When Tandy first arrived in my town one of the biggest attractions to me as a twelve-year-old was the 'free' batteries offer! Just what I needed for my portable Philips cassette recorder.
I bought my first half-decent system in '81: NAD 7080 receiver; Advent speakers; and a Technics SL-1900 turntable. I had been big on recording cassettes since '75 and they were introducing Dolby C equipped models back then. I tried a Sony but wasn't satisfied so within a few weeks traded up to a Nakamichi 480Z. Record warpage was a big thing then on domestic vinyl, so I swapped out the Technics for a Dual 708Q DD with a low mass (ULM) tonearm, which could pretty much track anything. I then swapped out the stock Ortofon it came with for an Audio-Technica AT155LC. This basic set-up (with a few add-on signal processors - Vector Research VQ-100 equalizer, DBX 3BX-III dynamic range expander, Carver C-9 sonic hologram generator) was pretty much what I used for the next 20 years...
My first "record player" was a contemporary of Dansette , made by Alba with a cream lid and red body. In those days (the sixties) my vinyl consisted of 45s which were kept in a cardboard box all jumbled up together some not even in the right covers, LPs then were astronomically expensive at 42 shillings! I stuck with the Alba for a good while. In our local town (Orpington) a small Hi Fi shop opened at one end of the high street , it was a tiny place but it drew me like a magnet, the chap who owned it was happy to chat about all things Hi Fi and even demonstrate pieces of equipment, eventually I purchased a Goldring Lenco turntable in wooden cabinet together with a Decca ffss tonearm and cartridge, the amp was a Rodgers again in wood cabinet, speakers were Wharfedale Lintons. I was very happy with my setup until I had a collision whilst cycling to work with a Volvo, (guess who came off worse) this bought my way quite a decent amount in compensation. After considering what to spend it on for all of an hour or two, I decided to splash out on a new Hi Fi. The little shop in the high street had now opened a bigger and shinier store in Bromley. After chatting to the staff I plumped for, Aiwa cassette deck and receiver together with a Sony PS11 direct drive turntable. The cassette deck and receiver are now long gone but I still use the deck with I might add great pleasure and satisfaction, the only upgrade I made was an Ortofon 2m blue cartridge and boy what an upgrade. I should add that the Lintons were superseded by a pair of home made speakers with Wharfedale drivers but due to size limitations when i moved into my present abode i got hold of a pair of ported Tannoy bookshelf speakers which give a very satisfying performance. The other piece of equipment to go was my beloved Ferrograph series 6 reel to reel tape recorder, built like a tank and almost as heavy but it gave me more than 20 years of pleasure. That just about winds up this condensed history of my Hi Fi journey, some might say i haven't come very far in some 60 odd years but I'm happy with my setup, what else can i say? Oh by the way I'm a newish subscriber and enjoying your content immensely.
My first hi fi bought at 18 years old with a bank loan was a Sony Turntable, a beautiful Kenwood receiver, Altec Lansing speakers and a Sony Cassette deck. I cannot recall the model numbers. But it was fun and I enjoyed it immensely. As did my brother.
My first stereo aged 16 was a great big silver coloured Amstrad amp, BSR record player and no name loudspeakers. Added the matching Amstrad cassette deck a little later. I too used TDK AD 90s to record my friend’s LPs. I remember we used to treat our LPs with an anti static cleaner called Permastat. It worked, but the stylus used to scrape gunk out of the groove for a few plays afterwards. These Amstrad components came from Comet in Catford. I also bought a pair of Koss Pro 4AA headphones at Comet at some stage. The amp used to pick up audio from BBC1 from the nearby Crystal Palace TV transmitter!. First “proper” hifi was from a shop in south Norwood high street. This shop had a load of speakers in the back which included a pair of futuristic looking and awe inspiring KEF 105s. Needless to say these were out of reach of a 17 year old so I tried the KEF Coda, which I didn’t like. In the end my system consisted of Nad 3020, Dual 505 Mk2 and Mission 700 speakers hooked up with QED 79 like yours. Total price about £320 - not all bought at once of course - I think it took about 2 years to accumulate. There must have been thousands of similar systems at the time. (1979/80). Happy days.
I remember Permastat! Blimey, I'd forgotten about that one. And Amstrad HiFi! I thought it looked impressive. Not sure how it sounded but it looked good. And hey, £320 was real money back then :)
My first hifi system, on HP from Laskey's, was a National Technics (Panasonic) deck with Shure M75ED cart, into a Trio KA1500 integrated amp and KLH 317 speakers. And an Audiotronic twin cassette deck was added for all the records I then couldn't afford to buy. Sounded great to my 16 year old ears in 1977!
Hi Paul my first proper hi fi consisted of a Leak Delta 70 amplifier, Goodmans Magnum SL speakers(Both obtained from an older hi fi friend), a Sansui SR 222 turntable with a Shure M75ED 2 cartridge and a Technics top loading cassette deck. This was circa 1977. In the early 80’s I had a Teac A770 cassette deck (3 head)and bought one TDK MA-R metal cassette tape.
Classic names there, Andrew - I used to work with a guy who worked for Goodmans. He moved to HiFi World magazine where I scribbled. Actually, that Soundburger that my wife has? I mentioned it in the video? That Goodmans chap was the guy who serviced it! Those guys know a thing or two :) What was the cassette deck, incidentally?
Oh my gosh. Are you . . . me?! The parallels of your early HiFi experiences match my own so closely that I could stand almost perfectly in your shadow and not be seen. I'm an American though, so some of my brands were different, and I needed to pay for my own stuff by using money I got by doing work around the house, but it's essentially the same story. That was great to hear. My original setup collected over 3 years: Turntable - Sony, cartridge AT with a green coded stylus that I eventually upgraded to a Grado. I don't remember the model. It was a budget unit. Amp - Realistic (Radio Shack/Tandy) 35 Watt STA78 receiver Speakers - EPI 100v bookshelf . . . and the crown jewel - a Sankyo (yes that's really how it was spelled) cassette recorder, with CrO2 (high bias) record setting! oh, . . and Pioneer SE-305 headphones. I still have those headphones. They sound awful.
Down here in the Antipodes I began in the late 1960s hifi stores as you describe were rarer than hen's teeth. There was one in the city in which I live and practically everything in the shop even more hideously expensive, prices being inflated by a protectionist government extracting buckets of import duty and sales tax. A well-known Dutch company had a presence here and was the source of my first "hi-fi" A solid state amplifier delivering an eye-watering 2.5 watts per channel into one of their infamous 25 ohm double coned HiZ speakers. As an interim measure on the advice of a friend, I mounted these on large open baffles which I hung on my bedroom wall. Feeding this rig was the equally famous Garrard SP 25 turntable with whichever cartridge came with these gems of high fidelity. I later built two ported enclosures for the same speakers. While the speakers could be bought in proper enclosures, I decided biggers was better and made mine at least 50% larger. To me, they sounded amazing. Your mention of the Wharfedale Lintons reminds me that these were the second speakers I had (and still have in reserve) but they were imported directly from a shop in Guildford, as kit sets, one at a time to avoid exceeding the upper limit for imported goods without a licence (only available to specialist retailers). Protection of local, very mediocre gear was uppermost in our leaders' minds and avoiding it was a challenge to the 1960s would-be audiophile downunder
rega planar 2 with linn k9, a&r a60, linn kans was superb for the time recently sold the a&r to friend and they are loving it I have a red Zerostat somewhere
My first hi-fi was a music centre! Remember those? They play records, cassettes and have built in FM AM radio. Of course it wasn't "hi-fi" as such. I begged my mom to buy it and my teenage self was entirely happy with it. Some years later I pleaded my mom to buy me Alan Sugar's Amstrad cassette deck which at UKP50 was the cheapest cassette deck with Dolby noise reduction, that new must have miracle feature! Of course it wasn't hifi either but I loved it. My first tentative steps in real hifi was after I consulted a bunch of hifi mags before buying Sansui SR222 which was at the time the ONLY Japanese turntable worth buying. It was one of the few belt driven table among all the direct drive strobe lighted monstrosities.
When I was 16 I had a Rotel turntable a Rotel receiver and wharfdale XP2 speakers.i had a great blast with the system. I'm 61 now and upgraded to a new system.still love vinyl 👍👌
A few years back I found a pair of old beat up Wharfedale XP2 speakers in a skip I took them home cleaned them up the best I could and although they were a bit scuffed up they looked reasonable but still had some character I hooked them up and they worked, I've still got them all nicely set up in the spare room in a secondary system and they still sound great.
Many thanks for such a magical video. My first real 'system' comprised of: Revolver Super Turntable (Rosewood) with AT95 Pioneer A400 Phillips CD610 mark ii AR Red Box speakers Looking back to 1991, it was unbalanced and poorly planned, but to a fresher in Liverpool with a grant it was my first taste of hifi and the start of a lifelong passion. All the components above were sold to friends as soon as I found my first job and bought system number 2: Gyrodec/Rega 300/MC15ii Aiwa AD-F810 Pioneer PDS-801? Exposure Super XV Tannoy 603 speakers The above system sang like a canary and lasted me ten years before I felt the urge to upgrade again, which sadly I didn't/couldn't at the time, due to work commitments, at which point the hifi was boxed-up or sold to friends. Out of everything I've bought, the Gyrodec is still with me, like a trusty steed that I'll never, ever get rid of. It just gets on and plays the music without a fuss, much like your first system did!
One of your best yet Paul, I think I am about the same age as you and you hit the nail on the head with this one. My first hifi was from Comet when I was 16, a Sansui amp, Garrard SP25 mk4 turntable and a pair of British Goldman’s speakers. I started work aged 18 and from Comet bought an end of line Pioneer 8800 amp with matching tuner. To this I added a pair of Mission 700’s and an ADC direct drive turntable. I had gone in for a Dual but I was swayed by the salesman who enthused about the ALT carbon fibre arm and superior cartridge for the same price as the Dual. I later added a Pioneer cassette deck the CT200. I loved this system and wish I still had it.
Maudent short speakers, rega planer3 turntable and Cambridge amp, my first hifi bought in hifi shop in Wavertee rd Liverpool opposite old Sefton hospital. Fantastic set up.around 1982
I remember being enthralled by Beaver audio in Liverpool, only to part with my cash at Wigan hi-fi where I bought a semi-automatic dual turntable and a Kenwood amp and Kenwood CD player which offered 2 times over sampling, and Bose 200 series speakers which reclined sideways on to a bandstand stand. The cables feeding the spring clip terminals were oxygen free copper. The CD interconnects had a neoprene sleeve and the terminals were gold plated. The hi-fi rack was a three-shelf converted TV stand. The whole system packed a punch, but the Bose speakers were the first to go, replaced by floor standing Mission speakers, Marantz CD player and Technics pre amp and power amp. I don't have any of these items anymore having upgraded several times since.
My first system was a Linn LP12 A+R P77 cartridge, Luxman R 2050 Reicever, and IMF TLS 50 Transmission line floor standing speakers, My first job on leaving school was working in the hifi trade so i got to see and hear some fantastic equipment . Hifi music has always been my first love and some 40 + years later audio hifi is still my number one love and yes my system has changed just a bit.
For Christmas when I was I think 13, I desperately wanted a Panasonic boom box. Instead, I got an envelope with $100 US. “Get yourself something better,” my dad said. And so it began. I started with a Sony cassette deck I connected to my parents’ mediocre all in one system. Then I used all of my lawn mowing money to buy a very nice Denon DRA-350 receiver and Stax SR-30 headphones, since I couldn’t yet afford speakers. Finally I added fantastic ADS L570 II speakers (like Braun in Europe) and a Dual CS530 turntable. My ambition in the 1980s was to have a top the line NAD system, and I do now-their best from 1989, along with a lot of other stuff. And I still have those speakers!
Wise words from your Dad there, Timothy. And wow, Stax? That's pretty heady stuff there :) And I'm happy you've hung onto that older stuff - wish I had but it was all eaten by damp in a basement during a later house move.
Loved this video. Every aspiring audiophile has been down the same road and can totally relate to this - desires, financial constraints leading to compromises, reading many copies of Hifi magazines (my favourite was Hifi Answers), ttrying to find ways of saving even £5 on a component before sitting back and soaking up the music. My first hifi system, circa 1976 consisted of a Technics SL20 turntable with a Shure cartridge and headshell, a Leak 2001 receiver and Yamaha HP1 headphones (which I still have!). Soon a pair of Leak 2030 speakers followed then an Aiwa 6300 cassette deck. It was bliss.
My first hifi was a 5w Sansui 200 receiver, a Dual 1215 turntable and a pair of Akai speakers that looked cool but sounded awful. Still, I was in heaven. I traded up to a pair of Marantz speakers within a year for a great upgrade and added a Sony *8-track* recorder to complete the set. I’d love to have that set back for nostalgia purposes, but traded it for a car that didn’t run 😆 My next set was a KLH model 35 system with 20 WATTS of POWER, a Dual 1215s and Model 6 speakers. Whoa! Upgrade fever took over and the rest is history.
The only thing I ever remember my father buying for himself was a nice Technics receiver, KLH speakers and Garrard turntable. It sounded miles better than anything I had access to before and I think I got more use out of it than he did. My nephew still happily uses the receiver which has to be about 45 years old.
Very interesting and made me think back to mine. Unfortunately memory not was it was but I do remember a Rotel amp, early 70's, and Solavox speakers from comet. Both the amp and speakers were quickly changed. The amp for the Nad 3020 and speakers for Wharfdale freedom from Laskys. Can't recall the exact model but they had strange removal foam grilles. The turntable was the only constant for a while Pioneer PL12 with a VMS20E cartridge.
