To start this thread, I've always been interested in sound, but my interest in 1970's/80's audio really started about 8 years ago at a local auction........... I bought two items; #1 was a pair of Pioneer CS99A speakers; (true `Diamonds in the Dust' considering the other grot on sale), and #2 was a box of 1970's magazines, including several vintage copies of `Playboy' (USA) and `Mayfair' (UK). Leafing through, reliving my mis-spent youth (as you do) I found an advertisment in `Mayfair' for the Pioneer SX-1250 and in `Playboy' for the Marantz 2500. The interesting thing about the Pioneer add is that it's taylor made for a `Mens Magazine'. It shows the receiver with the cover off and is headlined "Who Else Has The Guts To Expose Themselves In Public" along with "Here, in all its glory, is the Pioneer SX-1250. As naked as the day it was built." The Marantz advertisment didn't lower itself to such things, preferring to keep to the technical stuff, talking about the "two independent power supply sections" and of course, the "built in oscilloscope" as well as headlining the add "THE WORLDS MOST POWERFUL RECEIVER". (I guess the Pioneer SX-1980 was no more than a gleam in the designers eye at this stage.) One other advertisment that really intriges me is for the `Accutrac+6' made by BSR. This is a six stack autochange record deck that carefully lowers (doesn't drop) the selected record and lets you select which tracks you want to hear and the order in which you want to hear them. It even skips tracks you don't want to hear. How???????????? The damn thing even has wireless remote control. Remember, this is in the same magazine that advertises the Marantz 2500, so it's early indeed for remote control. Ok, Seeburg were there first with their`Home Stereo Music Centre', but the remote control for this monster sat on a table, linked by a multi core cable. Plus, although the Seeburg let you select which of fifty 12" LP's you wanted to hear, you could not select tracks; it was strictly all or nothing.

Oh Well, that's more or less how I got involved in the hobby; how about you?

Jim.

In high school I would read the Allied Radio and Electronics catalog and the Lafayette Radio catalog from front to back. Of course, back then it wasn't vintage stereo. Once I hit college and met a few of my friend's Marantz's and Pioneer's that was all she wrote. I was hooked. I loved the Pioneer turntables with the little couterweight on a piece of monofilament but could never afford one. I kept my little Lafayette system till I bought my Pioneer SX-1280 in the Late 70's or early 80's. After that there was no turning back.

As far as vintage goes, about four years ago I stumbled on a pair of KLH Model Sixes at a pawn shop.

That was all she wrote. :thmbsp:

Long ago in a Galaxy far far away...I heard music...And it was good....

Around 1968 at the age of 16, another guy from the neighborhood in Brooklyn who was my age asked me if I wanted to go listen to records at his house. None of the other sports minded guys were around to play stickball or handball, so it seemed like a good idea. The boy had a AR-XA table with Shure V-15 cartridge, feeding the Acoustic Research integrated amp, driving a pair of AR-3a's.

HOOKED.

In 3rd grade many decades ago, I walked in from the rain, going to the back of his store to as I did daily to look at the marvels of the television repair shop in his Western Auto. There was something about looking at the inside of that new marvel, the tv from the inside. He was only 1 of 2 dealers in the city and it was a toy for the wealthy. This particular day t had rained heavily and as I looked around 1 set was off and I reached and my hand came too near a cathode lead that as so many were at the time less than adequately insulated for the voltages it carried. Some minutes later they brought me around and it took a little time to realize what electricity really could do. From there, I hit the books, joined the amateur radio club, found a chair large enough to allow me to reach those marvelous thing on the bench such as the o'scope, vtvm, signal generators, tone generators, etc. and learn how to breath life into those marvelous inventions, radios, electric trains, electric fans (yes, back in those we even rewound motors and transformers in the shop). I adopted an ill Motorola console with b&w tele, tuner, changer, and field coil speaker that Motorola replaced and wrote off as it would not work more than a week. It took 6 months of using surplus parts and patience to bring it up to reliable life and the sound was so amazing. My intro to music from a big speaker. Previous to that I had listened to the AM off my Hallicrafters S-38 as well as the wonderful world of shortwave. After living with it for quite a few years, there was an orphan Quad system with E-V Aristocrafts I bought from a retired minister who was moving and from there to my Marantz tube experiences and that was the beginning.

In 1948 my parents bought me a "Little Golden Record" (a 78 the size of a 45 and aimed at the kids' market) of something by Greig. I pulled out the player on our Philco console radio, flopped the record on, dropped the 37-lb.-tracking-force tonearm and events... proceeded.

