Your first ever 'hi-fi' system?

What did it consist of? You'll probably remember it as the one you had in your bedroom with which you used to annoy your parents.

Mine was:

Sansui SR222 MkII turntable/Grado F3E+ (with the obligatory ADC LMG-1 headshell and Michell clamp).
Sugden A21 Series 2 (still miss this lovely thing, over 25 years later)
Celestion Ditton 15's.

I used to think this set-up sounded amazing - till I went to my first hi-fi show. Still, gave me many hours of pleasure.

 

Garrard SP25 tt
Shure M75ED cartridge
Amstrad amp (aaargh)
Wharfedale Denton speakers

You could probably get almost the exact year from that (if you were alive at the time)

 

Gromit

My orginal system was this:

Yamaha CR-600 - Reciever (Originally My Dad's)
Teac A-400 - Cassette Recorder (Originally My Dad's)
Marantz CD-65IISE - CD Player
Whafedale Diamond II - Loudspeakers
Standard Freebie Interconnects
Homebase's electrical cable used as speakers cable

I thought that this system was the bee's knees. Infact it was very good considering that the Amp and Cassette were older than me.

Not a patch on my current system, but at the time, being only 13, it was very very good !

 

1978, bought in Saudi Arabia...

Technics SL-10 (TT)

Toshiba Aurex mini separates (Tunner, K7, Pre, Power 50 x 2 with big toroidal)

Marantz (FS speakers)

Beautiful looks and sound, my father used it until he passed away, the Toshiba gear, solid aluminium champangne finish, still works fine in my ex's...

 

First proper system Creek CAS4040 amp, Boston A-40 speakers and Systemdeck 11X TT.

Still have good (if somewhat dim) memories of it all. Funnily enough the Bostons and the Creek are still givin good service with friends. To take it on a bit:
EVOLUTION

amp: Creek - Exposure 7/8 - AA Puccini - AA Bellinin/ Donizetti - Audion Silver Night 300B PSE

Speakers: Boston A-40; Ruark Templar Mk - Ruark Talisman MkII - Audio Physic Spark - None - ????

Front End: Systemdeck TT - Micromega Stage 1 - Drive 1/ Parasound DAC 1600 - Drive 2/ Parasound DAC 1600/- Drive 2/ Chord DAC 64- Drive 2/ CAL Alpha - (shortly) Audio Note CDT-2/ CAL Alpha

 

Well now, it depends on what you call a system. I had a succession of weird and wonderful open reel tape recorders in the early seventies - many of them with glowing milk bottles

I suppose my first proper system, around 1976, consisted of:

Connoiseur BD1 record deck kit in a home made plinth.

ILP amplifier modules in a home made box.

Home made speakers containing KEF B200 bass units and Peerless DT10HFC tweeters.

The ILP power amps were not bad and put out 25 Watts RMS. The pre-amp modules were very noisy and put out lots of hiss.

I went through a succession of home made speakers, some using the KEF/Peerless combination and others using Tandy drive units (made by Isophon). Some even had stepped baffles for time alignment which was fashionable at the time. Some of my creations are still in use

The ILPs were replaced by Crimson Elektrik modules in about 1978. I built these into a smart aluminium rackmount case with a nice 3mm brushed fascia. The Crimson amp was in daily use until 1990 when it was finally replaced by a Marantz PM80 (forerunner of today's PM7200 complete with class A operation).

The Connoiseur was replaced with a Thorens TD160BCmkII with SME3009 tonearm and Ortofon VMS20E cartridge in about 1978.

The Thorens/SME/Ortofon/Crimson/KEF/Peerless system was real hifi and sounded very good.

 

When I went to university I spent my 1st terms grant on a hifi...
It was:
Akai direct drive turntable, with Audiotechnica somethingorother cartridge joined by bellwire to:
Technics SU-V5 amp joined by Monster cable that I still use to:
Kef Carina 2 speakers.

Sounded reasonably good, though it was kind of dwarfed by a m8s LP12/Radford ST25/Tannoy Yorkshire combo..

And as soon as I moved to London it got nicked

 

We must be from the same generation. I also had the Garrard SP25 with Wharfedale speakers but mine were Super Linton and the amplification was provided by a Rogers Cadet.

In the late sixties I also bought one of those new fangled cassette players - Tandberg if I remember correctly

 

I had quite a few ghetto blasters in my teens (late 70's- early80's), but my first taste of 'real' HIFI separates' was an all Technics system, which cost me £750 in 1987.
CD-Tuner-Cassette Deck :chunder: -Turntable:yikes:-Amp and a pair of Mordant Short Speakers.