Really impressed but at an early age I didn't know much difference. Took me a while to upgrade. Thorens TD160 Mk 2 with SME 3009 a classic combination. The arm was replaced not long after by a local dealer for a Sumiko Premier MMT and the deck tweaked using Linn springs.
i love stories of peoples early HiFi adventures I still love the SL series from Technics the firs technics i ever heard was my Grandfathers SL-B2 and i was in LOVE and now my main Turntable is an SL-Q2, with an Ortofon 2M Black and it sounds EXCELLENT. My first few systems were all mini hifi all in ones with one broken component that i had gotten at yard sales usually had 2 at once to cover for the broken component, it wasn't until high school that i could afford to even buy used separate components (still at yard sales) i also got smarter about brands that held up better i even still have my old 100 disc Sony CD player CDP-CX153 from back then and it STILL WORKS! i also started experimenting with multiple amps and Speaker sets due to the low quality of what i could get used i would often buy more speakers to cover the weaknesses of the ones i owned if i had a set of tower speakers that were lacking in mid's i bought a pair of bookshelf speakers with strong mid's and connected them to a separate amp to be able to balance them with my tower speakers and ran them all together. lol i eventually ended up with too many amps too close together and many overheated but it was fun while it lasted and it sure sounded good for the amount i spent
I started my system back in the late 60’s while in Germany with the RCAF..I bought a Sony TC-530 tape deck that had an amplifier in it…then a PE 2020 turntable and later some B&O Beovox 5000 speakers…these I kept for at least 35 years..but then sold them..in the past 6/7 years I have got back into vintage components. I have had several Receivers - a Marantz 2230 which I found in a dumpster - witch worked and was in remarkable condition..later sold it for $300 two Pioneer SX-780s (sold one)..now have a Kenwood KA-5500 amp and a Fluance RT-85 TT…I then bought a pair of B&w DM6 speakers and a Sony TC-558 R2R and an Akai 1730 DSS R2R…the last thing I bought was a Fluance TA-10 phono amp…and my system sounds fantastic to my 84 year old ears..
Well I remember having a similar journey myself. My first proper Hi-Fi was a Dual CS505 Mk2 with a NAD 3020 bought from Eric Wiley in Castleford (still going after over 50yrs). I bought my Mission 700 speakers from Lasky’s in York. I remember looking at an Ariston RD80 and lusting over it but had the Dual. For a cassette deck I bought a Pioneer CT520 bought from Eric Wiley and I agree on the headphones also bought there. Then the serious bug got hold and it was off to Eric’s of Bradford to buy an LP12, Basik Plus & K9, Naim Nait (original) & a pair of Linn Kans’ all with QED79 Cable. The Linn & Kans’ are still going but the Nait is long gone. Replaced with Sugden A48B from new and still in my system and the Kans’ replaced with MK2’s. What a journey!
I was born in Buxton in the early 60s , I started work in 78 . It took me 4 years to buy an amp , cassette deck , turntable and speakers , I treated myself to one item each Christmas. I bought Marantz from a local hifi dealer called Bernard Hulley . One of my first and still highly treasured and listened to albums is the first Roxy lp you have on your wall .. really enjoyed your story .. thanks , Rob
Bear with me this is from a long time ago. 1st Hi-Fi. A Dual 505/2 Turntable, Sinclair Amp(brother built it from a kit), and Wharfedale Denton Speakers. It started another 50 years of a hobby, that for me, was all about my love of music.
That Dual was also my first turntable and I was very impressed with it. Purchased in 1988, it kept going and served me well until 2011, when I upgraded it to a cool looking Project esprit with an impressive looking acrylic platter and red plinth. Sadly, it didn't sound any better than the Dual it replaced. But several upgrades later (of all equipment) I arrived at the more pleasing Marantz TT 15 S1 which provides a lot for the money.
My first hi-fi system goes back to 1955, a couple of years before stereo records began to be mass produced. I bought a 20-Watt Bogen mono amplifier. It had only 3 inputs: phono and 2 aux. The turntable was Garrard, although I don't recall the model. The speaker was made locally for the record and equipment dealer I bought everything from. It consisted of a 10" 2-way coaxial speaker in an unfinished wood box with baffle that I painted and faced with speaker fabric. It didn't sound and look half bad.
Now that's a fascinating time to be buying your first system. And I bet it looked and sounded wonderful. That must have been a great time to be into audiophile stuff. Oh, how you must have been faced with many a furrowed brow from people who just didn't get where you were coming from, sound wise eh? Hehe. Or am I getting that wrong?
This sure brought back a lot of good memories. When I was a kid, (I think around 1971 or so) my parents bought a Sony HP-610a stereo system. It was an all in one amplifier with wooden side panels and had a wooden lid that housed a Dual turntable. It came with two separate speakers that had a beige cloth grill. I remember my mother later telling me my father had paid a fortune for this stereo back then. I started listening to my parents vinyl records at the age of 6 years old. Being a huge Elvis Presley fan, my mother bought me my first record which was a K-Tel Elvis compilation - as advertised on TV - yes, that one! In 1987, I added a Fisher dual cassette tape deck (I can't remember the model). I played all my records and tapes on this very good sounding system until I left for college. That's when I got my first sound system. I had worked my a** off in the summer before college and took part of my student loan to by my first integrated amp and speakers. The amp was a NAD 7020i Stereo Receiver and the speakers were a pair of Mission 760. A few months after I got the NAD, the display stopped working. So when I took it for repair I saw they had just put out the NAD 701, so I traded the 7020i for it. A month or so after I bought my first CD player which was a YAMAHA CDX-470. Around 1994 I bought my first good pair of headphones, the Sennheiser HD-560 Ovation II. I still have my NAD 701 and the YAMAHA CD player. Since then, I've bought a few vintage amps as well because, well... nostalgia? I still own a Sansui AU-6600 and a G-3500. Although I prefer the sound of my modern system, I prefer the looks of vintage Hi-Fi.
Oh God how does one reply to this wonderfully blissful drowning in hi fi nostalgia? I too, like most people here, found heaven through music and the means to play it. What a privileged world we suddenly found ourselves in. The only problem was we hadn’t a clue which gate to open! Then suddenly one did open of its own accord. It was God himself in the shape of Jimmy Hughes. “Thou shalt only listen to music on LP12’s” was the mantra and by Jove did we tow that long line lol! Seriously Paul that was one magnificent description of your joyous journey through the corridors of hi fi which exactly mirrors our own. Only the names were different but the same. Unfortunately I just haven’t got the gumption to go down that road myself as the memories are not as hazy as I’d hoped. By that I mean those wonderful people and places are gone and I just cannot go there. So many memories that make me cry and laugh at the same time, in fact, similar to reading your own. All I will say is this : thank God (that man again!) for being still alive to tell the tale. Maybe some day I will too…..
Wow what a journey back in time. I am similar age to you and guess what I had an SL B2 also. I loved it attached to a Technics SU V2 Amp. Well I progressed onto other more expensive kit once I began work and my younger sister had my Technics. Well I have just rescued it before she threw it in a skip. The turntable needed a belt a auto return gear and a stylus but it works. The amp needs recapping so that's next on my refurb list. Luckily I can do this myself after years of electronics industry experience. Great video
How fun! Loved this informal chat about hifi origin stories! My father was an audiophile so I grew up with good (not great) gear around the house and, like you, studied the Stereo Review that would come to the house every month. My favorite edition was the annual Buyer’s Guide where I could read specs and pricing on so much exotic gear. I also enjoyed accompanying my dad to the hifi stores on the rare occasion he was in the market for an upgrade. I loved talking to the salesmen and listening to all the gear they had on hand. I had a true religious experience listening to Dire Straits Brothers In Arms, first through a pair of Mirage M1’s and then a pair of Acoustat 2+2s. I was hooked and completely fixated on the idea of having my very own hifi. Fast forward a couple of years, I am 15 and my dad is looking for a new pair of speakers. He ended up buying a pair of Thiel CS 3’s to replace his Ohm Walsh 2’s. I immediately began scheming to see how I could get my hands on the Ohms and build my own hifi. I proposed that if I saved up enough money to buy the electronics, perhaps he would consider giving me the Walsh 2’s for Christmas. He agreed! That year, I turned 16, got a job, and saved my money. That was 1987, the earliest days of digital. I was young. I wanted the newest tech. And so I set out to build a system consisting of a CD player, a tape deck, and amplification. Here’s where I ended up: HH Scott DA 952 CD player Technics RS-D170W Dual cassette deck Sony STR AV450 Receiver Ohm Walsh 2 speakers I only owned one CD when I first bought my stereo. U2 Unforgettable Fire. It cost me $17 which, in those days, was a ton of money - especially for a kid working at Kentucky Fried Chicken earning $3.35/hour. But I LOVED that stereo and spent countless hours listening to music over the next several years before even considering an upgrade of any kind. All these years later, I’ve been through countless iterations of a hifi, but do you know I still own that Sony receiver and my Ohm Walsh 2’s? The Sony powers speakers in the garage and on the back patio and the Ohms sit idle in my listening room, ready to one day pass down to one of my kids.
I love this opportunity for each of us to recount our beginnings in what would be lifelong hobbies and sources of enjoyment. My first receiver was “earned” by cutting a Vietnam veterans Sansui 2000A he picked up on his way back home to the States. It had been confined to a closet by the time I inherited it. I saved my money and bought a matching Sansui 2050c turntable and some Sansui speakers. I kept the components clean as the proud owner of a hi fidelity (I believed) “system”. Later added an ADC equalizer and miscellaneous “supplies” to keep my growing LP collection clean. Finally added a Pioneer R2R I placed on layaway for what seemed like an eternity. I was proud of my system which sat atop a homemade wooden stand complete with a lamp that hang in an arc nobly above my turntable. I loved that system and some of my fondest instances of musical enjoyment came through that system. Forty years later, several systems have bettered it in terms of actual sound, but none have filled me with the same kind of joy that comes with first outings. Thank you and Rest In Peace Col. Gray, the Sansui has been recently recapped and I’ll give it to my son when he gets in 9th grade, but only after he cuts the grass a few times.
I also started off with a red and cream Dansette! I was fascinated by stereo (heard on a neighbour's system) and soon started cobbling stuff together. I bought a Garrard SP25 and a cheap transistor amp from a guy in the Tottenham Court Rd. Speakers were ex radiogram and mounted on crude baffles and wedged in my bookshelf between hardback books (proper bookshelf speakers!) I am somewhat older than you, and my first decent system was a secondhand Ariston RD11S belt driven turntable fitted with an SME 3009 arm and a Shure V15 III cartridge. The amp was a Quad 22 preamp and a pair of Quad II valve amps. Speakers were Lowther Acoustas fitted with PM7 drive units (bought from a lovely neighbour who wanted to downsize when he moved to a small bungalow). I loved this system, but had to sell it when I got married - my intended explained that it was incompatible with domestic harmony! I seem to remember that one of the cats allegedly got an electric shock from one of the Quad amps - best not to mess with KT66s in full flow! For my 70th birthday I was gifted (by my better half) a pair of KEF LSX speakers in white with matching stands. Their aesthetic passes muster. They were soon joined by an SD Acoustics Gemini subwoofer (also in white) and, thanks to your brilliant reviews, I have (cunningly hidden away) a Project Debut Pro turntable and an Audiolab 6000CDT. I can now enjoy my vintage vinyl and collection of CDs. It's quite differeent to my first system, and gives me much joy. Thanks again for your wonderful reviews and excellent sense of humour! You are always a highly enjoyable listen - even if I have no intention of buying the kit reviewed, you are always a pleasure to listen to.
Well that's very kind of you Bob. Thanks. Some class equipment in that list, I must say. I just can't remove the cartoon image of that poor cat: in typical Tom & Jerry, jagged, frizzy, Tom's-just-been-electrocuted-kinda image. ;)
Great video. Amazing how young we were when we realized the way other people listened to music did not sound like we thought it should sound. In my case I was around 11 years old. I'm 66 now.
Hi Paul, loved this item. I got my first Hi-fi in 1970 . I had a record player my Father bought for me from Rumbelows electricals ( remember them) . I think it was a BUSH. After a while I wanted something a bit better and louder. Like you , Laskeys, this time in Tottenham Court Road came to the rescue. I chose a Garrard SP25 with Goldring G800 cartridge, Sansui AU 101 amp and a pair of Wharfdale Lintons, they were a bit cheaper then. This system gave me great enjoyment for a long time till the HI-FI press suggested a change of turntable and yes I got the upgrade bug, but thats another story. Thanks for your ramblings, Nicholas
Thanks Nicholas - blimey yes, I do remember Rumbelows. Kinda miss them too. And a nice HiFi set up, I must say. Yes, upgrading. It's like the mafia - once you're in, you ain't getting out alive :)
What happy memories for us old geezers breaking out of school at lunchtime to go to HiFi demos - oh how things have changed! I was 15 back in 1978. First real system from the nice guys at Swift in Wilmslow was a Rotel RA611 amp, Pioneer PL112D turntable with Ortofon VMS20e mm cartridge and B&W DM5 speakers. I had to wash countless cars to buy that! I did have the Pixall too (forgotten all about that until I saw your video). Can't remember the cables. I think we all had the same pre-punk LPs back then - PF, Genesis, Camel, Yes, Tangerine Dream, Supertramp, etc, etc. Fast forward nearly 50 years and I still love my HiFi. But now have a "high end" system post retirement that would have made my eyes water back then but sadly without the acute hearing of my teenage self. So much water under the bridge...
Hi great video keep up the good work, my first stereo let me see, oh yeah it was 1967 I was 15 years old I bought a Philco AM/FM stereo receiver no turntable or 8 track, no cassette pretty small and basic, just a little red light just to show you the strongest signal lockup little bitty speakers all this and wires too for $26.00.
Loved this video! I had two stages of first hifi, the inherited one and the bought one. Inherited was a Garrad SP25 Mk2, Teleton TFS50 receiver with Wharfdale Linton 2 & Celestion County speakers. This was upgraded over the next couple of years to arrive at my first fully ‘bought’ hifi. This consisted of a Rega Planar 2/A&R E77, NAD 3120 & a pair KEF Chorale 3 speakers. This was later joined by a Philips CD160 (bought from Lasky’s!) Along the way to this system, there was also a Rotel RP830 turntable, which was plagued by a bothersome arm!
Hi Paul. My journey into Hi Fi began in 1965. The amplifier was a 12 watts per channel Star SA 30 tube integrated . My first turntable was the Thorens TD 150 (no arm )The tonearm was an ADC Pritchard with an ADC cartridge, The speakers were a pair of Goodmans Axiom 201 drivers. (no cabinet) My dad made 2 big boxes for the speakers.
Yamaha CA610, JVC JLA15 turntable with ortofon OM10 cartridge and Wharfedale Linton XP2 speakers. That was my first system on starting work and I loved it!!!