My first modern intorduction was about two years ago while I was talking about moving some vinyl to CD and Johncans wife over heard. She introduced us and I have him to blame for my sickness.

I guess I would have to say that I grew into it as it grew on me. My first real rocking stereo was my 9900 and it served me well for many years as did the other equipment I bought at the time some of which I am still using. You could say we are of the same vintage. When the Sansui died, I made a weak stab at attempting to troubleshoot it but the timing just wasn't right and at the time it took me a long time to find a schematic, 3 months after backorder etc before I even saw it. Running jobs 10, 12, 16 hours a day 6 days a week doesn't make for a lot of motivation to undertake such a detail-oriented, vaguely familiar procedure. This is an entirely different time in my life now and I have both time and motivation to recall knowledge long stored away and put it to use doing something I can derive great pleasure from. :yes:
Since then I have always been a big concert goer and avid music junkie. :music:
OMG, I can't wait to see the resopnses to this statement :thmbsp: :thumbsdn:
A few months ago I decided it was time to put the money the USN spent on me and the sweat I gave to good use. I have never doubted that I can not only learn to repair but I WILL excel at it because I have no one to answer to but myself and my work integrity is extremely important to me. I doubt that as far as finished product there are too many more anal than I am about something being RIGHT except maybe the person that taught me. Coud be instilled from my dad. As a kid I helped him build racing engines as a sideline and in machine work .00001 is .00001 and that is that. We also did restoratoin/renovation work on restaruants in the Washington DC area. Imagine doing framing with someone that 1/16" off on a stud was not good enough. But ya know I NEVER have any qualms about signing my name to anything I do. :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:

I've always been a music fan- used to listen to my Uncle's amazing hi-fi, and my godfather's, too. My family had transistor radios, a little-used Zenith console the kiddies (me included) couldn't touch for years, and 8-tracks in the Riviera and Chevy Scottsdale.

So, hi-fi was a treat when at the uncles/godfather's.

I got into music, and later did poster art in Boston. So, live shows were more of my thing. Being a halfway decent artist that did work for bands got me into plenty of shows.

I picked up a Technics SA-80 receiver, and some Pioneer speakers (which I just gave away two days ago), a Technics TT, and an Akai cassette deck, a Sony LD/CD player and used that as my home rig, for ages.

Sennheiser headphones and some thumping CVs were added. then some JBLs.

Motorcycles, bicycling, travelling, work, and fishing with my father were my priorities though, at this time- not Hi-Fi.

Then I got into a car accident. Broke my back. Now unable to ride my motorcycles and bicycles, and limited in some other activities, like my art, and fishing, ect, I delved into modern mid-fi. Wallowed around in that for a bit. After getting a bit healthier, and of course wiser, I embraced my new passion, vintage Hi-Fi.

I've been an avid collector since! Too much gear, actually. Can I interest you in a nice, shiny 70's silver-faced Receiver, or a nice real walnut veneer stack of speakers with linen grill cloth? :naughty:

My Gramps's 1958 Pilot console, I was born in '62 so I guess I was about 5 or 6 he would take me downstairs and play lot's of old big band stuff, obsucure stuff that was alot of fun! Thanks Gramps, I moved on to modern stuff at that time SAE stuff, which is now Vintage. Anyway I still have the Pilot, Good on Ya Gramps, Love Craig :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

I began in high school with some friends from a vocational electrical and electronics class. We went to a high end shop in Charlotte NC and listened to a system consisting of a pair of Rogers speakers and an M&K Volkswoofer with some electronics that I can picture but not recall the name of. That is what set me on my journey.

Well, it started out innocently enough. In March of this year decided I wanted to find an Advent 300 receiver to replace the portable CD player/computer subwoofer/satellite speaker system in my home office.

Unable to grab an Advent 300, I bought a Pioneer SX780 on CL. Some Design Acoustics PS10s. Then a Concept 11.0. And some KLH 17s. And lots more since then. I just added my fifth receiver -- a Marantz 2240B -- to my two integrated amp/tuner combos. And then there's the stereo in the living room.

Oh yeah -- I never did get the Advent 300 receiver.