I thought it was the dogs ******* until several months later I was at my mates house and he had just bought an Audiolab 8000a Amp with some TDL Speakers. It was then I realised that Jap amps(@ that time) where shite, reliable as ****, but that Audiolab was amazing.

It's been costing me a fortune eversince :cry: .

 

first 'hi-fi' i ever used was a bush radiogram and a phillips reel to reel which belonged to my parents. they then chucked the bush and swapped it for a thorens td 105, aiwa cassette deck and toshiba tuner / amp with b&w speakers. which i also used to use.
1st hi-fi that i actually bought was a jvc cd player, technics cassette deck, technics integrated amp (which my dad still uses) and mission 700 speakers (which i still have and sound damn good - if bass light compared to my b&w's)
cheers


julian

 

The SU-V5 was a monstrous piece of junk. We compared one to the Crimson Elektriks. The Technics bass was unbelievably bad - soft, wooly, no definition, no impact - just plain dreadful. It wasn't much better at the top end of the frequency range either. Dull as ditchwater. It didn't have any of the life and atmosphere of the Crimsons. The latter were great amps and a real bargain at that.

I forgot to mention that the brushed aluminium fascia was completed by a pair of LED VU meters, each individual LED delicately inset into the fascia, so that I knew how loud I could go :shame:

 

About 1974/5??

My first system was identical bar the amp - I had a Rotel RX-152 Receiver with an earth shattering 12wpc - It was a hand me down from my Dad (so prob not quite the ame generation as you and Ian ). It was his first system and I remember him picking us up from school all excited to show us and I reckon I was 7 or 8, so I could work out the approx year (could be wrong of course). I also had this weird looking top loading wharfdale cassette deck with wood veneerd sides. The Garrard came a couple of months later as he had to save some more to get that - for about three months we could only listen to the Beach Boys "Spirit of America", cos it was the only tape he had. Dad upgraded the lot about 4 years later and lucky me got em instead - envy of the class

I had those Wharfdales right up until the early 90s when they got blown away at a student party and I had the Rotel (only used as a tuner mind) right up until about three years ago. The Garrard was one of the first casualties - sold to a school friend for a fiver when I realised the flat on the idler gave all my records a heartbeat replaced with a Trio with a VMS20E - now that was a nice bit of kit.

 

I can't remember any of the model names but it consisted of:
A Sansui receiver bought by my elder brothers which I kept when they moved out.
A Trio turntable with Ortofon cartridge.
Keesonic Cub Speakers - I think they were like LS3/5a
All of the above were inherited

First hifi I bought was a Trio Cassette deck in 1985 to go with the above, paid for by summer job while still at school.

The rot set in 1989 as a student when I bought my first CD player, a £160 Technics. I began to get very into classical music about then and as it was getting hard to find on vinyl I ended up selling my considerable pop/rock LP collection to fund more classical CD purchases. And the Trio turntable went back to my brother. I still do not have a turntable so I'm glad I do not know what I'm missing.

Alan

 

1975 correct! Mind you it was second hand then by a year or two. I payed £75 IIRC. Maybe you or Ian could tell me if I was conned? If so, I'll call the guy and demand a rebate. I'm sure I could find him on friends reunited

 

Penny to a pound it was a KD1033.

 

A dreadful Fidelity stack system. To make the inbuilt turntable work I had to place coins on the arm.

This was followed very shortly by a Pioneer Midi system with a Yamaha CDX-5 CD player and a sony turntable (the one supplied with the Pioneer was kack). This was my system for around 15 years so whilst not exactly HiFi I certainly got my moneys worth from it.

 

I started with a old 50s Bush valve mono radiogram (2x10†Celestion speakers inside!) given to me by my grandparents – fond memories of listening to Peel and Alan Freeman in the 70s. The record deck was a vinyl wrecking white Garrard thing with a ceramic cart.

Next system, i.e. the first real one was a nice jump in quality; in 1979 at age of 16 I had scraped enough cash together to buy a second hand Lenco 75 / M75ED / Quad 33 / 303 / JR 149 system. Soon afterwards I landed a second hand Quad FM3 which I still have. I knew I wanted a 'proper' hi-fi since I was about 10 years old, it took a further 6 years to get there!

Tony

 

Goldring Lenco GL75
Shure M75EJ
Ferrograph F307
Richard Allen speakers built from a kit

 

Hey. My second deck lovely bit of kit - I could kill myself for dumping it in the skip . "What do you want that old thing for. we've got CDs now!!" said my EX wife. Ha. Got my priorities right in the end :MILD:

 

Very nice and you had that when you were 16? Lucky devil. Kinda system I wouldn't mind having now for my playroom.