A nice trip down memory lane! My first hifi was a technics SL-1200 turntable, technics receiver, technics double cassette deck, and mission speakers. I loved that system and gave it to a friend when I couldn’t keep it anymore having bought a tiny flat. 😂
Yamaha a420, kef c20, denon tape deck and a technics turntable (gifted from brother - in-law), also 79 strand qed cable. Perfect 16th birthday! Still remember the hair raising on the back of my neck when first playing The Wall on vinyl through it.
great trip down memory lane. . . . 1968 . . . 10th grade. . . 16 years old. . . started with lafayette electronics LA-375 integrated amp. . . a used Acoustic Research AR-XA turntable. . . KLH model 17 speakers and Koss Pro 4a headphones . . . . soon thereafter the lafayette was replaced by the kenwood KA-6000 integrated amp & a Kenwood tuner, the KLH were replaced with Acoustic Research AR-2ax speakers and I added a Roberts reel to reel . . . fun video , thanks !
When I was 18, I went to work for RH Macy's department store. At that time they carried stereos and electronics. My first purchase with my new charge card was a Pioneer reciever, Kenwood speakers and BSR turntable. My first, what I consider to be, high quality system, I purchased from a place called Woodbridge stereo, consisted of a 3 piece speaker system 3D Acoustics 3d610b. Two satellite speakerd and a passive 10" sub, with amazing imaging and detail and good bass from the Sub. Paired with a Kenwood integrated amp and tuner, and an ADC cd player. I later learned that the parent company was Dahlquist.
I love this Video !!!! It's like having a Prog Rock Brethren in England where I'm originally from Canada. I have to do a similar Video evne though I did do one on my Speaker JOurney. Another on my Digital journey,. But this is way better than my stuff !!!
Go my first system from Laskys, got a summer job during school holidays soldering hotel radio all in ones and bought a Garrard Sp25 my iv, Teleton 7 watt amp and a pair of Wharfedale Denton 2XPs on the proceeds.
I remember Laskys! My 1st system comprised of a Dual CS505 I (which I still have), Harman Kardon PM635 & Tannoy Mercury Mk I's. I remember going to Comet with my mate annoying the staff by getting them to demo different bits of gear haha....& we did that thing with cassette decks 😆 I also had the same Sennheiser headphones & like you they got more use than the speakers. I also still own a pair of Shelton XP2's that belonged to my Dad...
My first hifi was a Cyrus one amplifier & i was 19 when i got all this hifi because my friends dad had a cyrus one & Linn axis with the creek speakers i mentioned & i was blown away by the sound. I had big Nad bookshelf speakers that I got for free. The tweeter had blown, i had these mounted on bedside cabinets at first , i took them to Wilmslow audio and they put a new tweeter in for £20, I started with a flat JVC cassette deck which cost £20, i bought a sound organisation hifi stand. Then i got single pillar target speaker stands. My first turntable was a Linn Sondek with Akito Mk1 and a K9, I actually got a £500 loan to buy this turntable I liked the sound that much, I got rid of it unfortunately one of my biggest regrets. I then went through a phase of lots of different speakers. Acoustic research holographic imaging AR-M1 which i loved, quite rare today, I've not seen many, then I had Celestion 7's, I swapped with a friend's dad for the Creek CLS20, then I had some rubbish eltax floorstanders, then some old mission 701's, then I bought some new Tannoy Mercury M2's at £140 which I loved, big sound deep bass. After this my hifi changed a lot then. Good video, thank you.
Lovely older gear. I purchased my first turntable at 17 in 1975, Now 64 I must be on 7th hifi system going through every type of brand & tech like minidisc, tape, flac files & back to vinyl. They all have their place. Presently it's a Rega 3, Marantz 6007cd & amp with Bowers n Wilkins 607 s2 anniversary speakers. But my music tastes are still the same. I look back & apart from the wife music is what makes life worthwhile. P.s I still have my red walkman from the 70's.
Myself & my brother put a system together. Dual 505 , ortofon vms 20, Nad 3020, Celestion 121 Speakers . 1982. It sounded great . A few years back I repurchased a Nad 3020 for my bedroom system. More than nostalgia, its that good 👍
That was fun! Mine was a brand new 1975 Radio Shack Realistic quadraphonic receiver and 4 Nova 8 speakers, Dual turntable with Shure cart and some off brand Cassette Deck. I was 15. I had moved up from record players so it was everything. Reading these comments is soooo sweet.
@@TheAudiophileMan I had a couple of Quad SQ albums which Columbia records pushed. You had to have a Quad decoder of some sort for your phono. I did not. So I used it as surround sound, then later stacked the speakers.
Hi Paul I bought my Mission 762 speakers from Beaver Radio in the early 90's and I'm still using them today. I nearly had a heart attack carrying the massive box to the car, parked somewhere near Dale street! Those were the days 🙂
My first record player was an ITT-KB, to which you could add an extension Amplifier/Speakers, which gave you stereo. Next, was a Bush Arena Stereo Amplifier, powered by Germanium Transistors. It even had small Output Transformers inside it. When that died, I bought an Amstrad 8000 Mk3 from a second-hand shop, which was a very enjoyable amplifier. That was followed by a Pioneer SX-434 I found by a rubbish bin, which had been put out for the Refuse Collectors. I took it home and within a couple of hours, I had it running again. That served me well for several years, before I finally bought the Amplifier of my dreams. The World Audio Design K5881 Power Amplifier, to which I added the WAD KLPP1 Phono Amplifier and a pair of Quad Electrostatic 57 Speakers. Hi-Fi Bliss.
Paul, this brought back some memories. My first system was purchased through luck - having pressed my nose up to the window of any electrical retailers that I came across. Having just started work in 1977, I had money in my pocket and the determination to spend it. My first two purchases were an ADC 1600 (with the 'S' shape arm) and the venerable NAD 3030 in silver (I believe this just pre-date the 2020?). This seemed to me a pretty good combination given I had not heard either before buying. Laskys then came into play with me making exactly the same choices as you for the JVC casette deck and Sennheiser headphones, I then added a basic JVC tuner and a purchased pair of Teledyne Acoustic Research AR24's (I think the were AR24's).
I could write paragraphs on my hifi journey. I haven't collected a ton of gear, as I've never really had much money to spend. Most of my journey has been in my head, starting from being a 4-year-old being fascinated by my second cousin's McIntosh system and his record collection, and later down the line an obsession with my friend's system including Linn turntable and Mission speakers. Cheap music centres and midi systems, played a part in my childhood, as well as cheap Technics separates from Dixons. I now have a streamlined system (to make life easier with my partner), including Tannoy Revolution XT6F speakers (and KEL LS50s in the loft), Project Debut Carbon Esprit SB turntable (with Goldring 1042), Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 and an Audiolab 6000CDT. It does everything I need and sounds great. It's not the end of my journey, of course.
I was given our old 70's Sony music centre by my folks in about 1983 (I was about 12 or 13 at the time), I'm sure everyone over 50 remembers those things. To be honest it was fantastic at the time, very loud! My Dad had just bought a Bang & Oulfson BO centre from Rackhams in Birmingham. When I passed my A levels and got into Cambridge in. 1987 my folks gave and Grandmother gave me between them around £1500, I also had a lump sum from an insurance saving policy my parents started when I was born, so used some of windfall to buy my first real system: A Rega Planar, a Cyrus 2 amp and pair of Mission speakers, after a few hours of auditioning equipment and many hours of reading reviews I settled on it. I had this system for quite a few years, I remember upgrading my amp to Audiolab 8000A in about 93 and adding an Arcam Alpha 5 CD player, I upgraded the speakers to B&W 603's and eventually the turntable to a Michell Gyrodec.
Thanks for the memories, Paul! I got into hi-fi at the same age you did, and at around the same time. My parents had set a bit of money aside for my 16th birthday, thinking I might get a moped, but I had other ideas thanks to afternoons spent in Comet, Rumbelows (Laskys never reached Plymouth) and local specialists Framptons and Peter Russell's Hi-Fi Attic. I kicked off my hi-fi addiction with a JVC KD_A2 cassette deck (no action at all - the cassette clipped onto the front panel!), a Marantz PM200 amp, a MicroSeiki MB-10 turntable and a pair of Monitor Audio MA16 speakers. The Micro Seiki rumbled like a bus going over a cattle grid, and I actually took a step up when I bought an Audio Technica Sound Burger - now that was a truly portable turntable! 42 years later, I still listen to the MA16s - although all of the drive units soon suffered from youthful enthusiasm, and were replaced. Monitor Audio was a minnow among speaker manufacturers in 1980, but they really knew how to make a good speaker. The Marantz wasn't a bad little amp, but after a couple of years I grabbed the chance to replace it with a used Luxman L-113A and never looked back. The JVC, meanwhile, was as basic a cassette deck as it could possibly be, but it made good recordings. I don't think JVC ever got the recognition they deserved. Nearly forgot - my first pair of hi-fi headphones was Yamaha's HP-3 - seems I was into planar magnetics decades before they were fashionable. In recent years I've indulged my love of hi-fi of that era by building a collection of gear from around 1979, but nothing can match the thrill of starting out on the journey!
I miss Rumbelows. Odd, isn't it? They were strangely comforting. No idea why. And yes, the clip on cassette decks. I liked the look of those. And I always fancied a Micro Seiki ever since I saw one in the mags. Did you like it? And yes, there's nothing like building that first system.
@@TheAudiophileMan Sadly, good-looking though it was, the MB-10's rumble was too much for me. Eventually I replaced it with a much better-behaved Yamaha P-220.
Oh how this hugely enjoyable video resonated with my own journey. Starting in the mid 70’s with my parents’ trendy all in one ‘Music Centre’ which I think was a Ferguson; my own first separates system was a JVC belt drive which I somehow managed to bodge on a Shure cartridge upgrade, a JVC receiver(can’t remember the model but I was seduced by the turquoise led backlighting on the signal meters), a Tandy cassette deck and a pair of secondhand Wharfedale Dentons. Headphones were from Akai. My prog rock never sounded better !!! Thanks for rekindling some happy memories 👍
Remember my first speakers(Mission Bookshelf Speakers) transporting with a mofa on the rear seat about 20 km from the shop to my home village anno 1983.
Klasse Video! Mein HiFi-Start 1972 war ein DUAL HS 34, ein 1210, ein 10er-Plattenwechsler in einem DUAL-Verstärker mit 2 x 25 W/4 Ohm, DIN-Buchsen. Konnte meinen Vater überreden!
I got into hifi a little later than you (mid-1980s), but my journey started when i was very young. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of sitting in front of my parents’ Lafayette receiver watching the warmly-illuminated VU meters dance. Why more manufacturers don’t include VU meters to tap into our sense of nostalgia, I’ll never know. Although i had amassed a decent collection of cassette tapes and a fair number of vinyl albums, i was stuck listening to them on either my parents’ antiquated system, on my walkman, or on my tiny General Electric “boombox.” However, once I went off to college, i realized i needed a proper hifi system. My first two components were a Sherwood receiver and a Teac tape deck, the model numbers of which are lost to time. I really wanted the Nakamichi cassette deck that autoreversed by actually spinning the cassette around, but that was priced waaaayyyyy beyond my meager college means so i went with the Teac that served me well. These were paired with a set of tinny-sounding Radio Shack bookshelf speakers that soon blew out during very loud, late night drunken listening sessions with friends. The next component was a jvc cd player (again the model number is lost to me) but i knew I needed better speakers. Louder ones. Speakers that could compete with my dormmates’ Polks and Cerwin Vegas. I went down to the stereo store in Waterville, Maine and spent money i did not have (and took forever to pay off) on a pair of Design Acoustics PS-10’s with the downward-firing woofer. I loved those things. They played loud but weren’t boomy like so many others (probably because they didn’t hit below 50hz or thereabouts). They served me well for many years, finally disintegrating into dust just last year. Anyhow, loved the episode and thank you for reminding me that the journey is ultimately what is most fun about this hobby.
I know!!! Why we're not drowning in VU meters, I just don't know. It plugs straight into the nostalgia nerve. Seems an obvious money earner to me too. And yea, Nakamichi? You and me both. Which is why I ended up grabbing one later in life. Hehe.
For X-mas when I was 13 I got an MCS (Modular Component System) stereo system (store brand of JC Penny). All I can remember is the receiver was the 3236, but it also had a belt drive turntable, a cassette deck and 3 way floor standers as part of the package deal. I used the receiver, speakers and turntable from 1981 to 2003. I recently picked up a 3236 (as well as 3226) for cheap online just to remind myself what they used to sound like. I got the 3226 paired with some Klipsch RP-400Ms for a second system in my home office. it is fun, if not world beating. I just wish I had held on to the turntable... I wonder what that could be made to sound like in a modern system.
Lasky's on Dale Street was fabulous, as was Beaver Radio. I spent many an hour gazing dreamily at all of the HiFi loveliness. "One day, one day" would be my mantra! Years (and funds) later I occasioned Doug Brady Hifi on Smithdown Road in Liverpool for my 1st proper system: Yamaha CDX810U, NAD 3020e and a pair of Acoustic Research 18BX speakers. Great times 👍
Ahhh, a Doug Brady customer. Yes, when I upgraded those Sheltons, I nipped over to Doug's and bought a pair of Mission 70s :) And you were a fortunate who bought a 3020!
The first hifi system I bought myself consisted of a Dual CS505-2 turntable, a JVC JR-S201 receiver and Acoustic Research AR17 speakers and I was in heaven as up until that point I had listened to music on my parents Bush Arena "stereogram", which was more furniture than hifi! The Dual turntable and the AR speakers were bought from Laskeys in Tottenham Court Road.
