono AM/FM radio or a AM radio with stereo tape (8-track) and their was still an option for a reverb unit. I assumed that in 1966 their was no FM stereo or it was still in its infancy. If anyone has an answer, this has been one I have been trying to figure out for awhile (as I was not around back then).
 
Sometime in the early sixties, I was probably 11 or 12. My uncle had the first component stereo I had ever seen or heard. He had a Fisher receiver, a couple of large University 12" triax speakers, and a Garrard Lab 40. I thought the sound was amazing. His system is what got me interested in audio at an early age.
 
lets see here, i was born in March of 1985. so im guessing early-mid March 1985 was the first time i ever heard stereo sound.
 
TAGO MAGO said:
I assume in 1970, FM in stereo was fairly new at the time. I work for a company that supplies restoration parts for old Mustangs and I know that in 1966 you could get a mono AM/FM radio or a AM radio with stereo tape (8-track) and their was still an option for a reverb unit. I assumed that in 1966 their was no FM stereo or it was still in its infancy. If anyone has an answer, this has been one I have been trying to figure out for awhile (as I was not around back then).
Click to expand...

Stereo FM existed as far back as at least 1960, although just how many stations were broadcasting on FM and in stereo is anyone's guess. FM gained enough popularity to become widely available (although not widely ordered) in most car lines in 1964. The earliest stereo FM set in a car I remember was in the '67 totl GM cars (Cadillac, Electra, Ninety-Eight, etc.) Chrysler and Ford introduced FM stereo for their cars in '68.

Those early GM multiplex units mounted under the dash, usually below the glovebox, and GM used the dash speaker for one channel, and the rear speaker for the other.
 
TAGO MAGO said:
This is a fascinating link which is prompting me to ask, when did they start broadcasting in FM stereo without simulcast? My father has some cassettes that he made off the radio in 1970 and the WMMR station ID announces the station as being in stereo. The tapes are in mono since although recorded on a stereo cassette deck (a Concord F-400) he was using a monaural Bang and Olufsen portable. I assume in 1970, FM in stereo was fairly new at the time. I work for a company that supplies restoration parts for old Mustangs and I know that in 1966 you could get a mono AM/FM radio or a AM radio with stereo tape (8-track) and their was still an option for a reverb unit. I assumed that in 1966 their was no FM stereo or it was still in its infancy. If anyone has an answer, this has been one I have been trying to figure out for awhile (as I was not around back then).
Click to expand...


FM stereo broadcasts were approved by the FCC in the late 1950's. Stereo records (LP's) were first produced in 1956.Elvis Presley was among the first to have his recordings cut in stereo along with Bill Haley and the Comets. One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready then go cat go.............................................gonna rock around that clock tonight, gonna rock rock rock in the pale moonlight. Or something like that.
 
The first time I heard stereo sound, I was blown away! I thought it was so awesome how they could make the recording so some sounds can come out of one speaker, and other sounds can come through other speaker.

I used to think a "stereo" was just a generic name for a... well, a stereo lol

But since then. I'm a stereoholic! I can't stand mono haha
 
My parents had an old Crosley radio in a large tall console with one 12" speaker and brown TT with a fuzzy platter and an arm with no balance that weighed a pound or so. One day my dad came home and the Eaton's truck followed, unloading a console 'stereo.' I took the old Crosley, cut the box open and put the old tube amp and the TT in a cupboard in my room and cut a hole in the cupboard door for the speaker. The speaker had a huge electrical coil where we find magnets now. The amp had an 'eye' in the middle of the dial that changed shape as you tuned in stations. I listened to that old machine for years with mono records - my dad's stereo played classical and marching bands and occasionally when they were out, Creedence Clearwater. Dad got the "stereo" in 1960.
 
My first experience is a bit hazy but it was around 1955-56. Some may recall the locomotive train demos in the record shops. They'd play a track of a train going from one speaker to another to demonstrate the new stereo technology. To give people some semblance of stereo effects at that time it was also suggested placing two radios tuned to the same station 6 feet apart and listen between them. It was amazing! :yikes:
 
Probably the mid sixties. Friends dad was a tv tech.had kick arse first stereo system.
But our Monkees lps were mono,so we thought that if we laid down between both
speakers,we could hear STEREO!!
 
I first experienced stereo sound on Christmas morning 1959 when Santa brought me a RCA Victor stereo phonograph. It was a suitcase model with one channel's speaker in the front grille, the other channel's speaker in the top. The top would remove from the player and had enough cable to give about ten feet of separation.

The first record played was "Sounds in Space", a stereophonic demo record which came with the phonograph. It featured a simulated rocket countdown with ten, nine, eight and so on alternating betweeen the speakers. Also had trains, race cars and other sound effects.

That was followed by "Stereo Concert" the first stereo album by the Kingston Trio. Remember "Tom Dooley"?:music:
 
Another way to put it: I first heard stereo sound around the time digital Surround sound was coming of age. :yes: That's funny...
 
volumeon12 said:
Probably the mid sixties. Friends dad was a tv tech.had kick arse first stereo system.
But our Monkees lps were mono,so we thought that if we laid down between both
speakers,we could hear STEREO!!
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if there really was stereo sound in AM-FM simulcast.

Was there? :dunno:
 
I had heard stereo in the mid-sixties but certainly wasnt aware of it. My moment of "stereo awareness" came on Christmas eve 1969 when I was 7. My cousin had given one of my brothers Led Zep 2 for a gift and broke it out upstairs in the big loft bedroom. "Whole lotta love" in all its panning and glory got me hooked. The first real headphone moment was Pink Floyd Umma-gumma shortly thereafter. Both moments were powered by a Rotel RX-200 and a McDonald BSR model?? turntable with ?? speakers. One for the books!!
 
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