I mean, who needs one now? :no:

My dad used to have an old 1956 Webcor reel to reel very similar to this:
http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/multimedia/images/JPEGS/SLIDE122.JPG
I thought it was the bees knees. When I was about 12 I bought it from him for $40, a huge amount of money to me at the time. He always used it at 3 3/4 IPS cause he's a stingy bastard. I soon figured out that if I recorded at 7 1/2 IPS the response went all the way out to 12KHz! Wow! I played it through 2 10" speakers I got from Olson electronics, I think. They were in cabinets with no backs. This went on until sometime in Junior High when I bought an Olson receiver for $25 used. I think it had a whole 5W per channel, with a tail wind. Then a couple years later I got back at my old man for making me pay for the friggin' Webcor. At a house sale they had a Sony TC-600 reel to reel and a Scott 340B receiver. I wanted both but I only had enough money for the Sony. I told my old man, "If you buy me the receiver, I'll give you my Olson receiver." Well, he went for it. (Maybe he's not so bad after all.) I got a bang - up system, he got the POS Olson. Then next year the Optimus 1 speakers went on sale, 2 for the price of 1. So my old man and I each bought a pair. He still has his. And the Webcor? I still have it, it's in the attic, along with a Bell and Howell from the same vintage.

In the sixties my father owned a night club in Phoenix called The Red Dog. Live rock bands, girls in go-go cages, mirrored ball, live radio broadcasts, the whole 9 yards.
At night I got to sit in the control booth and they'd let me flip a few light switches, point spots, play with the mix board, cue up records, etc. There was all kinds of loose gear and promo records everywhere (still have some originals). He'd give me & my brother old tube amps and raw speakers to mess with. During the day we'd pick up loose change, play with the bands instruments (I know, rotten kids - we were actually pretty careful because we were appreciative of it all, and most of the mics and amps were owned by the house). Learned as about as much as a kid could about music, electronics, instruments, and go-go girls. Plus some really useful things like how to play pool before I could see over the top of the table.

It was a gas, as they used to say.

I need one Soundweasel. Find one for me cheap and I'll kiss you on the lips. I don't like receivers much, and the little 33wpc KLH Model 52 that I had was easily the best sounding one I ever heard. I'll bet Kloss waved a magic wand over the 15wpc Advent 300 as well.

As a kid I loved electronics, magnetism, all that. I had built telegraphs, all sorts of gadgets. Later Knight Kit walkie talkies, a Heathkit morse code practice oscillator, and other stuff.

A neighbor, Mr. Welsh, owner of the local Piggly Wiggly, invited me to come over and help him assemble Heathkit stereo gear he had just bought. I would go over and Mrs. Welsh would serve us coffee and cheesecake while we worked... he did the left channel boards, I did the right channel. We'd stuff the boards and check off the steps. He found out I could solder (got my first soldering iron when I was about 9 or so) and let me solder my boards.

He was the first person I ever saw to build a "home entertainment system". This was way back in the mid 60's. He had built a false wall in the living room with the TV, stereo gear, and speakers inset. The area beind the electronics allowed a person to walk in there carefully and do interconnections. He had a door there to look like a water heater or linen closet. The access had its own A/C venting to keep it all cool.

So, then I talked my Dad into getting us the Heathkit Compact Stereo you see in my avatar. And Mr. Welsh assured him I could build it.

A few days before I completed the Heathkit Dad walked in with a pair of Harmon Kardon bookshelf speakers, 6.5" fullrange "acoustic suspension" speakers.

A few years later I assembled some Heathkit speakers, 8" woofer & 2.5" tweeter, which we placed in the living room. I ran the spkr wires through the attic.

Then my stereo thing was on hold until after college. But that's how I got started in this.

A set of scott 2-ways and a pioneer sx-434 was my first real audiom system, but a jvc r-x330v digital receiver with a set of panasonic 2-ways with unremovable grilles was what really got me into it.
My first decent setup was a pioneer SA(not sx)-1280 digital receiver with my JBL l100s.

Now I have a very good setup, the one in my sig.

I had too many LPs and my only TT took a big sh*t on me. At the same time, my Infinity woofer foam surrounds gave out.

Being broke as hell (as usual), I figured out that I could slowly purchase/restore vintage gear for pennies on the dollar. Uhh, that is, compared to hi-end new gear.

I've been able to build slowly, over a long period of time.

I love music and I figured that all these LPs needed a nice system to strut their stuff.