My 1st decent hifi was back in 1985 composed of an NAD 3020B integrated amp, a Thorens TD-318 w/ Ortofon MC15 super, and Genesis Physics V6 two way ported speakers. Still have the Thorens TT, but now with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge :)
Oh, I retrofitted a 2nd arm to the Thorens TD-318 -> a Dual 1212 single piece cast tonarm with a Nagaoka MP-110 on board. Made a dual cup bearing sleeve mount from a copper tube, and two aluminium countersunk finish washers epoxied to each end. The Anti-Skating is done by a copper lever arm, nylon thread and small copper weight that I spent way too much time to fine tuning :]
Thank you for the memories My Hifi story - The beginning It was back in the late 70s and I had been working for two years and I decided to move into my own place (a bedsit) my music was what few records I had left and a new ITT turntable with speakers and a 5 pin din for my cassette player it sounded great until I was educated into real Hifi by my good friend who lived around the corner. We loved playing chess until the early hours of the morning at first we played around my place listening to Yes albums and then he invited me to play around his bedsit and wow what a difference. I walked into a pair of Realistic T-200 Tower Speakers driven by a JVC JR-S600 RECEIVER and a Sony turntable I was gobsmacked with the sound and I was never the same after that day. I had gotten a job working as a salesman at Tandy for the Christmas period and the assistant manager was a right ass, and one day he sent me into the Wearhouse to bin the biggest pile of boxes I had ever seen it was going to take all day and mess up my suit so no sales that day while I was filling the skip I found several of the boxes were not empty so I tried to report my findings to the assistant manager but he told me in no uncertain words to get back to “shovelling shit” this made the other members of staff laugh and I became the shit mover from that day onwards. I was pissed but I had an idea so I threw everything in the skip knowing that they would be replacing that skip in a few day's time so everything went in regardless, as a result, I got my first HiFi kit that consists of Sharp Cassette Deck (Sharp Stereo Cassette Deck Model RT-10 Metal), Realistic Receiver (Realistic System Seven STA-7 Stereo Receiver) and Minimus 7 speakers my local catalogue helped me out with a Sharp RP-11 Automatic turntable. I was lucky that a friend sold me his old Wharfedale Linton speakers as he had upgraded to the Realistic towers I did not stay after Christmas I hated working there but I'm glad that I did because a few years later I started working in Lasky's Coventry in the computer department and that's when my real journey began.
You worked in Lasky's? Goodness, I tip my hat to you then :) And that's quite a collection of hardware you had there. And yes, I know what you mean. When you walk into a friends up and running HiFi, it can be quite an experience. I remember doing just that with a friend I had who had a Hitachi amp and Castle speakers. It was as warm as a crackling fire and not audiophile really. But - have to say - it still sounded great! Hehe.
@@TheAudiophileMan The assistant manager at the Cov store became the buyer for the company and we became good friends over the years, Martin would dragg me kicking and screaming to all the Hifi shows he called it a learning experience and it turned out to be true. He used to have listening sessions after work so that we could hear the difference between equipment he also forced anyone willing to read all the Hifi magazines (no internet back then) we also had close ties with Mission and we went on a tour of the factory.
What a wonderful story, Paul, thank you. Those pictures of the very streets I strode in the same years, it’s a miracle we didn’t bump into each other. Maybe we shared a moment pushing buttons or standing next to the comparator in Beaver Radio! As for accessories; felt brush, check; Zerostat, check, although mine was white. As for the gear, well it was a Sansui SR222 MkII with an Ortofon OM10 cartridge at the front end and, courtesy of a student grant, the mighty NAD 3020 amp. As a matter of fact, I currently own two of them. Long story their. For speakers I had to wait a while. I chose the Robin Marshall designed, Audiomaster MLS1. A lovely sounding speaker with severely constrained dynamics. They did sound great playing Genesis, though. By the way, I’m going to see Steve Hackett later in the year on his Foxtrot fiftieth anniversary tour. All the gear came from Beaver and I later added a Yamaha cassette deck from ACE in The Precinct, which looked like a poor man’s Nakamichi. Boy did that sound good with TDK SA90 tapes and Dolby C. I’ve actually recreated most of my old system, with the exception of the speakers, which I couldn’t find, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. There is no doubt it was a heck of a foundation and it was quite a few years before I did any serious upgrading. Thanks again for a very enjoyable ramble.
I don't remember my first amp and speakers, but I remember my first turntable: An EAC 900. The only direct drive which ELAC produced. My father bought one for my mother and one for me half the price, because they were sold as factory sale (I lived near Kiel, the town where ELAC comes from) An absolutely great playing turntable. The motor was or is on the level of the technics SL-1200. But what should I say, I lose them-very annoying.
Ah happy days!!! Practical HiFi was my rag of choice back then (anyone remember Fox On Fifi 😂). The mag was slightly cheaper than most others and tended to focus on the lower decks of Starship Audiophile, which was ideal for me because I was always broke. So, lets set our Milti Phasers to stun & crank up the way back machine, shall we? TURNTABLES: Dual CS505 ~ Pioneer PL12D ~ Sansui SR222 mk2 ~ Trio KD1033B All the above were the budget darlings of the hifi press back then and I couldn't afford any of 'em, so I had to make do with dad's old Garrard SP25mkIV & Shure m55 cart (it was alright actually, although my 17yr old self would have grimaced and told you it was a pile of junk). AMPS: NAD3020 ~ NAD3020 ~ NAD3020 ~ A&R Cambridge A60 (if you were feeling a bit more hoity toity) NOPE! Dad to the rescue again (THANKS DAD!) with a rather gorgeous looking Sony TA73 amp with its modest 15w per side output. It sounded good though and that pure green power lamp was 'tres smexy'. SPEAKERS: Acoustic Research AR18 ~ Celestion Ditton 15 ~ Wharfedale Diamond mk1 I could have afforded a pair of Diamonds but I had a secret weapon, a pair of Rigonda two way speakers which were humongous (around the size of B&Ws DM2's) and they could rock the world... 🤘 p.s. Paul, could the Grado cart you mentioned be an FCE+1?
My first hi Fi, I bought from my savings from my Saturday job. I had a Garrard SP25 mk2 deck, Amstrad amp, solar box speakers. The amp and speakers were rubbish. The deck was ok. I was 16, it was 1970.
In the Liverpool Laskys on Dale St the hi-fi department was on the ground floor. In the early 1980s on a Saturday I would be downstairs playing on the Atari home computers :)
Hehe - yes, I remember messing around with the Atari computers there too! I had no idea what to do but found one button on a game...was it Star Raiders? It sent you off to hyperspace or some such. There was no joystick attached so the staff clearly didn't want oiks like me playing their games on their time. So yea. I'd walk in, hit the hyperspace button, bathe in the hyperspace whooshing sound and then move on :)
Great episode Paul - love this topic. Only last evening spent a great night with a friend (and much beer) talking for hours on this very subject - memories!
My Zerostat was white & it cost a lot decades back i.e. to myself, a 16'yr old who's half way through his "City & Guilds radio & tv servicing apprenticeship" & i had to save for a few weeks to get it as one weeks wages wouldn't cover it AND leave cash to pay my parents their £5/week for room & board. Back then, a Zerostat cost a mighty £7.99 i seem to recall ...or 10p short of my week's wages of £8.09/week (9p was taken off at source for National Insurance) ...& as i earnt under £15, there was no tax to pay so i took a strait £8/week cash in a brown cardboard wax-blob sealed envelope & the £3/week left was all mine, a 12'hr Saturday job in Brighley's of Peterborough eventually allowed me to buy my first & necessarily s/h stereo for my bedroom, a Thorens 150 / Sure cart' & a Radford valve pre & power amp both from "Exchange & Mart" ads while an uncle donated his old post-upgrade Dynatron speakers to me. I remenber showing curious friends & proving how it did really neutralise static, by making a balloon fall down that i stuck to the wall after a jumper rub, when you aimed the Zerostat at the wall/balloon interface after pulling the long trigger & hearing it make the extended clicking sound as the trigger returned to it's position, seems like a lifetime ago, (it was for some) I once by chance, saw a tiny fleck of paper jump from well over a foot away & stick to a vinyl L.P. after taking it out of it's course paper sleeve & charging it up (like a balloon) with dust-attracting static. I think they'll cost a bit more than £7.99 now!
In college about '65, I built a Laffayette Radio integrated amp kit, got the cheapest Gararad turntable available and cheap headphones. I could listen in my room without driving my parents crazy. The sound of that system enhanced by the application of not particularly legal smoking consumables sourced from Mexico. In the Navy I got a 115V to twelve volt converter and mounted an Sony automobile cassette player to my work station using headphones to listen. Getting out of the service in 1970, I ordered a system from the Military Exchange in Japan. Pioneer receiver and speakers. Sony RtoR, Dual Turntable rounded it out. The Pioneer speakers were not to my liking so soon replaced with Cerwin Vega boomers. I think a 12 inch two way rock speaker. From then on it's been a trail of one piece of gear after another.
@@TheAudiophileMan The older I get, the better I was. I believe I misspoke on the CV speakers. They were probably three ways. DIY has always been in my blood. A welcome respite from the tedium and frustration of organizational life. Started early at age sixteen when I bought the shell of an old race car and built it into my high school ride. After Pioneer came soldering up Hafler kits for preamp and amp. Hafler had the dull gray green finish I think possibly before NAD did it. A friend of mine had a modified and upgraded Hafler preamp that at the time bested anything else I had heard and he wouldn't sell it.
I forgot to mention that prior to hustling together my bedroom system, I used to listen to my LPs on my parents console Zeneth HIFI in the living room. It had a tube amplifier section and a tonearm that you could exercise your biceps lifting. I had to remove my mothers precious home decorating nick-nacks to get to the controls and record player but the maple finish was impeccable. After suffering through my Surrealistic Pillow and Highway 61 Revisited listening not to mention Yes, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer. My parents were glad to have me retreat to my headphones.
My first hifi was a all in one by Erres, a subsidiary of Phillips, and it had speakers, a turntable, a radio and cassette player. I was 14 or 15 a that time and over the moon with it….
Very cool. I'd love to find my first stereo system again, but can't seem to find it. It was a Panasonic Music Center that I believe was sold only in U.S. Military PX's. It had a BSR record changer, cassette deck and tuner with two speakers. You could buy an additional two speakers to make it a quadraphonic system.
Yup, not sure but I was probably got the music infection when my parents apparently had me change records on their big stereo cabinet at the age of 3. Elvis, Johnny, Patsy, Hank, .....sirca 1963.
Can I say my first experience of hifi sound is from a cassette workman. The days I turned off the bass boost and just turn up the volume. I can understand what the Hifi reviewers are saying in the magazines. It sounded more fast wider soundstage. Of course it was good to own a turntable and learning to tweak the Shi ...t out of it.
I bought my first CD player (Yamaha CDX-900) from Laskys. I can’t believe the flyover is gone now. I bought a bunch of stuff from Beaver HiFi . I used to love the NS1000 speakers they had on display. I moved on to Bradys on Smithdown road, (Rogers LS4a) and Chris Brooks audio (Rega Planar 2). Bought a Funk Gett! From Brady’s in Warrington.
I heard about the flyover only lately - when did it come down? Those NS1000 speakers were quite a purchase. Rather mighty they were. And you grabbed some quality stuff over the time I can see. I eventually upgraded those Sheltons the Mission 70s from, you guessed it, Brady's :)
First hi fi bought from Laskeys in Brum, a JVC AX1 amplifier with JVC turntable, speakers were something from Comet, I thought it was the bees knees, in reality it was rather poor but it made noises and it was my own. Used to spend hours walking round Laskeys, drooling.
Glad you had a Laskys in your life back then. Everyone should have gone through that rite, I reckon :) And Comet! I kinda miss it. And there was nothing like 'your own' HiFi was there? Agreed.
Hit the nail on the head with that video audiophile man but its got to be said sheltons bloody sheltons ! life of luxury laddie lol I had to walk in my bare feet to richer sounds to drag home a pair of wharfedale chevin xp2 on the bus to go with my dual "+ the proven scientificaly magical glass matt upgrade for my 21st birthday " turntable . Mind you I advanced last year to a more modern goldring gl75 and nad 3130 to keep up with the times ah happy days ! :-)
Hehe - yes Chevins were part of the conversation back then :) Hence my surprise when my parents said I could go for the Sheltons. Thanks for sharing your memories and agreed, happy times.
Great video 👍. I love music and yet am far from being an audiophile. When I was 11 and having passed the 11+ my parents bought me a Dansette style record player. 45s for me. TOTP tunes all the way. I had it for a good 5 years. My upgrade was one of those nasty Amstrad all in ones. But I too enjoyed Foxtrot then and still do. My 1st hifi was the NAD/DUAL combo bought from Tottenham Court road. Can't remember the speakers though.
I'd say that comment proves you're an audiophile. Audiophiles care enough about music quality to want to enhance the listening experience and to get closer to the truth of it. That's what you've talked about here. It's ok though. You're amongst friends :)
I think you will find the white Zerostat was the first model from the early 70s, I had one purchased from Southport hi fi along with my Technics system, and still have Technics stuff now with Tannoy speakers!.Thank goodness for Wilkinson HIFI Nelson!!. Did you never shop at P&A Audio Crosby? big shop in its day!👍
Hahaha Sound , I well remember Laskys and Beaver radio access the road from Probe were I'd go to buy records on a Sat afternoon we must be the same age I'm 58 ,Max ,West Kirby ,Wirral 😎
Took me ages to enter Probe. In my early early years, the outside of Probe was dripping with scary punks with 5ft mohicans. Scared me half to death. Took 4 pints and and a whisky chaser before I would go in.
When Tandy first arrived in my town one of the biggest attractions to me as a twelve-year-old was the 'free' batteries offer! Just what I needed for my portable Philips cassette recorder.
Ahh, Tandy and the battery thing, eh? I think they must have built their empire on batteries :)
I bought my first half-decent system in '81: NAD 7080 receiver; Advent speakers; and a Technics SL-1900 turntable. I had been big on recording cassettes since '75 and they were introducing Dolby C equipped models back then. I tried a Sony but wasn't satisfied so within a few weeks traded up to a Nakamichi 480Z. Record warpage was a big thing then on domestic vinyl, so I swapped out the Technics for a Dual 708Q DD with a low mass (ULM) tonearm, which could pretty much track anything. I then swapped out the stock Ortofon it came with for an Audio-Technica AT155LC. This basic set-up (with a few add-on signal processors - Vector Research VQ-100 equalizer, DBX 3BX-III dynamic range expander, Carver C-9 sonic hologram generator) was pretty much what I used for the next 20 years...
My first "record player" was a contemporary of Dansette , made by Alba with a cream lid and red body. In those days (the sixties) my vinyl consisted of 45s which were kept in a cardboard box all jumbled up together some not even in the right covers, LPs then were astronomically expensive at 42 shillings!
I stuck with the Alba for a good while.
In our local town (Orpington) a small Hi Fi shop opened at one end of the high street , it was a tiny place but it drew me like a magnet, the chap who owned it was happy to chat about all things Hi Fi and even demonstrate pieces of equipment, eventually I purchased a Goldring Lenco turntable in wooden cabinet together with a Decca ffss tonearm and cartridge, the amp was a Rodgers again in wood cabinet, speakers were Wharfedale Lintons.
