Your first system

[Streamline]

That would have been in an Aiwa boombox in around 1980. I wonder what happened to that thing. I had such fun creating my own tapes off the radio. After college, when I had my own money I bought KG 4.2 and a Yamaha receiver. At one point I moved across the country to Arizona, shipping everything I owned in 6 boxes, and three of them were the speakers and the receiver. I can still remember those warm Tucson nights with Billie Holiday. I should have stopped there.

 

[ironcoder]

2008, Marantz 2235B with Pioneer CS-77A speakers.

View attachment 1495423

That looks like a beautiful system. Kudos

 

[SB12345]

I'm so old my first component system was mono!

At the ripe age of twelve, a couple of buddies and I made it down to what was popularly known as "Radio Row" in lower Manhattan with all of the money that I earned from several years of mowing lawns, shoveling snow, and doing whatever else I could to earn some money for my first 'hi-fi' system.

I came away with a little Harmon-Kardon mono tube amp and matching FM tuner (both a matching bronze color IIRC), a Garrard changer with an I-don't-remember cartridge, and an Electric-Voice "Leyton" bookshelf speaker.

Made my parents big ol' Pilot console sound like crap in comparison

 

[Chilibrother]

1970. A used Garrard Type A II and an Eico HF-81 driving two 8" Radio Shack full range speakers.
A year later when I made enclosures out of two old TV cabinets and put in a pair of Utah 12" Celesta triaxials (ordered from the Allied catalog) and cranked "Waiting for the Sun" all the way up the HF-81 started clipping. I went back to the stereo store and traded it in on a used Eico HF-85/HF-89 pair. Amplifier capacity was never a problem after that.

 

[70's Rockfan]

My first system. It's the only pic I have of it.

 

[mashaffer]

My first system. It's the only pic I have of it.
View attachment 1500229

Nice.

 

[electronjohn]

After hours of poring over the 1965 Lafayette catalog and 60-odd bucks of paper route money, the mailman brought me a Lafayette "Stereo 10" amp, a Garrard changer with Astatic record plow, base for said changer (that was 7.95 extra!) and a pair of 8" drivers with "whizzer" cones. Dad built me a pair of simple cabinets for the drivers and I was in business. The changer and speakers are long gone, but I still have that "Stereo 10"...and it still works! Use it as a speaker test amp.

 

[Silentnet]

90's Kenwood BPC stereo receiver (75wpc?)
Cizek Model 2s (my father gave them to me)
Sony single disc CD player (also from Dad)

Bought the Kenwood myself, new. The Sony was a neighbor down the street's spare, bought it off him used. Woofer foam was shot in the Cizeks. Not knowing any better, I tossed them and replaced them with junky car woofers. I was 13, or thereabout.

 

[Lossless]

The envy of my neighbor, my Magnavox D8443 in 1983 when I was 13 years young. Then another kid got an even bigger boom box with flashing multi-colored lights around the 4 speakers that was bigger than mine and I was no longer the coolest kid on the block. Them were the days of parachute pants and Michael Jackson Thriller zipper jackets . I was making mix tapes with Maxell high bias cassette tapes. I think it took 10 D cell batteries. My paper route was to buy batteries weekly for my boom box.

 

[Rdenney]

My first was a GE phonograph of such poor quality nobody has ever felt the need to photograph it. It was a Christmas present, and I was perhaps 11 or 12. Some my earliest vinyl still suffers from that torture.

My first system I bought (ca. 1977) was a Kenwood KA-3500 integrated amp, a KT-5300 tuner, a Technics SL-20 turntable, and Advent NLAs. I don’t recall the first cartridge, but I replaced it with an Ortofon Concorde 10, which I thought was cool looking, but which was a poor match for that mediocre tonearm.

Rick “who had the advice of an ‘uncle’ who wrote the hifi column for the Houston Post” Denney

 

[mister-fixit]

1956 Sears Silvertone Record Player - nice walnut cabinet.

To me, it was a 'system'....

