Thread: What Was Your First Setup?

Originally Posted by jayn_j

Loved those mid-70 vintage Pioneers. Real wood cases, brushed aluminum billet faceplate and knobs, nice heft and inertia on the tuning knob, and the funky blue and red backlit displays. Pure class, polyester era.

The top-of-the-line Pioneer receiver at that time IIRC was the SX-1250. A very close competitor was the Kenwood KR-9600, which after much debate was the one I ended-up with. It did not have a fine wooden cabinet like the Pioneer, but was instead configured as a rack mount. Otherwise the two had a lot in common including the "quality" heft and feel. Both delivered around 160 Wrms / ch with very low THD. I still have that Kenwood receiver. (It has a bad main power switch, fused contacts from all the in-rush current, but I think it will be easily salvageable.) A good buddy at the time had the 1250 and we spent endless hours debating them - and enjoying their sound! At that time I had a pair of JBL "Jubal" speakers and a Technics SL-1300 DD turntable, which is still part of my active system!

My very first stereo was a record player my parents bought us kids in the mid 60s. It had a crystal cartridge and a 3-tube amp. One speaker was in the base cabinet and the other was in the lid which could be separated. I played hundreds of 45s on that, and a few LPs.

Next came my Realistic Stereo cassette deck with amp. and speakers. (I still have the deck but the speakers were spun-off at some point.) From that I expanded to a Lafyatte preamp and amp with "Olsen" tuner and "Criterion" speakers, 50s in the front and 25s in the rear. Those sounded great, wish I still had them! Later I got a Realistic STA-150 receiver (with "Auto Magic" tuning) and some Nova 8 speakers, still have all in mothballs. I went through a series of turntables in that period and eventually settled on the Technics, then I moved on to the Kenwood receiver and JBLs. I stuck with that system for almost 30 years adding only a Realistic R-R deck (restored and also part of my current system), until I finally upgraded to a 7.1 SS HT system.

There is a LOT of interest in the vintage equipment. I want to open a store called "Second Mile Audio" when I retire...

I wish I had hung on to my parents "setup" when I was growing up... it was a Hoffman brand AM tuner & a slide out turntable with a single 12" speaker in a cabinet... one of my brothers kept the cabinet and sister in law refinished it... but the innards are gone. (early 50's era stuff) I had cousins that came back from Viet Nam with reel to reel & receivers back in the day...

The Pioneer SX1010 was the top of the line until the 1250 came out in '77, IIRC.

Originally Posted by raoul5788

The Pioneer SX1010 was the top of the line until the 1250 came out in '77, IIRC.

You're probably correct on the timing. '77 was when I bought my 9600 and the 1250 was out at the same time. (I considered that "mid-70s" but perhaps that's a stretch!)

I considered Pioneer the best in those days, with Kenwood close behind. There had been a local audio show featuring a lot of "high-end" (certainly to us!) equipment and that 9600 was a display model. I negotiated with the salesman and saved about 40% off list on that 3-day "out of box" special, saved him from having to box it up and ship it to the next show. Only had to hook 'er up, plug 'er in, and wipe-off a few finger prints and I was jammin'...!

Another friend of mine recently picked-up a nearly mint Pinoeer "Spec 1" and "Spec 2" pre-amp./amp. combo in a mini-rack with a front-load cassette deck above it at a garage sale. What a find! If only I could have afforded them back in the day...!

Originally Posted by dfergie

I wish I had hung on to my parents "setup" when I was growing up... it was a Hoffman brand AM tuner & a slide out turntable with a single 12" speaker in a cabinet... one of my brothers kept the cabinet and sister in law refinished it... but the innards are gone. (early 50's era stuff)...

My parents had essentially the same thing, but it also had a B&W TV. The cabinet was divided into quarters. The upper half hid the tuner/slide-out phono on the left side and the TV on the right. Doors opened to the sides to reveal those parts. On the bottom, it was the single 12" speaker on the left side and a cabinet to store records in the right. My dad connected a 1/4" mono jack on the side of the phono unit so I could play my guitar through it, my first real amp. I promptly blew-out the speaker! The "hi-fi" system was an Admiral, if memory serves. It was from the days when the cabinet was worth as much as the electronics! It was our primary entertainment piece in the living room for my early years, eventually relegated to the basement "family room"...not sure what ever happened to it and there's no one left alive who could tell me...

They had a Hoffman TV also (a package deal of course ) It was early 50's stuff as I remember seeing pictures of my older Brothers as toddlers with either the TV or record player in the background...

My father was the classic stereo nut of the '50s. We had the strangest collection of homebrew and adapted equipment. He designed and built speakers, some very innovative. Amps were repurposed industrial equipment. Even the turntable was a custom machined platter with an oversized arm so he could play 16 rpm transcription platters of radio shows he had acquired. About the only consumer equipment he owned was a 1/4" tape deck.

Most of the family was afraid to touch any of it. I wasn't which probably explains why I didn't carry on in the family photography business, but became an electrical engineer. Dad was a frustrated EE at heart who was bludgeoned by his parents to keep the business going.

Originally Posted by mike123abc

Harmon Kardon with Infinity speakers

nearly the same, HK 430 and DLK 1's

1957 Magnavox non-stereo,sliding top for player, 12" speaker,and radio. The cabnet is solid cherry wood. This unit was stripped and still sits in our living room full of LPs.
Dan