On a side note, I had been avoiding AK and other sites for a few years, because I knew that I would become an addict. It has already happened with cameras and vintage wristwatches... Audio gear was inevitable. I finally gave in, like I said earlier, when my gear kicked the bucket. I lurked here for a couple of years. Finally, I decided to erupt in style and thus make my presence known here, there, everywhere. One thing is for sure though, I did have a fair amount of knowledge that I had picked up over the years from magazines and some collector friends of mine. So I did not walk in the room with my pants down. Next time I will.

In 1973 I purchased my first piece of audio gear a Realistic STA-52 receiver. Put it on layaway and paid it off over the course of 8 weeks. When I got it home I found it had really nice warm sound and I was pretty happy with the purchase. Unfortunely, two months after I brought it home it stopped working. It had a 90 warranty, so I thought it was lucky for the receiver to fail while still under warranty. I was told by the Radio Shack store manager that the warranty started the day I bought the unit, not when I took it home. The repair bill was more than the cost of the reciever. But even with this bad luck on my first outing I was hooked.

Built a PAT5 and ST120 as a youngster, bought EPI 150's to use with them.

Lost it until a couple of years back when I stumbled on my Sony's in a pawn shop while looking at HT receivers and couldn't resist the very apparent quality.

Growing up I was always lucky enough to be around people who listened to and played great music. As a result, I take music very seriously. It's one of the only ways people can express themselves without words. I think that's very important because... you know what they say... Talk is cheap. I think I first caught the audiophile bug when I was about 11 yrs old. My brother in law gave me a Sansui G3000 receiver and a technics turntable he had bought overseas when he was in the army. A few weeks later my parents gave me some KLH ( don't know the model...) speakers for christmas. I blew them out 3 days later listening to Steve Vai's Flexible album. After that the receiver was given away. A few years later I went to a garage sale just as it was ending. The only thing that was left was a coffee table and a receiver. I asked the lady about the receiver and she said I could have it. I didn't know anything about it when I took it. It was a Pioneer SX 1250. A few months later a freind of mine gave me some JBL L100's and told me the tweeters didn't work. They turned out to be diconnected. I fixed them and the rest is history. I spent the next 2 or 3 years tinkering with hi fi equipment non stop. It was my dream to design speakers. I was always discoureged from this by my parents. They, as most people, just didn't understand. As a result, I left home and got caught up in a bunch of bad s**t and stayed caught up for over ten years. Now I have been clean and out of trouble for 7 years and find that I still love this stuff. I wish AK would have been around back then. Until about a year ago when I discovered AK I thought audiophiles were freaks who were few and far between, but I knew I was one of them. This site has shown me that they are not few and far between... They are freaks though... :screwy:

I didn't start...I always was.... I guess I better explain. My late uncle was a broadcast engineer who was chief engineer and lived at the transmitter of a local radio station. Later he built his own station, sold it and bought another etc. He was also a consulting engineer, one of his best clients being the transmitter division of RCA. Every Sunday in the 40's and early 50's was spent at their house (the transmitter) so I spent a lot of time around high grade equipment.

By the time I was 8 and a cub scout, I took care of all the A/V needs of the troupe and later for the church where the troupe was located. (the V meaning showing movies) I also had my very own sound system which was put together by my uncle. For graduation from 8th grade, I got my first tape recorder, a Welcox Gay. :banana:

In high school, I discovered the world of home audio, then known as Hi Fi. I have been on the quest for audio perfection (on a budget) ever since. I built my first kits and assembled my first "real" system then.

I decided to go into theatre and studied that as well as getting my FCC license and even served a chief engineer at my Uncles station until he died in 1986. After that I went back full time to my first love, theatre, where we run a rental operation.

For some time I had a theatrical supply business where I was a dealer for EV, Precision Electronics and other audio equipment as well as stage lighting companies. I also did consulting work where I cleaned up badly installed sound systems, one of my clients being the Playboy Club here in Chicago.

I don't know if this is a hobby or an life long obsession. Who else do you know that has an AM modulation monitor 3 Ampex 351's and 5 pr of speakers among other stuff in their bedroom closet? It's a walk in but, you can't any more.

Clyde

My mom was going to give me a stereo as a graduation present when I graduated from college. I wanted one that had a tape recorder so I could tape my albums to allow me to play them without getting them scratched. One of my instructors who was heavily involved in audio said that 8 trackes were dying out and recommended cassettes for my purpose. None of the all-in-one units had cssette decks built in. Hence seperate components. (Pioneer SX 525, XAM speakers (Mom worked at Korvette's) and a cheap BSR 'table. I bought teh JVC cassette deck.)

