Occurred to me this morning that some might be interested in sharing about their first entry into Hi-Fi - at least what you considered to be a significant step toward understanding that kit matters and there was so much more to be enjoyed and wrung from a stereo system.
No kit bashing please…I’ll go first.
I attribute my tripping and tumbling down this 40+ year slippery slope to two influential events – one a spark of interest and the other an initial, inspiring upgrade experience.
The Spark:
I was 12 years old staying with some cousins once summer and my older cousin had a quadrophonic receiver (don’t remember make or model), a cheap (I am sure) turntable of unremembered origin, four similarly modest speakers and the then just released Hotel California LP. Suffice it to say, one listen to that record in that modest teenager’s bedroom set up and I was hooked. To this day, Hotel California (the record and the track) remain favorites of mine.
The Inspiration:
My first system consisted of a JC Penney MCS (Modular Component Systems) Stereo Receiver (25 wpc), Cassette Tape Deck, Turntable (a rebadged Technics, I believe) and 3-way speakers. I have since come to learn that the MCS components were respected as fairly decent Mid-Fi back in the day. I certainly enjoyed the heck out of that system in high school and early on in college. Throw in my record and tape club memberships and I was on my way.
While that system was certainly a gateway drug of sorts, the inspiration (and subsequent tumble down the slippery slope) was reading about and buying a Carver Z-1 Coupler (a/k/a the Wide Band Z Coupler) – an impedance matching device designed to connect a receiver or preamp to a power amplifier, allowing users to connect amplifiers that do not have pre-out jacks to receivers that lack dedicated outputs for external amplification. The Z-1 Coupler allowed for the acquisition of an ADCOM GFA-545 100 wpc amplifier, which led to the purchase of some Avery Fisher Speakers; and the rest is history in the making. (I am pretty sure I still have the Z-1 stashed away in a box somewhere).
Thanks for reading. Please post any similar experiences that you care to share.
I had a friend when I was 16 and the first time I visited their home I heard my first “high end” (for the times) audio system. It was a Fisher tubed receiver, Akai reel to reel, AR turntable, and KLH speakers. I was hooked and I can still remember that moment rather vividly to this day. A couple years later, my friend’s older brother returned from a tour of duty in Japan and he brought back top of the line Sansui components, a Teac reel to reel, and some rather impressive speakers whose maker escapes me now. That was also a further inducement into the audio rabbit hole.
I’d say for me there were three steps to this audio love. The first was my father’s Dynaco/AR/EMI system. The Dynaco tuner, pre and amp were built and modified by one of the members of the church he was minister of in Philadelphia in 1960. In 1962 said member, Bob Anderson, an electrical engineer, accepted a job in England and gave the system to my Dad. Dad splurged and spent 200 dollars on a beautifully crafted stereo cabinet in cherry, with the full-range speakers installed, and I grew up with that system and it is still a “benchmark” for me in how music should be played back. (That cabinet and speakers–though not amplification or sources–is still in use today in one of my brother’s house).
When I moved out and was on my own I too had a Penney’s system, a Technics based one, that was nice, and then at a further point I bought a Proton and Bose system and enjoyed that. . . finally I found a path back to that first taste of love with my Dad’s system when I bought an EICO HF-81 stereo amplifier from a guitarist I played with who was using it as a head amp and didn’t really like the sound. I discovered why–he was running his guitar into the phono input! Anyway, 20 dollars and I was ecstatic for a few years. . . rolling tubes and enjoying the warmth and body that the amp gave my sound system. And then. . . third bit of puppy love. . . I visited my folks in Ohio and my Dad reconnected with a college friend from Swarthmore and we went to visit him and he had a Cary 300B integrated and I really fell for that sound. Looking for SET amps I could afford I found Steve Deckert of Decware on line, called him up, and bought the 27th amp he ever made. . . and that little amp opened up my heart to audiophilia and became my first real audio love. Many more Decware amps down the line I’m in love for good.
I got into the hobby in the late sixties when I built the Heathkit AA-15 amp and AJ-15 tuner. It was fun to build kits. As a bonus, these units performed quite well in those days. The receiver version, AR-15 got rave reviews in Consumer Reports. CR raved about the pulling power of the tuner section. They were getting distant radio stations that they could get with other receivers/tuners. From there I changed equipment many times as I got hooked into the hobby, always seeking but not quite getting perfection.