I was very happy with my setup until I had a collision whilst cycling to work with a Volvo, (guess who came off worse) this bought my way quite a decent amount in compensation. After considering what to spend it on for all of an hour or two, I decided to splash out on a new Hi Fi.
The little shop in the high street had now opened a bigger and shinier store in Bromley.
After chatting to the staff I plumped for, Aiwa cassette deck and receiver together with a Sony PS11 direct drive turntable.
The cassette deck and receiver are now long gone but I still use the deck with I might add great pleasure and satisfaction, the only upgrade I made was an Ortofon 2m blue cartridge and boy what an upgrade.
I should add that the Lintons were superseded by a pair of home made speakers with Wharfedale drivers but due to size limitations when i moved into my present abode i got hold of a pair of ported Tannoy bookshelf speakers which give a very satisfying performance.
The other piece of equipment to go was my beloved Ferrograph series 6 reel to reel tape recorder, built like a tank and almost as heavy but it gave me more than 20 years of pleasure.
That just about winds up this condensed history of my Hi Fi journey, some might say i haven't come very far in some 60 odd years but I'm happy with my setup, what else can i say?
Oh by the way I'm a newish subscriber and enjoying your content immensely.
My first hi fi bought at 18 years old with a bank loan was a Sony Turntable, a beautiful Kenwood receiver, Altec Lansing speakers and a Sony Cassette deck. I cannot recall the model numbers. But it was fun and I enjoyed it immensely. As did my brother.
My first stereo aged 16 was a great big silver coloured Amstrad amp, BSR record player and no name loudspeakers. Added the matching Amstrad cassette deck a little later. I too used TDK AD 90s to record my friend’s LPs. I remember we used to treat our LPs with an anti static cleaner called Permastat. It worked, but the stylus used to scrape gunk out of the groove for a few plays afterwards. These Amstrad components came from Comet in Catford. I also bought a pair of Koss Pro 4AA headphones at Comet at some stage. The amp used to pick up audio from BBC1 from the nearby Crystal Palace TV transmitter!. First “proper” hifi was from a shop in south Norwood high street. This shop had a load of speakers in the back which included a pair of futuristic looking and awe inspiring KEF 105s. Needless to say these were out of reach of a 17 year old so I tried the KEF Coda, which I didn’t like. In the end my system consisted of Nad 3020, Dual 505 Mk2 and Mission 700 speakers hooked up with QED 79 like yours. Total price about £320 - not all bought at once of course - I think it took about 2 years to accumulate. There must have been thousands of similar systems at the time. (1979/80). Happy days.
I remember Permastat! Blimey, I'd forgotten about that one. And Amstrad HiFi! I thought it looked impressive. Not sure how it sounded but it looked good. And hey, £320 was real money back then :)
My first hifi system, on HP from Laskey's, was a National Technics (Panasonic) deck with Shure M75ED cart, into a Trio KA1500 integrated amp and KLH 317 speakers. And an Audiotronic twin cassette deck was added for all the records I then couldn't afford to buy. Sounded great to my 16 year old ears in 1977!
Hi Paul my first proper hi fi consisted of a Leak Delta 70 amplifier, Goodmans Magnum SL speakers(Both obtained from an older hi fi friend), a Sansui SR 222 turntable with a Shure M75ED 2 cartridge and a Technics top loading cassette deck. This was circa 1977. In the early 80’s I had a Teac A770 cassette deck (3 head)and bought one TDK MA-R metal cassette tape.
Classic names there, Andrew - I used to work with a guy who worked for Goodmans. He moved to HiFi World magazine where I scribbled. Actually, that Soundburger that my wife has? I mentioned it in the video? That Goodmans chap was the guy who serviced it! Those guys know a thing or two :) What was the cassette deck, incidentally?
Oh my gosh. Are you . . . me?! The parallels of your early HiFi experiences match my own so closely that I could stand almost perfectly in your shadow and not be seen. I'm an American though, so some of my brands were different, and I needed to pay for my own stuff by using money I got by doing work around the house, but it's essentially the same story. That was great to hear.
My original setup collected over 3 years:
Turntable - Sony, cartridge AT with a green coded stylus that I eventually upgraded to a Grado. I don't remember the model. It was a budget unit.
Amp - Realistic (Radio Shack/Tandy) 35 Watt STA78 receiver
Speakers - EPI 100v bookshelf
. . . and the crown jewel - a Sankyo (yes that's really how it was spelled) cassette recorder, with CrO2 (high bias) record setting!
oh, . . and Pioneer SE-305 headphones. I still have those headphones. They sound awful.
Down here in the Antipodes I began in the late 1960s hifi stores as you describe were rarer than hen's teeth. There was one in the city in which I live and practically everything in the shop even more hideously expensive, prices being inflated by a protectionist government extracting buckets of import duty and sales tax. A well-known Dutch company had a presence here and was the source of my first "hi-fi" A solid state amplifier delivering an eye-watering 2.5 watts per channel into one of their infamous 25 ohm double coned HiZ speakers. As an interim measure on the advice of a friend, I mounted these on large open baffles which I hung on my bedroom wall. Feeding this rig was the equally famous Garrard SP 25 turntable with whichever cartridge came with these gems of high fidelity. I later built two ported enclosures for the same speakers. While the speakers could be bought in proper enclosures, I decided biggers was better and made mine at least 50% larger. To me, they sounded amazing.
Your mention of the Wharfedale Lintons reminds me that these were the second speakers I had (and still have in reserve) but they were imported directly from a shop in Guildford, as kit sets, one at a time to avoid exceeding the upper limit for imported goods without a licence (only available to specialist retailers). Protection of local, very mediocre gear was uppermost in our leaders' minds and avoiding it was a challenge to the 1960s would-be audiophile downunder
rega planar 2 with linn k9, a&r a60, linn kans was superb for the time recently sold the a&r to friend and they are loving it
I have a red Zerostat somewhere
Ahh, part of the Red Brigade, eh? :) Nice one. And a very nice system!
Impressive for a starter system
My first hi-fi was a music centre! Remember those? They play records, cassettes and have built in FM AM radio. Of course it wasn't "hi-fi" as such. I begged my mom to buy it and my teenage self was entirely happy with it. Some years later I pleaded my mom to buy me Alan Sugar's Amstrad cassette deck which at UKP50 was the cheapest cassette deck with Dolby noise reduction, that new must have miracle feature! Of course it wasn't hifi either but I loved it.
My first tentative steps in real hifi was after I consulted a bunch of hifi mags before buying Sansui SR222 which was at the time the ONLY Japanese turntable worth buying. It was one of the few belt driven table among all the direct drive strobe lighted monstrosities.
When I was 16 I had a Rotel turntable a Rotel receiver and wharfdale XP2 speakers.i had a great blast with the system. I'm 61 now and upgraded to a new system.still love vinyl 👍👌
A few years back I found a pair of old beat up Wharfedale XP2 speakers in a skip I took them home cleaned them up the best I could and although they were a bit scuffed up they looked reasonable but still had some character I hooked them up and they worked, I've still got them all nicely set up in the spare room in a secondary system and they still sound great.
Many thanks for such a magical video.
My first real 'system' comprised of:
Revolver Super Turntable (Rosewood) with AT95
Pioneer A400
Phillips CD610 mark ii
AR Red Box speakers
Looking back to 1991, it was unbalanced and poorly planned, but to a fresher in Liverpool with a grant it was my first taste of hifi and the start of a lifelong passion.
All the components above were sold to friends as soon as I found my first job and bought system number 2:
Gyrodec/Rega 300/MC15ii
Aiwa AD-F810
Pioneer PDS-801?
Exposure Super XV
Tannoy 603 speakers
The above system sang like a canary and lasted me ten years before I felt the urge to upgrade again, which sadly I didn't/couldn't at the time, due to work commitments, at which point the hifi was boxed-up or sold to friends.
Out of everything I've bought, the Gyrodec is still with me, like a trusty steed that I'll never, ever get rid of. It just gets on and plays the music without a fuss, much like your first system did!
One of your best yet Paul, I think I am about the same age as you and you hit the nail on the head with this one. My first hifi was from Comet when I was 16, a Sansui amp, Garrard SP25 mk4 turntable and a pair of British Goldman’s speakers. I started work aged 18 and from Comet bought an end of line Pioneer 8800 amp with matching tuner. To this I added a pair of Mission 700’s and an ADC direct drive turntable. I had gone in for a Dual but I was swayed by the salesman who enthused about the ALT carbon fibre arm and superior cartridge for the same price as the Dual. I later added a Pioneer cassette deck the CT200. I loved this system and wish I still had it.
Maudent short speakers, rega planer3 turntable and Cambridge amp, my first hifi bought in hifi shop in Wavertee rd Liverpool opposite old Sefton hospital. Fantastic set up.around 1982
I remember being enthralled by Beaver audio in Liverpool, only to part with my cash at Wigan hi-fi where I bought a semi-automatic dual turntable and a Kenwood amp and Kenwood CD player which offered 2 times over sampling, and Bose 200 series speakers which reclined sideways on to a bandstand stand. The cables feeding the spring clip terminals were oxygen free copper. The CD interconnects had a neoprene sleeve and the terminals were gold plated. The hi-fi rack was a three-shelf converted TV stand. The whole system packed a punch, but the Bose speakers were the first to go, replaced by floor standing Mission speakers, Marantz CD player and Technics pre amp and power amp. I don't have any of these items anymore having upgraded several times since.
My first system was a Linn LP12 A+R P77 cartridge, Luxman R 2050 Reicever, and IMF TLS 50 Transmission line floor standing speakers, My first job on leaving school was working in the hifi trade so i got to see and hear some fantastic equipment . Hifi music has always been my first love and some 40 + years later audio hifi is still my number one love and yes my system has changed just a bit.
For Christmas when I was I think 13, I desperately wanted a Panasonic boom box. Instead, I got an envelope with $100 US. “Get yourself something better,” my dad said. And so it began. I started with a Sony cassette deck I connected to my parents’ mediocre all in one system. Then I used all of my lawn mowing money to buy a very nice Denon DRA-350 receiver and Stax SR-30 headphones, since I couldn’t yet afford speakers. Finally I added fantastic ADS L570 II speakers (like Braun in Europe) and a Dual CS530 turntable. My ambition in the 1980s was to have a top the line NAD system, and I do now-their best from 1989, along with a lot of other stuff. And I still have those speakers!
Wise words from your Dad there, Timothy. And wow, Stax? That's pretty heady stuff there :) And I'm happy you've hung onto that older stuff - wish I had but it was all eaten by damp in a basement during a later house move.
Loved this video. Every aspiring audiophile has been down the same road and can totally relate to this - desires, financial constraints leading to compromises, reading many copies of Hifi magazines (my favourite was Hifi Answers), ttrying to find ways of saving even £5 on a component before sitting back and soaking up the music. My first hifi system, circa 1976 consisted of a Technics SL20 turntable with a Shure cartridge and headshell, a Leak 2001 receiver and Yamaha HP1 headphones (which I still have!). Soon a pair of Leak 2030 speakers followed then an Aiwa 6300 cassette deck. It was bliss.
My first hifi was a 5w Sansui 200 receiver, a Dual 1215 turntable and a pair of Akai speakers that looked cool but sounded awful. Still, I was in heaven. I traded up to a pair of Marantz speakers within a year for a great upgrade and added a Sony *8-track* recorder to complete the set.
I’d love to have that set back for nostalgia purposes, but traded it for a car that didn’t run 😆
My next set was a KLH model 35 system with 20 WATTS of POWER, a Dual 1215s and Model 6 speakers. Whoa! Upgrade fever took over and the rest is history.
Thanks for the insight Bill. Yea, upgrading. It's a slippery slope isn't it? I've yet to find a cure :)
The only thing I ever remember my father buying for himself was a nice Technics receiver, KLH speakers and Garrard turntable. It sounded miles better than anything I had access to before and I think I got more use out of it than he did. My nephew still happily uses the receiver which has to be about 45 years old.
Very interesting and made me think back to mine. Unfortunately memory not was it was but I do remember a Rotel amp, early 70's, and Solavox speakers from comet. Both the amp and speakers were quickly changed. The amp for the Nad 3020 and speakers for Wharfdale freedom from Laskys. Can't recall the exact model but they had strange removal foam grilles. The turntable was the only constant for a while Pioneer PL12 with a VMS20E cartridge.
What did you think of the PL12, Melvin? I know a lot of people bought them...
Really impressed but at an early age I didn't know much difference. Took me a while to upgrade. Thorens TD160 Mk 2 with SME 3009 a classic combination. The arm was replaced not long after by a local dealer for a Sumiko Premier MMT and the deck tweaked using Linn springs.
i love stories of peoples early HiFi adventures I still love the SL series from Technics the firs technics i ever heard was my Grandfathers SL-B2 and i was in LOVE and now my main Turntable is an SL-Q2, with an Ortofon 2M Black and it sounds EXCELLENT. My first few systems were all mini hifi all in ones with one broken component that i had gotten at yard sales usually had 2 at once to cover for the broken component, it wasn't until high school that i could afford to even buy used separate components (still at yard sales) i also got smarter about brands that held up better i even still have my old 100 disc Sony CD player CDP-CX153 from back then and it STILL WORKS! i also started experimenting with multiple amps and Speaker sets due to the low quality of what i could get used i would often buy more speakers to cover the weaknesses of the ones i owned if i had a set of tower speakers that were lacking in mid's i bought a pair of bookshelf speakers with strong mid's and connected them to a separate amp to be able to balance them with my tower speakers and ran them all together. lol i eventually ended up with too many amps too close together and many overheated but it was fun while it lasted and it sure sounded good for the amount i spent
I started my system back in the late 60’s while in Germany with the RCAF..I bought a Sony TC-530 tape deck that had an amplifier in it…then a PE 2020 turntable and later some B&O Beovox 5000 speakers…these I kept for at least 35 years..but then sold them..in the past 6/7 years I have got back into vintage components. I have had several Receivers - a Marantz 2230 which I found in a dumpster - witch worked and was in remarkable condition..later sold it for $300 two Pioneer SX-780s (sold one)..now have a Kenwood KA-5500 amp and a Fluance RT-85 TT…I then bought a pair of B&w DM6 speakers and a Sony TC-558 R2R and an Akai 1730 DSS R2R…the last thing I bought was a Fluance TA-10 phono amp…and my system sounds fantastic to my 84 year old ears..
