Half Your Age

[Tia]

What an appropriately timed thread. Half my age would be 1989 the year I married my wonderful wife. Also that year, since I was newly married and the wife and I liked to rock out, I purchased a stereo system. The receiver and eq I don't remember the brand but the speakers I do remember, CV AT-12's! The electronics store had approx. 8 different sets of speakers all lined up and hooked up so you could switch from each speaker set while playing your song. The CV's won hands down. My son has those CV's today with the understanding he is to never sell them. If he can't keep them they come back to me.

 

[Yamaki]

I am 64 so the year is 1986 and I am 32 years old.

My system consisted of a Dual turntable, Shure cart, Kenwood amp & tuner, Nakamichi BX-1 cassette deck, ADS L880 speakers with stands.

I remember doing needle drops from the albums and a local FM station that used to play one hour of mixed music with no commercials every Saturday night to create mixed cassettes. I still have some of them and they get played now and then on a nice Onkyo dual well deck.

I'd say my musical tastes at the time was mixed with rock being prevalent, a little C&W, a smattering of opera rock (Yes mostly), some Top 40 artists and what was considered alternative at the time.

My musical tastes still follow those same types of music but the artist list has expanded considerably. Also, my system obviously evolved ouas did the media I use. There's not one vinyl disc in the house anymore.

 

[wharf rat]

55/2=27.5=1990. Finishing grad school and early into higher performance audio. I believe my first separates Adcom 555 pre amp and 535 amp. Merlin 1B speakers, H/K tape decks, forgotten TT and CD player. The Merlins were the first higher end gear I bought. Great speakers as I recall.

 

[mjw21a]

Early 20's.

I was using a desktop computer running WinAmp, output from the sound card into a a Lenoxx 5.1 amp to Steinman Audio Labs THR2 speakers paired with a Dream Accoustics down firing long throw sub.

I thought it was fantastic. Plenty of drinking sessions and parties with this system. I now know it was crap though at that time it was the best I'd ever owned. It suited my lifestyle at that time though.

Heck, I liked Nickleback at that time . Enough said.

 

[RichPA]

This was a great idea for a thread!

 

[OvenMaster]

Half of 59 is 29.5, so 29..5 + 1959 = 1988.

Technics SA-222 receiver (30-35wpc woohoo!)
Teac A-100 cassette deck
Avid 110 speakers
Sony CDP-50 CD player
Ortofon LM10 cartridge
and even then I had my Dual 1257.

The big speakers had no real bass or treble to speak of, and the receiver seemed to run out of steam quickly.
The Dolby B NR on the cassette deck never worked right from Day One (and I was too dumb to realize it until years later).
The CD player was a night vs day revelation to me compared to crackly, warped, off-center vinyl.
All in all, I'm glad I have what I own now, compared to this mismatched crapstack.

 

[BilboBaggins]

I would have been 29, so 1990. I had an NAD 7240PE receiver, a Yamaha P350 turntable, Bose 8.2 stereo everywhere speakers, and a JVC Tape deck model I don’t remember. I think I still had my Legacy 100 Speakers built in Ottawa, and my Marantz 1530 receiver. I lost my tape deck in a fire at my girlfriends apartment. We were sleeping when it started around 4 AM. It took me years before I could sleep through the night if there was transformer hum within my subconscious hearing.

I sold my Bose speakers about 2010 after I got my MAC1900 when I realized my speakers were limiting me.

 

[jdmccall]

I'm 61, so thirty years ago was 1988. I had klipsch cornwall loudspeakers (oak oil w/ cane grills -Oh how I wish I still had'em!). Electronics were Luxman amp, pre, turntable, tuner, cassette and CD. I forget all the model numbers, but it was nice and sounded good. Musically, I was pretty deep into country (Hank Jr., The Judds, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Johnny Cash, etc, with a healthy mix of pop and rock.

 

[MKG]

I’m 36, so I would be 18 and it would be 1999.
I was all about my Sony Walkman and mix tapes. I could take those things anywhere, chuck ‘em in a backpack without a case, go to the beach, go on a hike, abuse the hell out of them and they’d always play as long as I kept them away from magnets. None of that foil pulling away from the cd crap or skipping because it got a scratch.
I was bumping KMFDM, NIN, black tape for a blue girl, moody blues, and a whole lot of punk- propagandhi etc.
I was also (and still am) a nerd. My home system was my computer with some random plug all of your speakers into the subwoofer kind of system. I couldn’t afford a T1 line so I was on 56k dialup, waiting all night for a song to download just to find out that some jerk named the file as something that it very much was not.