It was 1981 first day back to school. I loaded Devo’s New Traditionalists cassette into my knockoff Walkman, put on the orange sponge headphones and hit play. Danced down the school hallway to “It’s a Beautiful World” while the stoners and jocks looked on in disgust. Music was now personal and I found freedom in NOT broadcasting my music. From then on I was always looking for affordable new ways to enjoy music.
My father got me started in this hobby when he brought home first a self contained record player, then a self contained monaural “hifi” (it said HIFI right on the speaker grille!), then a Magnavox stereo console (with a “timbre” control !), then a Marantz receiver with a turntable and JBL speakers.
The first stereo that I owned was a Realistic receiver with Dad’s old TT and some no-name speakers that I bought at a church sale. I dragged that thru 6 years of college and loved it.
Since I started a real job, I’ve been relentlessly restless and sometimes close to broke.
The day my dad brought home a used no-name, cabinet-mounted mono all-in-one music system, my fate was sealed. I must have been around eight years old. Tucked away in the record storage section were three Ventures albums—The Ventures Play Telstar , Surfing , and The Fabulous Ventures —along with Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley. I played those records so many times they were practically worn smooth. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I could start piecing together a system of my own, but I’ve never forgotten the joy of that old mono console and the music that first captured my imagination.
Like so many of us here my father’s stereo was ubiquitous. A pair of no name cabinet speakers and a realistic receiver and turntable. At some point he got a pioneer 6 cd cd changer and that was livin….
I think when I was 16 or 17 my father got me a pioneer head unit for the 1981 Volvo 240 (4 speed with o/d) I was driving. A few months of saving and we installed Alpine speakers in it. A few more months and I bought a 4 channel pioneer amp. That sure did bump. I remember listening to zep 2 on that all the time, woah, talk about channel separation.
A little later I cashed out some of my savings and got myself a Denon AVR, Mission tower speakers and a pioneer cd/dvd player. I played that stuff till the speakers literally fell apart. I loved that Denon so much.
Recently a friend needed a new receiver and asked me what I thought he should get and I told him to maybe look for a late 90s early 2000s Denon, preferably made in Japan and he jumped on Craigslist and found something that day. Seeing It brought me right back, I was more than a little jealous.
Yep…started with Dad and his outright dedication to McIntosh. Built his own speakers and had music on quite a bit. First album I remember is Whipped Cream (Tijuana Brass)
When i got out of the service, first two jobs i had were selling stereos. North Dakota then Boulder Colorado. All the stuff we now call Vintage.
We would get together and listen to Little Feat and obtain illegal smiles.
Same thing today really. Not much has changed. Except now the equipment is new and Im Vintage…
Don’t remember how old I was. One day dad brought in a big hi-fi system (all I remember was German made) that sounded awesome. He was an architect and the brand was to be used in an auditorium that he was designing. One week later it disappeared and it turned out my mom wanted it out of the house.
Under my strongest protest, I got a “top-of-the-line” Japanese system (again don’t remember the brand). Of course it didn’t sound even close. But I had since become an audiophile and I have been looking for that awesome experience ever since.
In 1971 I dragged my mom to a Hi-Fi store adjacent to the University of Wisconsin.
I insisted I needed an upgrade from a Panasonic all-in-one that played 8Track tapes.
This place was a combination of gear, albums, parifinalia, and reeked of incense.
The walls were plastered with anti-establishment posters.
My mother braved this onslaught and bought her persistent (whiny) son a real stereo system.
Kenwood receiver, Goodman speakers, Garrard turntable with Shure cartridge. She had no idea what that introduction would lead to, or would create the racket coming from my bedroom .
Had the original Linn Sondek in college. Set-up dozens of them at a HiFi store.
Went to a good home recently. A long history with many different tone arms.
Still have the Ittok LV II which started out with a Grace F9e mm cart. Twice almost pulled the trigger on a Naim Arro, only to reconsider the move. The EKOS SE has on my mind lately. For now I just need to install my new phono MC phono cartridge. A good rainy day project to my mind.
In your experience, which tonearm and MC cartridge combo were you most satisfied with?
Most of my Linn experience was with Victors, Pro Musica, and a shop whose name I cannot recall that sold Exposure gear in Chicago.
Which Chicago Audio shops were you affiliated with?