Paul, this was a very entertaining video. You are a great story teller and your memory is amazing. Much respect to you from Larry in the states.
Very nice of you to say, Larry - thank you for taking the time to comment.
Well I remember having a similar journey myself. My first proper Hi-Fi was a Dual CS505 Mk2 with a NAD 3020 bought from Eric Wiley in Castleford (still going after over 50yrs). I bought my Mission 700 speakers from Lasky’s in York. I remember looking at an Ariston RD80 and lusting over it but had the Dual. For a cassette deck I bought a Pioneer CT520 bought from Eric Wiley and I agree on the headphones also bought there. Then the serious bug got hold and it was off to Eric’s of Bradford to buy an LP12, Basik Plus & K9, Naim Nait (original) & a pair of Linn Kans’ all with QED79 Cable. The Linn & Kans’ are still going but the Nait is long gone. Replaced with Sugden A48B from new and still in my system and the Kans’ replaced with MK2’s. What a journey!
Do you remember (late 70s) Mrs Bean Audio in Castleford? I used to work and spen all my wages there?
@@0303stuba Don’t remember that store but spent a fortune in Eric Wiley both Hi-Fi and cameras.
@Leon Yes, it was quite some store both photo & HiFi.
I was born in Buxton in the early 60s , I started work in 78 . It took me 4 years to buy an amp , cassette deck , turntable and speakers , I treated myself to one item each Christmas. I bought Marantz from a local hifi dealer called Bernard Hulley . One of my first and still highly treasured and listened to albums is the first Roxy lp you have on your wall .. really enjoyed your story .. thanks , Rob
Bear with me this is from a long time ago. 1st Hi-Fi. A Dual 505/2 Turntable, Sinclair Amp(brother built it from a kit), and Wharfedale Denton Speakers. It started another 50 years of a hobby, that for me, was all about my love of music.
That Dual was also my first turntable and I was very impressed with it. Purchased in 1988, it kept going and served me well until 2011, when I upgraded it to a cool looking Project esprit with an impressive looking acrylic platter and red plinth. Sadly, it didn't sound any better than the Dual it replaced. But several upgrades later (of all equipment) I arrived at the more pleasing Marantz TT 15 S1 which provides a lot for the money.
Big Bad John was my first and favorite single of all time as well! I asked for it on a very early birthday as a kid!
My first hi-fi system goes back to 1955, a couple of years before stereo records began to be mass produced. I bought a 20-Watt Bogen mono amplifier. It had only 3 inputs: phono and 2 aux. The turntable was Garrard, although I don't recall the model. The speaker was made locally for the record and equipment dealer I bought everything from. It consisted of a 10" 2-way coaxial speaker in an unfinished wood box with baffle that I painted and faced with speaker fabric. It didn't sound and look half bad.
Now that's a fascinating time to be buying your first system. And I bet it looked and sounded wonderful. That must have been a great time to be into audiophile stuff. Oh, how you must have been faced with many a furrowed brow from people who just didn't get where you were coming from, sound wise eh? Hehe. Or am I getting that wrong?
This sure brought back a lot of good memories. When I was a kid, (I think around 1971 or so) my parents bought a Sony HP-610a stereo system. It was an all in one amplifier with wooden side panels and had a wooden lid that housed a Dual turntable. It came with two separate speakers that had a beige cloth grill. I remember my mother later telling me my father had paid a fortune for this stereo back then. I started listening to my parents vinyl records at the age of 6 years old. Being a huge Elvis Presley fan, my mother bought me my first record which was a K-Tel Elvis compilation - as advertised on TV - yes, that one! In 1987, I added a Fisher dual cassette tape deck (I can't remember the model). I played all my records and tapes on this very good sounding system until I left for college. That's when I got my first sound system. I had worked my a** off in the summer before college and took part of my student loan to by my first integrated amp and speakers. The amp was a NAD 7020i Stereo Receiver and the speakers were a pair of Mission 760. A few months after I got the NAD, the display stopped working. So when I took it for repair I saw they had just put out the NAD 701, so I traded the 7020i for it. A month or so after I bought my first CD player which was a YAMAHA CDX-470. Around 1994 I bought my first good pair of headphones, the Sennheiser HD-560 Ovation II. I still have my NAD 701 and the YAMAHA CD player. Since then, I've bought a few vintage amps as well because, well... nostalgia? I still own a Sansui AU-6600 and a G-3500. Although I prefer the sound of my modern system, I prefer the looks of vintage Hi-Fi.
Oh God how does one reply to this wonderfully blissful drowning in hi fi nostalgia? I too, like most people here, found heaven through music and the means to play it. What a privileged world we suddenly found ourselves in. The only problem was we hadn’t a clue which gate to open! Then suddenly one did open of its own accord. It was God himself in the shape of Jimmy Hughes. “Thou shalt only listen to music on LP12’s” was the mantra and by Jove did we tow that long line lol!
Seriously Paul that was one magnificent description of your joyous journey through the corridors of hi fi which exactly mirrors our own. Only the names were different but the same. Unfortunately I just haven’t got the gumption to go down that road myself as the memories are not as hazy as I’d hoped. By that I mean those wonderful people and places are gone and I just cannot go there. So many memories that make me cry and laugh at the same time, in fact, similar to reading your own. All I will say is this : thank God (that man again!) for being still alive to tell the tale. Maybe some day I will too…..
Very nice of you, Dermot. Thank you.
Wow what a journey back in time. I am similar age to you and guess what I had an SL B2 also. I loved it attached to a Technics SU V2 Amp. Well I progressed onto other more expensive kit once I began work and my younger sister had my Technics. Well I have just rescued it before she threw it in a skip. The turntable needed a belt a auto return gear and a stylus but it works. The amp needs recapping so that's next on my refurb list. Luckily I can do this myself after years of electronics industry experience. Great video
How fun! Loved this informal chat about hifi origin stories!
My father was an audiophile so I grew up with good (not great) gear around the house and, like you, studied the Stereo Review that would come to the house every month. My favorite edition was the annual Buyer’s Guide where I could read specs and pricing on so much exotic gear.
I also enjoyed accompanying my dad to the hifi stores on the rare occasion he was in the market for an upgrade. I loved talking to the salesmen and listening to all the gear they had on hand. I had a true religious experience listening to Dire Straits Brothers In Arms, first through a pair of Mirage M1’s and then a pair of Acoustat 2+2s. I was hooked and completely fixated on the idea of having my very own hifi.
Fast forward a couple of years, I am 15 and my dad is looking for a new pair of speakers. He ended up buying a pair of Thiel CS 3’s to replace his Ohm Walsh 2’s. I immediately began scheming to see how I could get my hands on the Ohms and build my own hifi.
I proposed that if I saved up enough money to buy the electronics, perhaps he would consider giving me the Walsh 2’s for Christmas. He agreed! That year, I turned 16, got a job, and saved my money. That was 1987, the earliest days of digital. I was young. I wanted the newest tech. And so I set out to build a system consisting of a CD player, a tape deck, and amplification.
Here’s where I ended up:
HH Scott DA 952 CD player
Technics RS-D170W Dual cassette deck
Sony STR AV450 Receiver
Ohm Walsh 2 speakers
I only owned one CD when I first bought my stereo. U2 Unforgettable Fire. It cost me $17 which, in those days, was a ton of money - especially for a kid working at Kentucky Fried Chicken earning $3.35/hour.
But I LOVED that stereo and spent countless hours listening to music over the next several years before even considering an upgrade of any kind.
All these years later, I’ve been through countless iterations of a hifi, but do you know I still own that Sony receiver and my Ohm Walsh 2’s? The Sony powers speakers in the garage and on the back patio and the Ohms sit idle in my listening room, ready to one day pass down to one of my kids.
Thanks for sharing your memories Dan. Never heard of that CD player before. Can you tell me more about it?
I love this opportunity for each of us to recount our beginnings in what would be lifelong hobbies and sources of enjoyment. My first receiver was “earned” by cutting a Vietnam veterans Sansui 2000A he picked up on his way back home to the States. It had been confined to a closet by the time I inherited it. I saved my money and bought a matching Sansui 2050c turntable and some Sansui speakers. I kept the components clean as the proud owner of a hi fidelity (I believed) “system”. Later added an ADC equalizer and miscellaneous “supplies” to keep my growing LP collection clean. Finally added a Pioneer R2R I placed on layaway for what seemed like an eternity. I was proud of my system which sat atop a homemade wooden stand complete with a lamp that hang in an arc nobly above my turntable. I loved that system and some of my fondest instances of musical enjoyment came through that system. Forty years later, several systems have bettered it in terms of actual sound, but none have filled me with the same kind of joy that comes with first outings. Thank you and Rest In Peace Col. Gray, the Sansui has been recently recapped and I’ll give it to my son when he gets in 9th grade, but only after he cuts the grass a few times.
I also started off with a red and cream Dansette! I was fascinated by stereo (heard on a neighbour's system) and soon started cobbling stuff together. I bought a Garrard SP25 and a cheap transistor amp from a guy in the Tottenham Court Rd. Speakers were ex radiogram and mounted on crude baffles and wedged in my bookshelf between hardback books (proper bookshelf speakers!)
I am somewhat older than you, and my first decent system was a secondhand Ariston RD11S belt driven turntable fitted with an SME 3009 arm and a Shure V15 III cartridge. The amp was a Quad 22 preamp and a pair of Quad II valve amps. Speakers were Lowther Acoustas fitted with PM7 drive units (bought from a lovely neighbour who wanted to downsize when he moved to a small bungalow).
I loved this system, but had to sell it when I got married - my intended explained that it was incompatible with domestic harmony! I seem to remember that one of the cats allegedly got an electric shock from one of the Quad amps - best not to mess with KT66s in full flow!
For my 70th birthday I was gifted (by my better half) a pair of KEF LSX speakers in white with matching stands. Their aesthetic passes muster. They were soon joined by an SD Acoustics Gemini subwoofer (also in white) and, thanks to your brilliant reviews, I have (cunningly hidden away) a Project Debut Pro turntable and an Audiolab 6000CDT. I can now enjoy my vintage vinyl and collection of CDs. It's quite differeent to my first system, and gives me much joy.
Thanks again for your wonderful reviews and excellent sense of humour! You are always a highly enjoyable listen - even if I have no intention of buying the kit reviewed, you are always a pleasure to listen to.
Well that's very kind of you Bob. Thanks. Some class equipment in that list, I must say. I just can't remove the cartoon image of that poor cat: in typical Tom & Jerry, jagged, frizzy, Tom's-just-been-electrocuted-kinda image. ;)
@@TheAudiophileMan Luckily he still had 8 lives left! He gave the Quads a wide berth after that incident though ....
Hehe
Great video. Amazing how young we were when we realized the way other people listened to music did not sound like we thought it should sound. In my case I was around 11 years old. I'm 66 now.
Hi Paul, loved this item. I got my first Hi-fi in 1970 . I had a record player my Father bought for me from Rumbelows electricals ( remember them) . I think it was a BUSH. After a while I wanted something a bit better and louder. Like you , Laskeys, this time in Tottenham Court Road came to the rescue. I chose a Garrard SP25 with Goldring G800 cartridge, Sansui AU 101 amp and a pair of Wharfdale Lintons, they were a bit cheaper then. This system gave me great enjoyment for a long time till the HI-FI press suggested a change of turntable and yes I got the upgrade bug, but thats another story. Thanks for your ramblings, Nicholas
Thanks Nicholas - blimey yes, I do remember Rumbelows. Kinda miss them too. And a nice HiFi set up, I must say. Yes, upgrading. It's like the mafia - once you're in, you ain't getting out alive :)
What happy memories for us old geezers breaking out of school at lunchtime to go to HiFi demos - oh how things have changed! I was 15 back in 1978. First real system from the nice guys at Swift in Wilmslow was a Rotel RA611 amp, Pioneer PL112D turntable with Ortofon VMS20e mm cartridge and B&W DM5 speakers. I had to wash countless cars to buy that! I did have the Pixall too (forgotten all about that until I saw your video). Can't remember the cables. I think we all had the same pre-punk LPs back then - PF, Genesis, Camel, Yes, Tangerine Dream, Supertramp, etc, etc. Fast forward nearly 50 years and I still love my HiFi. But now have a "high end" system post retirement that would have made my eyes water back then but sadly without the acute hearing of my teenage self. So much water under the bridge...
Hi great video keep up the good work, my first stereo let me see, oh yeah it was 1967 I was 15 years old I bought a Philco AM/FM stereo receiver no turntable or 8 track, no cassette pretty small and basic, just a little red light just to show you the strongest signal lockup little bitty speakers all this and wires too for $26.00.
Loved this video! I had two stages of first hifi, the inherited one and the bought one. Inherited was a Garrad SP25 Mk2, Teleton TFS50 receiver with Wharfdale Linton 2 & Celestion County speakers. This was upgraded over the next couple of years to arrive at my first fully ‘bought’ hifi. This consisted of a Rega Planar 2/A&R E77, NAD 3120 & a pair KEF Chorale 3 speakers. This was later joined by a Philips CD160 (bought from Lasky’s!) Along the way to this system, there was also a Rotel RP830 turntable, which was plagued by a bothersome arm!
Hi Paul. My journey into Hi Fi began in 1965. The amplifier was a 12 watts per channel Star SA 30 tube integrated . My first turntable was the Thorens TD 150 (no arm )The tonearm was an ADC Pritchard with an ADC cartridge, The speakers were a pair of Goodmans Axiom 201 drivers. (no cabinet) My dad made 2 big boxes for the speakers.
Yamaha CA610, JVC JLA15 turntable with ortofon OM10 cartridge and Wharfedale Linton XP2 speakers. That was my first system on starting work and I loved it!!!
A nice trip down memory lane! My first hifi was a technics SL-1200 turntable, technics receiver, technics double cassette deck, and mission speakers. I loved that system and gave it to a friend when I couldn’t keep it anymore having bought a tiny flat. 😂
Yamaha a420, kef c20, denon tape deck and a technics turntable (gifted from brother - in-law), also 79 strand qed cable. Perfect 16th birthday! Still remember the hair raising on the back of my neck when first playing The Wall on vinyl through it.
great trip down memory lane. . . . 1968 . . . 10th grade. . . 16 years old. . . started with lafayette electronics LA-375 integrated amp. . . a used Acoustic Research AR-XA turntable. . . KLH model 17 speakers and Koss Pro 4a headphones . . . . soon thereafter the lafayette was replaced by the kenwood KA-6000 integrated amp & a Kenwood tuner, the KLH were replaced with Acoustic Research AR-2ax speakers and I added a Roberts reel to reel . . . fun video , thanks !