The rest is history!

Well I kind of started 2 years ago, when I bought my daughter a stereo as a celebratory present for getting into the top nursing school in the country (my son in medical school already!)
I realised I was way overdue for an upgrade as my SX 450 which I bought new in 1978 was sputtering.

I tried all the new receivers up to the $800 yamaha and nothing impressed me.
Next I tried alot of vintage recievers up to the SX 1050. Getting close.
I swore I was going to keep it simple but all this fidlding with amps preamps cables and equipment modifications is really just trying to replace that 450.

Audio Karma led me astray...

Let me explain...


Back around the time I got married (1990) I'd recently bought a JVC 4-channel surround receiver (rated at 80 wpc) Aiwa 3-head tapedeck, my first CD player (Sony POS) and had a pair of Boston A400s a (rich) friend had given me. Thought my stereo was the sh!t, although it always sounded a little flat to me. Flash-forward 6 years, we move into an apartment with psycho, noise-sensitive neighbors downstairs.After a lot of back-and-forth, the A400s get sold. I buy a pair of Rat Shack mini speakers and wall-mount 'em.Gradually stop listening to music as seriously as before. 4 years later my daughter is born;because of my schedule, I get to be at home with her a lot. One day we're playing together, I pop in a jazz CD I used to listen to a lot. "Wow", I think, "my stereo sounds like crap!" I check out new speakers but a new baby and new audio gear don't mix. I stumble upon this site, join, ask for recommendations. Somebody suggests Boston A60's and lo and behold a week later a pair turns upon CL. I'm blown away by the improvement. I keep coming back to this site, reading about people's enthusiasm for vintage gear. To be honest, at the time I didn't really believe it - howcould a 30-year-old receiver beat the new technology? But that summer I find a pristine Sherwood 7100A at a stoop sale for $10. What the hell, I think - 17 WPC, for a laugh I hook it upto my A60's and it blows my "more powerful" JVC out of the water, stomps a mudhole in it, eats its lunch, reminds me what music sounds like. In the process I recall how very much I wanted one of those beautiful silver components and some kickass speakers in my teens, when there was no money for such frivolities.

About 15 pairs of speakers, 8 or 10 receivers and a half-dozen TTs later,and the rest is history.

Thanks, AK!

I bought all my stuff new and got old.

When I was 13 years old I had a cheap plastic record player that I played my 45 rpm records on. I can't even remember the name of it but it was so small that an LP record covered the whole machine except the right-hand corner where the tone arm was mounted. As a kid I was satisfied with it as I had NO clue as to the possibilities further on in the world of what I'd learn in the coming years with the term "High-Fidelity". When I was about 14 my parents allowed me a suscription to Rolling Stone magazine, I began to see ads for Marantz (& Superscope) stereo recievers. I was fascinated and began going into stores to see & hear this stuff I was seeing in magazine ads and a whole new world opened up to me.


Russ

I need one Soundweasel. Find one for me cheap and I'll kiss you on the lips. I don't like receivers much, and the little 33wpc KLH Model 52 that I had was easily the best sounding one I ever heard. I'll bet Kloss waved a magic wand over the 15wpc Advent 300 as well.

Hmmm. Kiss on the lips? What are you wearing? :D

I'll keep an eye out for one, on the condition that no kisses get exchanged if I find one for you. :nono:

Define "cheap".

From what I've heard and read in various places, the amplifier section on the the 300 wasn't that great. Dunno. But if I find one cheap, it's yours.

