fredcohiba
Super Member
Back in 1967 or 68 when I was just 9 years old and starting my love for music and the technical magic of sound reproduction, my dad bought an RCA console stereo. A 6 or 7 ft long behemoth. We always had music in the house, but this was the first stereo we ever had. Up until that point, there were multiple radios in the house but all were mono.
This console was purchased at an appliance, furniture and audio store in Milwaukee, I think the name was King Karl (nostalgia name perhaps for any Milwaukeeans old enough to to remember). I'm sure it cost him a month of his salary at the time. This was a big deal for us.
Along with the stereo, he bought or had thrown in on the deal, a pair of Superex Stereo-Pro headphones.
I spent many of hours listening to these headphones. I still remember my dad telling me, "Concentrate, and you will hear different sounds coming into your left ear and right ear". STEREO, man what a concept. It was a marvel for me at the time. They sounded so good to me, I remember listening to them any time I could. Even laying down on the floor in front of the RCA (as the cord didn't reach the desk) listening to the headphones doing homework.
I remember sneaking into the living room to listen to the headphones on that RCA late at night after everyone else was in bed. The issue was that when you plugged in the headphones, you had to rotate a switch on the RCA near the headphone jack that allowed both the headphones and speakers to operate simultaneously or just the headphones. So, every once and a while, I would forget to rotate that switch to play just the headphones, and wake up the whole house with loud music as I was oblivious to the fact that the speakers were still on. My dad had to come into a dark living room and tap me on the shoulder, scaring the crap out of me more than once. He looked mad at being awakened by my music, but I am sure when he turned around to head back to bed, he had a little smirk on his face too thinking, that little shit.....
This console was purchased at an appliance, furniture and audio store in Milwaukee, I think the name was King Karl (nostalgia name perhaps for any Milwaukeeans old enough to to remember). I'm sure it cost him a month of his salary at the time. This was a big deal for us.
Along with the stereo, he bought or had thrown in on the deal, a pair of Superex Stereo-Pro headphones.
I spent many of hours listening to these headphones. I still remember my dad telling me, "Concentrate, and you will hear different sounds coming into your left ear and right ear". STEREO, man what a concept. It was a marvel for me at the time. They sounded so good to me, I remember listening to them any time I could. Even laying down on the floor in front of the RCA (as the cord didn't reach the desk) listening to the headphones doing homework.
I remember sneaking into the living room to listen to the headphones on that RCA late at night after everyone else was in bed. The issue was that when you plugged in the headphones, you had to rotate a switch on the RCA near the headphone jack that allowed both the headphones and speakers to operate simultaneously or just the headphones. So, every once and a while, I would forget to rotate that switch to play just the headphones, and wake up the whole house with loud music as I was oblivious to the fact that the speakers were still on. My dad had to come into a dark living room and tap me on the shoulder, scaring the crap out of me more than once. He looked mad at being awakened by my music, but I am sure when he turned around to head back to bed, he had a little smirk on his face too thinking, that little shit.....