When I was 18, I went to work for RH Macy's department store. At that time they carried stereos and electronics. My first purchase with my new charge card was a Pioneer reciever, Kenwood speakers and BSR turntable. My first, what I consider to be, high quality system, I purchased from a place called Woodbridge stereo, consisted of a 3 piece speaker system 3D Acoustics 3d610b. Two satellite speakerd and a passive 10" sub, with amazing imaging and detail and good bass from the Sub. Paired with a Kenwood integrated amp and tuner, and an ADC cd player. I later learned that the parent company was Dahlquist.
I love this Video !!!! It's like having a Prog Rock Brethren in England where I'm originally from Canada. I have to do a similar Video evne though I did do one on my Speaker JOurney. Another on my Digital journey,. But this is way better than my stuff !!!
Go my first system from Laskys, got a summer job during school holidays soldering hotel radio all in ones and bought a Garrard Sp25 my iv, Teleton 7 watt amp and a pair of Wharfedale Denton 2XPs on the proceeds.
I remember Laskys! My 1st system comprised of a Dual CS505 I (which I still have), Harman Kardon PM635 & Tannoy Mercury Mk I's. I remember going to Comet with my mate annoying the staff by getting them to demo different bits of gear haha....& we did that thing with cassette decks 😆 I also had the same Sennheiser headphones & like you they got more use than the speakers.
I also still own a pair of Shelton XP2's that belonged to my Dad...
My first hifi was a Cyrus one amplifier & i was 19 when i got all this hifi because my friends dad had a cyrus one & Linn axis with the creek speakers i mentioned & i was blown away by the sound. I had big Nad bookshelf speakers that I got for free. The tweeter had blown, i had these mounted on bedside cabinets at first , i took them to Wilmslow audio and they put a new tweeter in for £20, I started with a flat JVC cassette deck which cost £20, i bought a sound organisation hifi stand. Then i got single pillar target speaker stands. My first turntable was a Linn Sondek with Akito Mk1 and a K9, I actually got a £500 loan to buy this turntable I liked the sound that much, I got rid of it unfortunately one of my biggest regrets. I then went through a phase of lots of different speakers. Acoustic research holographic imaging AR-M1 which i loved, quite rare today, I've not seen many, then I had Celestion 7's, I swapped with a friend's dad for the Creek CLS20, then I had some rubbish eltax floorstanders, then some old mission 701's, then I bought some new Tannoy Mercury M2's at £140 which I loved, big sound deep bass. After this my hifi changed a lot then. Good video, thank you.
Lovely older gear. I purchased my first turntable at 17 in 1975, Now 64 I must be on 7th hifi system going through every type of brand & tech like minidisc, tape, flac files & back to vinyl. They all have their place. Presently it's a Rega 3, Marantz 6007cd & amp with Bowers n Wilkins 607 s2 anniversary speakers. But my music tastes are still the same. I look back & apart from the wife music is what makes life worthwhile. P.s I still have my red walkman from the 70's.
Myself & my brother put a system together. Dual 505 , ortofon vms 20, Nad 3020, Celestion 121 Speakers . 1982. It sounded great . A few years back I repurchased a Nad 3020 for my bedroom system. More than nostalgia, its that good 👍
Ive.still got the amplifier I bought when I got my first job ...a Luxman L1 and a Garrard GT-20 turntable ,still got all my records too 😎✌
That was fun! Mine was a brand new 1975 Radio Shack Realistic quadraphonic receiver and 4 Nova 8 speakers, Dual turntable with Shure cart and some off brand Cassette Deck. I was 15. I had moved up from record players so it was everything. Reading these comments is soooo sweet.
Thanks Matt. Quad, eh? Did you listen to many quad-level LPs? What did you think of the tech? I've never heard it, you see.
@@TheAudiophileMan I had a couple of Quad SQ albums which Columbia records pushed. You had to have a Quad decoder of some sort for your phono. I did not. So I used it as surround sound, then later stacked the speakers.
Hi Paul
I bought my Mission 762 speakers from Beaver Radio in the early 90's and I'm still using them today. I nearly had a heart attack carrying the massive box to the car, parked somewhere near Dale street! Those were the days 🙂
My first record player was an ITT-KB, to which you could add an extension Amplifier/Speakers, which gave you stereo. Next, was a Bush Arena Stereo Amplifier, powered by Germanium Transistors. It even had small Output Transformers inside it. When that died, I bought an Amstrad 8000 Mk3 from a second-hand shop, which was a very enjoyable amplifier. That was followed by a Pioneer SX-434 I found by a rubbish bin, which had been put out for the Refuse Collectors. I took it home and within a couple of hours, I had it running again. That served me well for several years, before I finally bought the Amplifier of my dreams. The World Audio Design K5881 Power Amplifier, to which I added the WAD KLPP1 Phono Amplifier and a pair of Quad Electrostatic 57 Speakers. Hi-Fi Bliss.
Paul, this brought back some memories. My first system was purchased through luck - having pressed my nose up to the window of any electrical retailers that I came across. Having just started work in 1977, I had money in my pocket and the determination to spend it. My first two purchases were an ADC 1600 (with the 'S' shape arm) and the venerable NAD 3030 in silver (I believe this just pre-date the 2020?). This seemed to me a pretty good combination given I had not heard either before buying. Laskys then came into play with me making exactly the same choices as you for the JVC casette deck and Sennheiser headphones, I then added a basic JVC tuner and a purchased pair of Teledyne Acoustic Research AR24's (I think the were AR24's).
I could write paragraphs on my hifi journey. I haven't collected a ton of gear, as I've never really had much money to spend. Most of my journey has been in my head, starting from being a 4-year-old being fascinated by my second cousin's McIntosh system and his record collection, and later down the line an obsession with my friend's system including Linn turntable and Mission speakers.
Cheap music centres and midi systems, played a part in my childhood, as well as cheap Technics separates from Dixons. I now have a streamlined system (to make life easier with my partner), including Tannoy Revolution XT6F speakers (and KEL LS50s in the loft), Project Debut Carbon Esprit SB turntable (with Goldring 1042), Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 and an Audiolab 6000CDT. It does everything I need and sounds great.
It's not the end of my journey, of course.
I was given our old 70's Sony music centre by my folks in about 1983 (I was about 12 or 13 at the time), I'm sure everyone over 50 remembers those things. To be honest it was fantastic at the time, very loud! My Dad had just bought a Bang & Oulfson BO centre from Rackhams in Birmingham. When I passed my A levels and got into Cambridge in. 1987 my folks gave and Grandmother gave me between them around £1500, I also had a lump sum from an insurance saving policy my parents started when I was born, so used some of windfall to buy my first real system: A Rega Planar, a Cyrus 2 amp and pair of Mission speakers, after a few hours of auditioning equipment and many hours of reading reviews I settled on it. I had this system for quite a few years, I remember upgrading my amp to Audiolab 8000A in about 93 and adding an Arcam Alpha 5 CD player, I upgraded the speakers to B&W 603's and eventually the turntable to a Michell Gyrodec.
Your story reflects all or part of our sonic journey… 😢 😅 😊 This is like audiophile anonymous. 😂
Thanks for the memories, Paul! I got into hi-fi at the same age you did, and at around the same time. My parents had set a bit of money aside for my 16th birthday, thinking I might get a moped, but I had other ideas thanks to afternoons spent in Comet, Rumbelows (Laskys never reached Plymouth) and local specialists Framptons and Peter Russell's Hi-Fi Attic.
I kicked off my hi-fi addiction with a JVC KD_A2 cassette deck (no action at all - the cassette clipped onto the front panel!), a Marantz PM200 amp, a MicroSeiki MB-10 turntable and a pair of Monitor Audio MA16 speakers.
The Micro Seiki rumbled like a bus going over a cattle grid, and I actually took a step up when I bought an Audio Technica Sound Burger - now that was a truly portable turntable! 42 years later, I still listen to the MA16s - although all of the drive units soon suffered from youthful enthusiasm, and were replaced. Monitor Audio was a minnow among speaker manufacturers in 1980, but they really knew how to make a good speaker. The Marantz wasn't a bad little amp, but after a couple of years I grabbed the chance to replace it with a used Luxman L-113A and never looked back. The JVC, meanwhile, was as basic a cassette deck as it could possibly be, but it made good recordings. I don't think JVC ever got the recognition they deserved.
Nearly forgot - my first pair of hi-fi headphones was Yamaha's HP-3 - seems I was into planar magnetics decades before they were fashionable.
In recent years I've indulged my love of hi-fi of that era by building a collection of gear from around 1979, but nothing can match the thrill of starting out on the journey!
I miss Rumbelows. Odd, isn't it? They were strangely comforting. No idea why.
And yes, the clip on cassette decks. I liked the look of those. And I always fancied a Micro Seiki ever since I saw one in the mags. Did you like it? And yes, there's nothing like building that first system.
@@TheAudiophileMan Sadly, good-looking though it was, the MB-10's rumble was too much for me. Eventually I replaced it with a much better-behaved Yamaha P-220.
Oh how this hugely enjoyable video resonated with my own journey. Starting in the mid 70’s with my parents’ trendy all in one ‘Music Centre’ which I think was a Ferguson; my own first separates system was a JVC belt drive which I somehow managed to bodge on a Shure cartridge upgrade, a JVC receiver(can’t remember the model but I was seduced by the turquoise led backlighting on the signal meters), a Tandy cassette deck and a pair of secondhand Wharfedale Dentons. Headphones were from Akai.
My prog rock never sounded better !!!
Thanks for rekindling some happy memories 👍
Great nostalgic rant 😂😂👍👍
Remember my first speakers(Mission Bookshelf Speakers) transporting with a mofa on the rear seat
about 20 km from the shop to my home village anno 1983.
Klasse Video! Mein HiFi-Start 1972 war ein DUAL HS 34, ein 1210, ein 10er-Plattenwechsler in einem DUAL-Verstärker mit 2 x 25 W/4 Ohm, DIN-Buchsen. Konnte meinen Vater überreden!
I got into hifi a little later than you (mid-1980s), but my journey started when i was very young. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of sitting in front of my parents’ Lafayette receiver watching the warmly-illuminated VU meters dance. Why more manufacturers don’t include VU meters to tap into our sense of nostalgia, I’ll never know.
Although i had amassed a decent collection of cassette tapes and a fair number of vinyl albums, i was stuck listening to them on either my parents’ antiquated system, on my walkman, or on my tiny General Electric “boombox.” However, once I went off to college, i realized i needed a proper hifi system. My first two components were a Sherwood receiver and a Teac tape deck, the model numbers of which are lost to time. I really wanted the Nakamichi cassette deck that autoreversed by actually spinning the cassette around, but that was priced waaaayyyyy beyond my meager college means so i went with the Teac that served me well. These were paired with a set of tinny-sounding Radio Shack bookshelf speakers that soon blew out during very loud, late night drunken listening sessions with friends.
The next component was a jvc cd player (again the model number is lost to me) but i knew I needed better speakers. Louder ones. Speakers that could compete with my dormmates’ Polks and Cerwin Vegas. I went down to the stereo store in Waterville, Maine and spent money i did not have (and took forever to pay off) on a pair of Design Acoustics PS-10’s with the downward-firing woofer. I loved those things. They played loud but weren’t boomy like so many others (probably because they didn’t hit below 50hz or thereabouts). They served me well for many years, finally disintegrating into dust just last year.
Anyhow, loved the episode and thank you for reminding me that the journey is ultimately what is most fun about this hobby.
I know!!! Why we're not drowning in VU meters, I just don't know. It plugs straight into the nostalgia nerve. Seems an obvious money earner to me too.
And yea, Nakamichi? You and me both. Which is why I ended up grabbing one later in life. Hehe.
For X-mas when I was 13 I got an MCS (Modular Component System) stereo system (store brand of JC Penny). All I can remember is the receiver was the 3236, but it also had a belt drive turntable, a cassette deck and 3 way floor standers as part of the package deal. I used the receiver, speakers and turntable from 1981 to 2003. I recently picked up a 3236 (as well as 3226) for cheap online just to remind myself what they used to sound like. I got the 3226 paired with some Klipsch RP-400Ms for a second system in my home office. it is fun, if not world beating.
I just wish I had held on to the turntable... I wonder what that could be made to sound like in a modern system.
Lasky's on Dale Street was fabulous, as was Beaver Radio. I spent many an hour gazing dreamily at all of the HiFi loveliness. "One day, one day" would be my mantra! Years (and funds) later I occasioned Doug Brady Hifi on Smithdown Road in Liverpool for my 1st proper system: Yamaha CDX810U, NAD 3020e and a pair of Acoustic Research 18BX speakers. Great times 👍
Ahhh, a Doug Brady customer. Yes, when I upgraded those Sheltons, I nipped over to Doug's and bought a pair of Mission 70s :) And you were a fortunate who bought a 3020!
@@TheAudiophileMan - Paul, my adventures truly started later into the 80's than yours.
The first hifi system I bought myself consisted of a Dual CS505-2 turntable, a JVC JR-S201 receiver and Acoustic Research AR17 speakers and I was in heaven as up until that point I had listened to music on my parents Bush Arena "stereogram", which was more furniture than hifi! The Dual turntable and the AR speakers were bought from Laskeys in Tottenham Court Road.
Thanks for a great story 😎🎶🎸
My 1st decent hifi was back in 1985 composed of an NAD 3020B integrated amp, a Thorens TD-318 w/ Ortofon MC15 super, and Genesis Physics V6 two way ported speakers. Still have the Thorens TT, but now with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge :)
Oh, I retrofitted a 2nd arm to the Thorens TD-318 -> a Dual 1212 single piece cast tonarm with a Nagaoka MP-110 on board. Made a dual cup bearing sleeve mount from a copper tube, and two aluminium countersunk finish washers epoxied to each end. The Anti-Skating is done by a copper lever arm, nylon thread and small copper weight that I spent way too much time to fine tuning :]
Thank you for the memories My Hifi story - The beginning
It was back in the late 70s and I had been working for two years and I decided to move into my own place (a bedsit) my music was what few records I had left and a new ITT turntable with speakers and a 5 pin din for my cassette player it sounded great until I was educated into real Hifi by my good friend who lived around the corner.
