Audiophiles, what quality HiFi did your parents have when you were young?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by qwerty, Jun 11, 2016.

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  1. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    My Mother had a Piano, played it often
    About as Hi-Fi as it got
     
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  2. Rogn Valdr

    Rogn Valdr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Courtrai, Belgique
    My dad had an 8-track cassette player in his car and an 8-track cassette player/recorder at home. Don't remember his amp or speakers.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2016
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  3. RJJETS

    RJJETS Forum Resident

    Location:
    RSM
    MCS stereo components.
     
  4. catchthecarp

    catchthecarp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Missouri
    In the late 60's our family had a big Zenith console stereo. It was sounded pretty good from what I remember. It looked very similar to this.
    [​IMG]

    Then in the early 70's (forget the exact year) my father bought a Fisher quad system - model 404 receiver, turntable and four speakers. The only Quad record I remember hearing was a demo record of sound effects. My parents played music often, mostly Broadway musicals, Al Hirt, Jim Nabors(I was shocked to learn Gomer could sing), stuff that didn't interest me much back then. After school before my parents came home from work our house became music central, my friends would all come over to play records. I inherited it when I moved out, only two of the speakers were still working. That was my music system until 1990 when I bought a Technics rack system. I donated the Fisher gear which still worked to Goodwill not knowing what I had, I thought it was old outdated junk.

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Mike 33

    Mike 33 Active Member

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    My parents had a full Philips system.

    RH720 receiver, N4450 reel to reel and 212 turntable.

    I guess I am a bit spoiled :)
     
  6. David Cope

    David Cope Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gales Ferry, CT
    I grew up listening to a scratch built Williamson amplifier and a home brew low boy mono speaker. The scratch built preamp, tuner and Garrard changer were housed in a modified sewing machine stand. Hendrix and the Jefferson Airplane sounded awesome! When this was all replaced with a Lafayette stereo in the early 70s, we listened a lot less frequently and for shorter durations.
     
  7. Fidobite

    Fidobite New Member

    As a kid I used to play 45's on a pull-out record player in the bottom of a b/w tube powered Admiral tv. We're talking a single 3" or so speaker in the side...cool when I was a kid in grade school, laughable today (my cell phone speaker is much higher fidelity!)
    Big move up in early 60's with the purchase of one of those "suitcase" style record players (RCA?) that snapped the separate speakers to the turntable...and it was STEREO!! Oh, the amazing fidelity!...snicker,snicker...
    Around the advent of the cassette tape era my dad began to get more serious about reproduced music. One day he came home with an early "high end" Sony casette recording deck (the top loading type...something like $400 bucks at the time!), a Marantz 2230 receiver, Thorens turntable with a decent Shure cartridge, and a pair of Dynaco A25 large bookshelf speakers! My beloved God, I was in stereo heaven! For the 1st time I experienced something approaching real musical fidelity! Now in early high school I went out and bought myself a pair of Koss Pro 4aa headphones (so I could keep on rockin' when mom & dad were in bed ;-)
    My dad passed away about 12 yrs ago still owning the same stereo with the addition of a JVC upgraded tape deck with Dolby. He was a musical ecclectic as well...everything from Pink Floyd to Joan Baez...with Chicago and Glen Campbell sprinkled in!
     
  8. Rick58

    Rick58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eagle, ID, USA
    My parents' best friend had a Scott receiver, a Garrard TT, possibly a RtR tape deck, and 3 speakers mounted on the wall. I seem to recall things like Sinatra and big band stuff being played when they took me over there, from as young as I remember to about age 14. Their friend definitely influenced me to become an audiophile, I don't think it was intentional but I knew it sounded better than the all-in-one thing my parents had at home. My best friend Jim's parents had the Zenith console like above, we played Chicago, BS&T, Pink Floyd, Cheech and Chong, and other records on it ...

    In fact my parents influenced me too - when I bought the new Queen album 'A Night at the Opera' and it skipped on their crappy record player, I bought a system at the local Foley's (department store that gave me my first credit card). Pioneer SX450 receiver, Pioneer speakers (with 2" dome midrange, cone tweeter, and 10" woofer), and BSR TT. That system lasted me about 6 years I think ...

    I should say that my parents also influenced my love of live music, lots of it in Houston from the early 50s when they moved there thru the early 80s (when I moved to CA). They 'followed' a couple of local bands that played in the hotel bars and etc. around town, I got to know most of them.
     
