What was your first "real" stereo system?

So, what was your first real hi-fi (or mid-fi) stereo system and when/where did you come by it?

Mine was a Sansui QRX-5500, Dual 1229Q, and 4 unknown speakers all from Pacific Stereo. I bought all of this brand new at the ripe old age of 17, about 42 years ago. Man, I was really living high on the hog with this system. I remember making payments on it for about two years. Great times!

So what's your story?

My Stereo rigs when I was younger were total crap ... the POS stuff you would find at a KMart store. Spent my youth in the car ... 8 Tracks were my stereo.

My 1st real stereo was purchased when I was living the UK in 1984 ... had some money in my pocket (after my career stabilized) and I just pulled the trigger all cash. None of the components are left in my current audio rigs ... I kept this rig until about 1993.

Technics SL3 TT
Pioneer PDM802 Cartridge CD Player
Cerwin Vega D7
Infinity RS 5000
Yamaha A1000

My first decent stereo was a NAD 7020 (?) receiver, Dual 506 belt driven table (which I still have!),
a Panasonic cassette deck and a set of Boston Acoustic A-70 speakers.

HK 330c receiver and some KLH bookshelf speakers, $30 used from a grad student that was graduating. Best $30 I ever spent, I used that as my primary system for years; I still have it and it still works. Probably ought to scrounge a cheap dipole and put it back in service as a bedroom system or something. I just changed the lamps in it earlier this year when I dragged it out to test some Craigslist speakers.

My first real foray into hi fi was a Kenwood 4002 integrated I bought used, a BSR TT and these house speakers from Midwest Audio in Des Moines, IA. Ended up upgrading to a Kenwood 6004 integrated, Dual 1218 and OLAs that I used for years.

When I was really little, my first stereo ever was a little boombox, a single piece unit with two small speakers that could play one cassette.

A few years later my parents got me a bigger boombox. This one had detachable speakers, and could play two cassettes.

A few years later my parents got me a cheap used realistic rack system.

-I got those three systems all before the age of 11 or so, and even though they all sucked, I was super happy with each one as it was still an upgrade over what I had before.

A few years later, the rack system I had literally went out with a puff of smoke. I started using my grandfather's old SX-780 at that point. I was still so young, with so little knowledge at that point. At one point I had car subwoofers hooked up as a second set of speakers. The front-panel light on the SX-780 would literally dim every time the bass hit, that poor thing. Amazingly the SX-780 never broke, and is still working great even to this day.

After that, I started using a Fisher RS-1050, along with some cheap KLH speakers. The KLH speakers were cheap, but they were still a big improvement over everything I had used previously up to that point. The RS-1050 started to develop some issues with it's right channel. One of my mom's friends gave me his old RS-1060. It turned out that the RS-1060 had a broken preamp section. Since both had pre-out and main-in jacks, I ended up using the RS-1050 as a preamp and the RS-1060 as an amp, which worked great for years. That was my first "real" setup because it actually sounded decent, and had the power available to actually get loud. A few years later my Uncle gave me his JBL L150's, and that was the start of the "current era" for me as far as my system goes.

My first real hifi system consisted of a Technics SA-310 receiver, RS-M245X cassette deck and SL-5 turntable plus a pair of Canton Quinto 510s - all bought new around 1983 or 1984 as a present from my parents, mainly because that Hitachi stereo radio recorder (might have been the TRK-9300, but I'm not sure anymore...) with detachable speakers I had got a while before produced occasional ticks on recordings and unfortunately (or maybe quite fortunately ) still continued to do that, after it had come back from a lengthy repair. As headphones I already had a Sennheiser HD420, but it wasn't too long after I got the hifi system, when I bought myself an AKG K240M for better quality and fit/comfort - and I didn't really like that huge DIN "dice 5" & 1/4 " combo plug on the Sennheiser anyway. Next upgrade a while later was a new Audio Technica AT132EP to replace the EPC-P24S on the SL-5.

Verdict on the Technics components: The SA-310 was pretty ok, albeit a bit bland sounding - until it suddenly gave up one day, so that I replaced it with a for my taste better sounding Yamaha RX-330 (which still works, btw). Well, and the RS-M245X never really was quite my thing, though I can't really give any real reasons for that - somehow it didn't really convince me, and I just didn't have much fun using it... The SL-5, however, was a neat table to begin with, and after the upgrade with the AT it really was a very good - never should have sold that. Whereas I was pretty happy after getting rid of the RS-M245X, as a replacement for which I bought a Sony WM-D6C (actually had even two for a while...) and a Teac V-3000 (instead of the second WM-D6C).