We loved playing chess until the early hours of the morning at first we played around my place listening to Yes albums and then he invited me to play around his bedsit and wow what a difference. I walked into a pair of Realistic T-200 Tower Speakers driven by a JVC JR-S600 RECEIVER and a Sony turntable I was gobsmacked with the sound and I was never the same after that day. I had gotten a job working as a salesman at Tandy for the Christmas period and the assistant manager was a right ass, and one day he sent me into the Wearhouse to bin the biggest pile of boxes I had ever seen it was going to take all day and mess up my suit so no sales that day while I was filling the skip I found several of the boxes were not empty so I tried to report my findings to the assistant manager but he told me in no uncertain words to get back to “shovelling shit” this made the other members of staff laugh and I became the shit mover from that day onwards.
I was pissed but I had an idea so I threw everything in the skip knowing that they would be replacing that skip in a few day's time so everything went in regardless, as a result, I got my first HiFi kit that consists of Sharp Cassette Deck (Sharp Stereo Cassette Deck Model RT-10 Metal), Realistic Receiver (Realistic System Seven STA-7 Stereo Receiver) and Minimus 7 speakers my local catalogue helped me out with a Sharp RP-11 Automatic turntable. I was lucky that a friend sold me his old Wharfedale Linton speakers as he had upgraded to the Realistic towers I did not stay after Christmas I hated working there but I'm glad that I did because a few years later I started working in Lasky's Coventry in the computer department and that's when my real journey began.
You worked in Lasky's? Goodness, I tip my hat to you then :) And that's quite a collection of hardware you had there. And yes, I know what you mean. When you walk into a friends up and running HiFi, it can be quite an experience. I remember doing just that with a friend I had who had a Hitachi amp and Castle speakers. It was as warm as a crackling fire and not audiophile really. But - have to say - it still sounded great! Hehe.
@@TheAudiophileMan The assistant manager at the Cov store became the buyer for the company and we became good friends over the years, Martin would dragg me kicking and screaming to all the Hifi shows he called it a learning experience and it turned out to be true. He used to have listening sessions after work so that we could hear the difference between equipment he also forced anyone willing to read all the Hifi magazines (no internet back then) we also had close ties with Mission and we went on a tour of the factory.
A Sony Hi-Fi was my first with wharfedale delta 30 speakers loved it
What a wonderful story, Paul, thank you. Those pictures of the very streets I strode in the same years, it’s a miracle we didn’t bump into each other. Maybe we shared a moment pushing buttons or standing next to the comparator in Beaver Radio! As for accessories; felt brush, check; Zerostat, check, although mine was white.
As for the gear, well it was a Sansui SR222 MkII with an Ortofon OM10 cartridge at the front end and, courtesy of a student grant, the mighty NAD 3020 amp. As a matter of fact, I currently own two of them. Long story their. For speakers I had to wait a while. I chose the Robin Marshall designed, Audiomaster MLS1. A lovely sounding speaker with severely constrained dynamics.
They did sound great playing Genesis, though. By the way, I’m going to see Steve Hackett later in the year on his Foxtrot fiftieth anniversary tour.
All the gear came from Beaver and I later added a Yamaha cassette deck from ACE in The Precinct, which looked like a poor man’s Nakamichi. Boy did that sound good with TDK SA90 tapes and Dolby C.
I’ve actually recreated most of my old system, with the exception of the speakers, which I couldn’t find, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. There is no doubt it was a heck of a foundation and it was quite a few years before I did any serious upgrading.
Thanks again for a very enjoyable ramble.
I don't remember my first amp and speakers, but I remember my first turntable: An EAC 900. The only direct drive which ELAC produced. My father bought one for my mother and one for me half the price, because they were sold as factory sale (I lived near Kiel, the town where ELAC comes from) An absolutely great playing turntable. The motor was or is on the level of the technics SL-1200. But what should I say, I lose them-very annoying.
Ah happy days!!!
Practical HiFi was my rag of choice back then (anyone remember Fox On Fifi 😂). The mag was slightly cheaper than most others and tended to focus on the lower decks of Starship Audiophile, which was ideal for me because I was always broke. So, lets set our Milti Phasers to stun & crank up the way back machine, shall we?
TURNTABLES: Dual CS505 ~ Pioneer PL12D ~ Sansui SR222 mk2 ~ Trio KD1033B
All the above were the budget darlings of the hifi press back then and I couldn't afford any of 'em, so I had to make do with dad's old Garrard SP25mkIV & Shure m55 cart (it was alright actually, although my 17yr old self would have grimaced and told you it was a pile of junk).
AMPS: NAD3020 ~ NAD3020 ~ NAD3020 ~ A&R Cambridge A60 (if you were feeling a bit more hoity toity)
NOPE! Dad to the rescue again (THANKS DAD!) with a rather gorgeous looking Sony TA73 amp with its modest 15w per side output. It sounded good though and that pure green power lamp was 'tres smexy'.
SPEAKERS: Acoustic Research AR18 ~ Celestion Ditton 15 ~ Wharfedale Diamond mk1
I could have afforded a pair of Diamonds but I had a secret weapon, a pair of Rigonda two way speakers which were humongous (around the size of B&Ws DM2's) and they could rock the world... 🤘
p.s. Paul, could the Grado cart you mentioned be an FCE+1?
My first hi Fi, I bought from my savings from my Saturday job. I had a Garrard SP25 mk2 deck, Amstrad amp, solar box speakers. The amp and speakers were rubbish. The deck was ok. I was 16, it was 1970.
In the Liverpool Laskys on Dale St the hi-fi department was on the ground floor. In the early 1980s on a Saturday I would be downstairs playing on the Atari home computers :)
Hehe - yes, I remember messing around with the Atari computers there too! I had no idea what to do but found one button on a game...was it Star Raiders? It sent you off to hyperspace or some such. There was no joystick attached so the staff clearly didn't want oiks like me playing their games on their time. So yea. I'd walk in, hit the hyperspace button, bathe in the hyperspace whooshing sound and then move on :)
Great episode Paul - love this topic. Only last evening spent a great night with a friend (and much beer) talking for hours on this very subject - memories!
BTW my Zerostat was white! (also had a Pixall!!)
Thanks Steve! Great to hear you had a Pixall (and a white Zerostat, blimey) - no-one ever talks about Pixall rollers anymore. I have fond memories.
My Zerostat was white & it cost a lot decades back i.e. to myself, a 16'yr old who's half way through his "City & Guilds radio & tv servicing apprenticeship" & i had to save for a few weeks to get it as one weeks wages wouldn't cover it AND leave cash to pay my parents their £5/week for room & board. Back then, a Zerostat cost a mighty £7.99 i seem to recall ...or 10p short of my week's wages of £8.09/week (9p was taken off at source for National Insurance) ...& as i earnt under £15, there was no tax to pay so i took a strait £8/week cash in a brown cardboard wax-blob sealed envelope & the £3/week left was all mine, a 12'hr Saturday job in Brighley's of Peterborough eventually allowed me to buy my first & necessarily s/h stereo for my bedroom, a Thorens 150 / Sure cart' & a Radford valve pre & power amp both from "Exchange & Mart" ads while an uncle donated his old post-upgrade Dynatron speakers to me. I remenber showing curious friends & proving how it did really neutralise static, by making a balloon fall down that i stuck to the wall after a jumper rub, when you aimed the Zerostat at the wall/balloon interface after pulling the long trigger & hearing it make the extended clicking sound as the trigger returned to it's position, seems like a lifetime ago, (it was for some) I once by chance, saw a tiny fleck of paper jump from well over a foot away & stick to a vinyl L.P. after taking it out of it's course paper sleeve & charging it up (like a balloon) with dust-attracting static. I think they'll cost a bit more than £7.99 now!
In college about '65, I built a Laffayette Radio integrated amp kit, got the cheapest Gararad turntable available and cheap headphones. I could listen in my room without driving my parents crazy. The sound of that system enhanced by the application of not particularly legal smoking consumables sourced from Mexico. In the Navy I got a 115V to twelve volt converter and mounted an Sony automobile cassette player to my work station using headphones to listen. Getting out of the service in 1970, I ordered a system from the Military Exchange in Japan. Pioneer receiver and speakers. Sony RtoR, Dual Turntable rounded it out. The Pioneer speakers were not to my liking so soon replaced with Cerwin Vega boomers. I think a 12 inch two way rock speaker. From then on it's been a trail of one piece of gear after another.
Blimey Fletcher, I admire your DIY abilities there. And yes, you don't see enough 12" bass bins nowadays. I love to review some.
@@TheAudiophileMan The older I get, the better I was. I believe I misspoke on the CV speakers. They were probably three ways. DIY has always been in my blood. A welcome respite from the tedium and frustration of organizational life. Started early at age sixteen when I bought the shell of an old race car and built it into my high school ride. After Pioneer came soldering up Hafler kits for preamp and amp. Hafler had the dull gray green finish I think possibly before NAD did it. A friend of mine had a modified and upgraded Hafler preamp that at the time bested anything else I had heard and he wouldn't sell it.
I forgot to mention that prior to hustling together my bedroom system, I used to listen to my LPs on my parents console Zeneth HIFI in the living room. It had a tube amplifier section and a tonearm that you could exercise your biceps lifting. I had to remove my mothers precious home decorating nick-nacks to get to the controls and record player but the maple finish was impeccable. After suffering through my Surrealistic Pillow and Highway 61 Revisited listening not to mention Yes, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer. My parents were glad to have me retreat to my headphones.
My father had the same pioneer Tape deck, used it to make killer tapes from his vinyls.
My first hifi was a all in one by Erres, a subsidiary of Phillips, and it had speakers, a turntable, a radio and cassette player. I was 14 or 15 a that time and over the moon with it….
Erres was new to me but, after searching, it certainly has that classic 70s-era 'look' to it. At least the images that I could find. Nice.
Very cool. I'd love to find my first stereo system again, but can't seem to find it. It was a Panasonic Music Center that I believe was sold only in U.S. Military PX's. It had a BSR record changer, cassette deck and tuner with two speakers. You could buy an additional two speakers to make it a quadraphonic system.
Yup, not sure but I was probably got the music infection when my parents apparently had me change records on their big stereo cabinet at the age of 3. Elvis, Johnny, Patsy, Hank, .....sirca 1963.
Can I say my first experience of hifi sound is from a cassette workman. The days I turned off the bass boost and just turn up the volume. I can understand what the Hifi reviewers are saying in the magazines. It sounded more fast wider soundstage. Of course it was good to own a turntable and learning to tweak the Shi ...t out of it.
I bought my first CD player (Yamaha CDX-900) from Laskys.
I can’t believe the flyover is gone now.
I bought a bunch of stuff from Beaver HiFi . I used to love the NS1000 speakers they had on display.
I moved on to Bradys on Smithdown road, (Rogers LS4a) and Chris Brooks audio (Rega Planar 2).
Bought a Funk Gett! From Brady’s in Warrington.
I heard about the flyover only lately - when did it come down? Those NS1000 speakers were quite a purchase. Rather mighty they were. And you grabbed some quality stuff over the time I can see. I eventually upgraded those Sheltons the Mission 70s from, you guessed it, Brady's :)
@@TheAudiophileMan I moved away in the 90's and I believe the flyover came down in the last year or so.
Yes, not a fan of Dirac but...if you like and it works for you then that's all that matters. And the GyroDec? Quality piece of engineering.
great story 👍🏿
First hi fi bought from Laskeys in Brum, a JVC AX1 amplifier with JVC turntable, speakers were something from Comet, I thought it was the bees knees, in reality it was rather poor but it made noises and it was my own. Used to spend hours walking round Laskeys, drooling.
Glad you had a Laskys in your life back then. Everyone should have gone through that rite, I reckon :) And Comet! I kinda miss it. And there was nothing like 'your own' HiFi was there? Agreed.
Hit the nail on the head with that video audiophile man but its got to be said sheltons bloody sheltons ! life of luxury laddie lol I had to walk in my bare feet to richer sounds to drag home a pair of wharfedale chevin xp2 on the bus to go with my dual "+ the proven scientificaly magical glass matt upgrade for my 21st birthday " turntable . Mind you I advanced last year to a more modern goldring gl75 and nad 3130 to keep up with the times ah happy days ! :-)
Hehe - yes Chevins were part of the conversation back then :) Hence my surprise when my parents said I could go for the Sheltons. Thanks for sharing your memories and agreed, happy times.
Great video 👍. I love music and yet am far from being an audiophile. When I was 11 and having passed the 11+ my parents bought me a Dansette style record player. 45s for me. TOTP tunes all the way. I had it for a good 5 years. My upgrade was one of those nasty Amstrad all in ones. But I too enjoyed Foxtrot then and still do. My 1st hifi was the NAD/DUAL combo bought from Tottenham Court road. Can't remember the speakers though.
I'd say that comment proves you're an audiophile. Audiophiles care enough about music quality to want to enhance the listening experience and to get closer to the truth of it. That's what you've talked about here. It's ok though. You're amongst friends :)
I think you will find the white Zerostat was the first model from the early 70s, I had one purchased from Southport hi fi along with my Technics system, and still have Technics stuff now with Tannoy speakers!.Thank goodness for Wilkinson HIFI Nelson!!. Did you never shop at P&A Audio Crosby? big shop in its day!👍
Thanks for the Zerostat info Gary. I wasn't aware of the Crosby shop, I'm afraid. Pity, I'd have been on the bus pronto, otherwise!
I bought 1 of those TDK in a 90 minute version.
Brilliant story...
Good stuff Paul thanks.
I LOVE TYPING IN ALL CAPS
Hahaha Sound , I well remember Laskys and Beaver radio access the road from Probe were I'd go to buy records on a Sat afternoon we must be the same age I'm 58 ,Max ,West Kirby ,Wirral 😎
Took me ages to enter Probe. In my early early years, the outside of Probe was dripping with scary punks with 5ft mohicans. Scared me half to death. Took 4 pints and and a whisky chaser before I would go in.
my dads hmv 8+8 stereo ,it was crap,but i had my brothers sharp 3 in one that was a big improvement ...
My first real system was a Marantz 2250B Receiver, Dual 2019 turntable with Shure M91 ED cartridge, and a pair of ADC 303AX speakers... 😀