Still have Alvin and the Chipmunks on a 45

 

[Rdenney]

1956 Sears Silvertone Record Player - nice walnut cabinet.

To me, it was a 'system'....

Still have Alvin and the Chipmunks on a 45

A system is a collection of components designed and integrated to achieve a common purpose.

In the case of that GE record player I had, that common purpose was to gouge irreparable grooves in vinyl while trying to reduce cost (not price) and utility as close to zero as possible.

Rick “didn’t even have fake walnut” Denney

 

[Alexmac]

I'm on the hunt for all the pieces of my very first stereo...I saved everything I made cutting grass an shoveling snow. It consisted a Realistic STA 820 a pair of Kenwood LS 60 3 ways a Sansui P50 turntable And an Hitachi D-E2 cassette deck.....bought everything one at a time when I had enough saved....took me a couple years lol....there were basically only two places that sold anything audio related where I live back then...and now...a 2hr drive to find anything unless ya wanna buy from Wal-Mart lmao......I managed to find the STA 820 for ten bucks,it's was dirty as hell and none of the lamps worked but it turned out great but finding the rest is proving very difficult....found the table for sale on kijiji a two hr drive away but was sold by the time I contacted the seller.......I just want it for the memories

 

[Brindabella]

My first was on my 12th birthday, a Sanyo 3 in 1.

But it had to stay in main living area - parents quickly invested in a pair of headphones, no respect for my love of disco and upon reflection there is only so much Boney M adult ears can take before they start bleeding.

Next, I was 14 and worked doing letterbox drops to save for a similar Kmart offering from Audiosonic. I wanted something for my bedroom.

Then I graduated from Dept. store shopping to real hifi stores. At 16 (1981) I bought a Technics SL-BD22 P mount belt drive turntable, long gone to the great audio gods in the sky - landfill?!



Sony TA-AX4 Amplifier which I still own - nothing special except it had a push + or - button and cool green volume indicator - should have bought the Sansui AU-414 like the sales person tried to get me to buy. In 2014 I bought a AU-414 to see what I had passed up, and yeah, the Sony sux in comparison

Matching Sony ST-JX4 - it was O so 80's - still in the collection today

Speakers, Infinity RS7 - still have these as well

Finally, a year later after being a Friday and Saturday stalwart in the hifi store they gave me a full time job as a sales person and the rot (addiction) set in! Less than a year later there was a Technics SL1200MKII, Audio Technicia AT125LC Cartridge, Monster Cable and JBL L15 speakers added (still own it all and in regular use). Regularly I was carting home AR94's or JBL L96 and many others to enjoy at home.

Had out grown Boney M and replaced it with everything from Yazoo to Durran Durran to Queen to Judist Priest. So my parents built a 3.5m x 7m dedicated insulated music room within the garage, moving all my audio gear into there at the end of the garden. Wonder what motivated them to do that?

No kids of my own, but I am foster carer, loads of kids through the house but so far managed to avoid teenagers. But I suspect cosmic karma would ensure if I did get teenagers I am sure I would be punished like I punished my parents. To suffer hours with Justin Bieber or Kenya West, are they even relevant anymore? Hope not! A bit outta date I suspect, what about Iggy Azalea or Nicki Minaj are they still there, ah who give a poop!!

Rob

 

[WattWarrior]

My first was on my 12th birthday, a Sanyo 3 in 1.

But it had to stay in main living area - parents quickly invested in a pair of headphones, no respect for my love of disco and upon reflection there is only so much Boney M adult ears can take before they start bleeding.

Next, I was 14 and worked doing letterbox drops to save for a similar Kmart offering from Audiosonic. I wanted something for my bedroom.