Well, and the Canton speakers were pretty good, and while I also built and got some more speakers later on, I kept and used the Quintos mainly as multimedia/computer speakers until summer 2006. Probably a bit of a pity to throw these away, but I was in a hurry, as I needed to renew my place...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

My junior year of high school, I got a new $300 Sony receiver, a new $250 Sony CD player and a used pair of Yamaha NS1000Ms.

Kenwood KS-4000R receiver, Kenwood KD-2000 turntable, Sharp cassette deck, Kenwood LS-20 speakers.

Bought it all myself except the speakers which were handed down to me by my brother.

I was 14 when I got my first component system, at 11 I had a Zenith Allegro all in one as my first stereo.

The system was a Pioneer SX 3400 from Pacific Stereo. A Realistic turntable that I don't remember the model # of. It was a fake woodgrain table, cost less than a $100 in the early 1980's. A Sanyo cassette deck I got from Radio Shack. And a pair of speakers that came from one of those touring liquidations, had a 10" woofer, and a matching passive radiator, and a pair of 5 inch paper mids and a pair of 3" paper tweeters. A wretched speaker system by our standards today, but it served a 15 year old kid well.

My first real high quality system came to me between the years of 20 and 23. It wa a refurbished Dynaco Stereo 70 amp, an Amber 17B pre-amp. A pair of Spica TC 50 speakers and the matching servo sub. Turntable wa a CJ Sonegraphe SG 3 with Sumiko MMT arm and Sumiko Alchemist IIIS cartridge. Cassette deck was a Tandberg TCD 310. That was a pretty decent system that served me well a lot of years.

Regards
Mister Pig

My first component system was also the first stereo I bought myself. It consisted of an MCS integrated amp, digital tuner, and linear track turntable and home brew speakers. A little later I replaced the speakers with Realistic Mach Twos.

I still own those Mach Twos today. The components are all gone, but a couple of years ago I tried to reassemble that system with replacement components. I got the turntable and tuner, but not the amp. I found one of the amps on eBay and have been watching it for two years. The seller hasn't come down at all in that time. His opening bid is exactly the new retail price from 1985.

I was given a Bang&Olufsen Beomaster 4000 by a highschool friend who was into electronics..been hooked on and off ever since. I was spinning records by the age of 9 but that was pretty low quality TT..important though as it helped form my love of music.

I was 16. Saved up and bought each component one at a time including the speakers...yes I had one speaker for a time, then there were two and no amp, then.... No one in my life was supportive of the hobby so I kind of just muddled my way along doing the best I could within my financial means. Many hours of grocery store work for that system.

Polk Audio RT400s
Onkyo TX-8211
Kenwood 5 Disc CDP
15' Monster Cables

My first real stereo was components from 6 different manufacturers that are regularly discussed here on AK.

sony, dual, dynaco, acoustic research, stanton and kenwood. I added a uher to that pile of gear.

I had a Yamaha A-550 int. amp. of about 40wpc
Technics SL-210 turntable
Mirage SM-1, 2 way speakers.

Still remember the smell of fresh electronics as I unpacked
this brand new Yamaha.

Bought at ''Les magasins Atlantique ''
but bought the Mirage in Montreal... they were just getting on the market.

All this rig long gone but well implemented in my memory.

It was 1972. The speakers were homemade, can't recall the turntable, but the brain was a Sansui 1000A I found at a pawn shop for $35. Wish I still had it.

My first real system was acquired, like many of us, while in the service. In the winter of 1967 I bought a Fisher KX-90 kit amplifier (I regret selling it to this day), a Perpetum Ebner TT/w Pickering cartridge (forgot model) and a pair of AR-4's.

At the time I was one of the few guys in the barracks who didn't buy Japanese iron.

My first stereo was a Realistic SA-1000 integrated amp, matching TM-1000 tuner and a pair of Optimus 1B's. Recently I ran into a good deal on another SA1000 & TM1000, so I snagged um! After recapping them they are now in my shop system.

My first REAL system was a Dynaco PAT-4, Stereo 120, Smaller Advents, Pioneer PL-12D with Shure M91ED, and the 'old stereo "all in one" was reduced to just the electronics and faceplate (Turntable removed) and using Tape out to the Dynaco used as the tuner.

While in high school in about 1980 I traded a shotgun and $250.00 for a Sansui G-8700DB (still 220 volt), A pair of Pioneer CS-903's (that had a habit of blowing the tweeters) , and a mid grade Pioneer turntable and cassette deck. I traded the speakers for an earlier pair of Pioneer speakers to someone who thought the LED lights were cool, The turntable and cassette deck died and I think were left at my parents house and then left on the curb when they sold the house. I still have the Sansui and it gets used almost every day.