My dad bought a pair of SANSUI SP-1200's around 1971 or so overseas...he was in the navy...vietnam...I was born in 1982...he also had a blue dial Pioneer receiver...and around 100 LP's...so from the very beginning I was uh..."influenced" hence my love for Sansui & Pioneer...he sold the Pioneer in 1987, we moved to sacramento, and he bought a Sony receiver, dual tape deck, and linear turntable...seemed like an AWESOME setup back then "HEY SWEET! IT HAS ONE OF THESE!!" he said as he pointed to the remote :banana: He kept the Sansui speakers and a couple years later bought some garage sale SP-200's...and then there where four (speakers) four speakers hooked to the stereo seemed amazing to me...around this time, one morning, before waking up, I had a dream that my parents where giving me Sansui speakers of my own, and a 70s pioneer receiver...at that moment I knew what I wanted...sansui speakers and a pioneer SX-xxxx receiver...well, this year I finally got the speakers...no old receiver yet but I do have a new pioneer receiver :thmbsp: ...anyway, back to the past...I was given a "Realistic Modulette 602" it was a "ghetto blaster" as they where called back then...dual cassette AM/FM served me well, and in 1990 at 8 years old, I had almost enough money saved for, at the time, my "dream system" a Sharp all in one BPC am/fm/tape/cd or something setup...my money mysteriously dissipeared :( so a couple months later, for xmas, I was given a YORX all in one BPC AM/FM/CASSETTE/TT setup...I loved it (hey I was 8 years old) it lasted until I was 12.....then it died...I was given for my 12th birthday...a Sony CFD-540 modern ghetto blaster...oh wait, by then we called them boomboxes...single CD (top loading) dual cassette AM / FM LOVED IT (hey it was an upgrade at least) the CD player quit when I was 16 or so....otherwise it worked great....got rid of it when I was 18 (weird thing, when we picked it up at the good guys the checkout lady goes "this should last till you turn 18" sure enough it did) After that, I bought an all in one SONY MHC-ZX10 all in one five disc CD dual cassette am/fm...IT WAS AN UPGRADE FROM WHAT I HAD AT LEAST!! Actually pretty nice for an all in one...sony doesn't make any that nice in that catagory anymore...served me well (I barely used it) gave it to my former roomate about a month ago...earlier this year I bought a Pioneer VSX-516....I like it....it works...not quite what I'm looking for, but no complaints :thmbsp: :thmbsp: and a sony HDMI five disc DVD player which is serving CD player duty...picked up some Sansui SP-200's and later some Sansui SP-1500's...now I want a vintage receiver, another couple pair of sansui, and the list goes on...I've only recently been set on the right path for audio....but my heart has been in the right place since day one :thmbsp: AK just re-awakened the audio nut inside me who had been dormant for all these years :music: :D

We always had music in the house, but Mom and Dad were not audiophiles - we were just too poor for costly gear. Our whole existence seemed centered around music, we all played instruments, and sang, and performed, and listened to albums on the old console (No, I don't remember the brand, I wish I did. It was long and low and the access door slip away into the top, it didn't open fron the front OR hinge up...). As I got older, I had THIS (http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71308) , and later a little all-in-one TT/receiver that was not much of an upgrade from the first one.

Lots of other tales along the way, but by the time I was married, audio at home was just a big joke. We had no money for nice stuff, and all the old stuff was dead or dying. Then THIS (http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54205) happened, and that lead to THIS (http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55120), and now I'm hopelessly in love with sound again. :music:

...The boy had a AR-XA table with Shure V-15 cartridge, feeding the Acoustic Research integrated amp, driving a pair of AR-3a's. HOOKED.TA, that sums it pretty nicely for me as well.

....but my heart has been in the right place since day one :thmbsp: AK just re-awakened the audio nut inside me who had been dormant for all these years :music: :DJust about like that, Earl :yes:

One of the things that excites me about all this is I can buy things I never knew existed, because they were so far out of my price range I never even looked at them. A $450 turntable?!? Are you NUTS!?!? :yes: Now, it's $35 at a yardsale :D and I can swing that, even with budgeting around the 4-year-old. (The 4-year-old, BTW, has her own vintage system in her room, in case she doesn't care for Mom and Dad's selections...).

I hope to never stray too far away again.

In the mid to later 70's, when I was about 9-10 years old, I was over at my sister's house (she's 17 years older than I am).

My then brother-in-law had a Kenwood Model 500 amp, matching tuner, a Pioneer CT-F9191 cassette deck, a Technics TT,
and a large pair of Cerwin Vega studio monitors that were $2K for the pair.

I would just marvel at that setup, wondering what all the switches were for, what all the knobs were for, how did the sound go
from a record through the needle, down through the tonearm, into the amp, and finally out through the speakers... :scratch2:

After that, I was hooked! :yes:

Scott

I can't remember not loving music. I asked Santa for a record player when I was five. Santa brought me a little RCA 45 deck, similar to the one pictured. I still have it. It didn't have an amplifier, so we used a little Philco table radio that had lost its plastic cover. My first componant system was modest, to say the least.

I couldn't read yet, so I marked the side of the record I liked with a dab of fingernail polish to differentiate. I could tell one record from another, even ones on the same label. My uncle Karl (a EE) was fascinated and never could figure out how I did it. To this day I can't explain it. I received one dollar a week in allowance and it all went to 45's. I still have almost all of them.

Doug