 

[Auto Analog]

I'll play, too. In 1998, I used a Sony D-33 Discman, Kenwood KR-2090 receiver, Technics RS-B11W dual cassette deck, and Realistic Minimus 7 speakers. The musical selection featured copious amounts of Beck, Sublime, Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr., Pink Floyd, and such.

I still use the Minimus 7s to test newly-restored tube amps during the first power cycle or two. Back in '98, I wondered how much longer I'd have to wait for a HDD with sufficient capacity to store lossless copies of all my CDs, and a computer interface capable enough to provide quality playback. The future rocks.

 

[Gibsonian]

Realistic digital receiver, model number unknown although I still have it. Rated at 100/ch but more like 60. Never sounded the best. Very cheap Pioneer TT, P mount very cheap cart. Pioneer 6 disc carousel that I purchased at Aldi's grocery, Realistic cassette deck for recording tapes for the car, and Advent Legacy speakers. I think a Pioneer graphic equalizer. Was ok, cannot imagine how it would compare to my system today.

This would be around 1992-3.

And then I ran into AK!

 

[juncers]

It was 1988 and I had just moved to London. I left my US equipment back home and wouldn't own any new gear for 2 years. I went to an amazing amount of live concerts ( 3 or 4 a week).

Now that I think about it, that was the best equipment I (n)ever owned!

Ray

 

[Djcoolray]

I would have been like 32, Marantz, tape deck and ARXB in the house and Technics and tape deck in the garage while I was rebuilding automobiles. A Pioneer Super Tuner in my personal ride. Back in the eighties so many people in the SF South Bay Area we’re turning born again Christian and putting their record collections on the curb with the garbage. My best friends brother was a garbage man and would stop at a pay phone to call me or his brother when he found a good collection. Of course I shared the wealth....but always kept the best copy.

 

[Condorsat]

It was 1988 and I had just moved to London. I left my US equipment back home and wouldn't own any new gear for 2 years. I went to an amazing amount of live concerts ( 3 or 4 a week).

Ray

Brings back memories … to be young and walking around London.

 

[Old Guy8]

'84.
Tech SL1400 mk2 Semi auto, Shure M91 or M95.
Harmon Kardon model? three head Cassette deck.
Sony 560D RTR
Ohm C2 speakers. Still have.

 

[Kev_rat]

31 years ago for me
system consisted of
NAD 3020A, NAD cassette deck (forget the model), Dual turntable and Infinity RSM speakers
Still have the Infinitys and the LPs, but all the other stuff wore out

listened to mixture of classical and rock and still do mostly

 

[gtv2000]

That would be 1987. While I still had all my albums, they would have been in boxes in the garage and I didn't have a turntable set up (a Technics belt drive was stored somewhere). I would have been using my ADS L520s with some amplifier as sound for the TV. Working, having kids, house repairs had music on the back burner. I'm better now.

 

[TomBig58]

30 in 1988 I honestly don't remember if I still had the HK430 and Philips 212 with whatever cobbled together speakers from my late teen years set up in the house. Those were my "radio years" so while I always listened to music in the car, truck, and garage it was mostly TV in the house. Funny I still have all my albums from the very early years and still have no idea what happened to that HK receiver and Philips turntable. If the ex kept them I'm sure she doesn't have them now.

 

[stoutblock]

In 1988 I was mostly into a home theater system but I don’t think I had Dolby surround yet? It was a Yamaha processor/reciever/amp that had time delay adjustment for the two rear channels along with a sub output. I had the top of the line Pioneer Elite projection TV (man that thing was big!). I also had a Pioneer Elite laser disk player and a JVC SVHS player. I used the ADS L1090 speakers I bought new in 83 along with ADS L300e and two ADS SW-2 subs. I still use these same ADS speakers in my current home theater system. In these years I was really into car audio and I had one hell of a system in my Camaro!

 

[Ross6860]

When I was 30 we had a Technics SA-450 receiver, a Technics SL-j2 table with a Stanton cart, and a pair of EPI Magnus 12 speakers. Probably just added a Technics SL-P220 CD player (or soon after that time).

I still have all that stuff. The SA-450 is in my office at work. The SL-P220 is in daily use in my bedroom system. The SL-j2 is a spare table. The cart is currently on my
SL-1200 MkII

I still have the EPIs, but the drivers are removed and boxed up (anyone need them?) and the speakers are loaded with much better drivers and a real crossover...

Oh, and my truck is fifteen years old, too

Music then was the same as now. Very eclectic. Rock, bluegrass, classical, country. AC/DC to Led Zeppelin, Bach to Vivaldi, Allman Bros to ZZ Top, even my wife's Enya and Sarah McLachlan CDs.

I still enjoy new artists, but not into any of the current pop. No Cyrus, Gaga, Pink, Bieber, etc. Bruno Mars is a great entertainer...