Then I graduated from Dept. store shopping to real hifi stores. At 16 (1981) I bought a Technics SL-BD22 P mount belt drive turntable, long gone to the great audio gods in the sky - landfill?!
View attachment 1508834


Sony TA-AX4 Amplifier which I still own - nothing special except it had a push + or - button and cool green volume indicator - should have bought the Sansui AU-414 like the sales person tried to get me to buy. In 2014 I bought a AU-414 to see what I had passed up, and yeah, the Sony sux in comparison

Matching Sony ST-JX4 - it was O so 80's - still in the collection today

Speakers, Infinity RS7 - still have these as well

Finally, a year later after being a Friday and Saturday stalwart in the hifi store they gave me a full time job as a sales person and the rot (addiction) set in! Less than a year later there was a Technics SL1200MKII, Audio Technicia AT125LC Cartridge, Monster Cable and JBL L15 speakers added (still own it all and in regular use). Regularly I was carting home AR94's or JBL L96 and many others to enjoy at home.

Had out grown Boney M and replaced it with everything from Yazoo to Durran Durran to Queen to Judist Priest. So my parents built a 3.5m x 7m dedicated insulated music room within the garage, moving all my audio gear into there at the end of the garden. Wonder what motivated them to do that?

No kids of my own, but I am foster carer, loads of kids through the house but so far managed to avoid teenagers. But I suspect cosmic karma would ensure if I did get teenagers I am sure I would be punished like I punished my parents. To suffer hours with Justin Bieber or Kenya West, are they even relevant anymore? Hope not! A bit outta date I suspect, what about Iggy Azalea or Nicki Minaj are they still there, ah who give a poop!!

Rob

What if you had teenagers that loved hi-fi?

 

[Drumolator]

Around 1975, the year I graduated from high school, I had a Pioneer 10 watts per channel integrated amp. I also had a Garrard turntable and some cassette deck. The speakers were probably homemade from Radio Shack parts. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Ohmagoo]

The first system I owned was a Craig H340 AIO system that I traded an old Yamaha 250 street bike for in 1979. This is the only picture I could find of it...






Im sure that old street bike is long gone now, but the little Craig is still around. It was relegated to garage duty years ago though, after the record player and 8-track player bit the dust.
This is its current state after I recently replaced the butt-ugly push buttons with a rotary switch and shortened up the chassis from where the 8-track was removed. Its just waiting for me to build a new box to re-house it in now.
It has practically 0$ value money-wise, but it still holds alot of fond memories for me

 

[Crab33]

It seems like a lot of the 70s kids started off with a music centre, like me - mine was a Sanyo G2611 bought in 1973. But then I started reading the Hi-Fi Answers magazine (in the UK) and wanted a 'separates system'. My first proper Hi-Fi system was:

Pioneer PL12D turntable with Shure M75ED cartridge, Pioneer CTF-7171 cassette deck, Pioneer SX-636 receiver, Sonab OA5 speakers

I was very lucky for a teenager but it wasn't too long before I also had secondary Celestion UL8 speakers (which were superb) and I upgraded the cartridge to an M95ED. In fact, I was well a truly bitten by the upgrade bug and within five years most of my system had changed and I had a separate system for university. Unfortunately, I don't have any of my equipment from that era, except for what I've re-bought.

 

[johnda]

My first system was in 1962, a co-worker gave me a Harmon Kardon Award A500 tube amp, 20 watts/channel. I purchased a custom built pair of 12” dual axiom Goodmans in full sized walnut cabinets. My turntable was a Garrard AT-6 with a Shure cartridge. It was for vinyl only, no tuner. It really sounded good!

 

[bobins08]

My side job money got me my first component system from Olsen Electronics. It was fall of 1974 and I was 15, and it cost about $215 “on sale”.

Pioneer SA 5200 integrated amp, Garrard 40B turntable with wood base and unhinged dust cover. A Pickering V15 ate4 magnetic cartridge, Olson Videoton 10 inch two speakers.

Of course after about a year I took the speakers apart, replaced the tweeter, improved the crossover, braced the cabinet, caulked the inside seams, and put in more acoustic material.