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  9. Grawlix

    Grawlix Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    We had a Pioneer SX-1100 with a PD-M400 CD changer (with two 6 disc magazines) and Realistic Mach Two speakers in the living room of the house I grew up in. The stereo was in front of a wall that was connected to my bedroom, so every once in a while, I would hear music pumping through my wall. Those speakers were huge. :p

    I can't remember what CDs my dad had in the CD changer, except for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Graceland, and the Top Gun soundtrack.

    I remember one day my brother took the grille off of one of the speakers and I was surprised to find that the speaker had knobs behind the grille. I didn't know what they were for at the time, but it looked cool. :p

    As it turns out, right now I'm listening to music on a CD player identical to the one we had back then.
     
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  10. riddlemay

    riddlemay Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    My parents had nothing until we (as a family, and because of my instigation) got an Admiral console stereo around 1961.

    But my uncle--that was another story. He had a great mono Bogen amp and Garrard turntable, with a speaker enclosure he had built himself. (I don't know what was behind the fabric; I always pictured a single 36-inch driver, which I have to admit now seems a little unlikely.) :)

    He turned me on to what sound was supposed to sound like.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2017
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  11. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    No music system.
     
  12. GMcGilli

    GMcGilli Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond BC Canada
    I grew up listening to all of my dads music on this - right up until 2012. I've now inherited this machine - still filled with all his Doo-Wop and "Mr. Postman" in there. And crates and crates of 45's to go through....


    Seeburg Model 100 C

    [​IMG]

    Next - I'll have to take some photos - are both of the hand cranked record players in cabinets here in the same room... But those stopped being used around 1980 or so....
     
  13. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
    My folks had respectable gear in the 80s and 90s, Technics and Teac. Like, many folks, they now favor convenience over quality.
     
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  14. COBill

    COBill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado, USA
    It didn't.

    My parents had a Magnavox console with the requisite BSR record changer.

    However I was taken to my first hi-fi show in 1981 or so and my world changed forever when I heard what music could sound like.
     
  15. BMWCCA

    BMWCCA Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central Virginia
    Want the long story?
    Back in 1957 I was 4-years-old. I remember helping my Mom stain the huge plywood speaker cabinet my Dad had just purchased along with a mono amp and turntable. Around 1964 he decided to buy a stereo. He bought a Garrard Lab-something turntable, a Fisher 400 receiver, and some wall-mounted speakers that had no brand on them. And then he kicked the mono system to the curb for Goodwill to pickup. I literally dragged that big plywood speaker cabinet from the curb to my room and stuffed it in the closet, along with the turntable and the amp, and hooked them up. Never told my Dad I'd done so until much later.

    What I had was a JBL 030 system in a large bass-reflex enclosure with a Pilot integrated mono amp and an Elac/Miracord changer with the push-button stylus swap for 78s to 33s. I was fascinated with the JBL, even playing it from a thin wire I cobbled up by destroying the earphone from a transistor radio and connecting it to the speaker terminals and to a small ChannelMaster transistor radio. It sounded like heaven to me. That was my start. That simple system with its 15-inch woofer and ring-radiator tweeter must have been my Dad's pride and joy when he purchased it. I found a match for it in a JBL C37 cabinet a few years later and bought a Kenwood receiver and a Dual 1219 and I had a stereo system. And I still have those speakers today. In fact they were my primary system until about 8-years ago when I replaced them with JBL 4345s. They've been in my home (at least one of them) for almost 60-years. And I owe my love for and fascination with hi-fi sound to my Dad's stretching to own hi-fi equipment way above his pay scale. I've followed his lead for over 50-years. Thanks Dad!
     
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  16. Manimal

    Manimal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern US
    As long as you carry on, that's all that counts:)
     
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  17. 62caddy

    62caddy Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    First item was a Philco Stereo Console with phono and stereo tuner. It was a mid '60s contemporary style with conical legs that tapered at the bottom. Never was able to find an image of it.

    In 1973, that gave way to a brand new Scott receiver R31S, a pair of Avid 101(?) towers and BSR turntable. (To this day I'll never forget the thrill of watching the Scott light up when I pushed the power button for the first time.)

    At my grandparents' house were an ElectroVoice Georgian, Patrician, Scott 384 receiver and Dual 701(?).

    At their lake house, was an Altec 711A receiver, AR turntable and pair of Rectilinear Highboys.
     
  18. Mitsuman

    Mitsuman Diamond Tone Junkie

    Location:
    Missouri
    1965 Magnavox Astro-Sonic

    Played the first LP's that I ever bought on that baby.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Dave B

    Dave B Senior Member

    Location:
    Nokomis, FL
    My folks had a small Penncrest (J.C. Penny's branded) consolette stereo when I was young. It was nothing great but all I had. I remember playing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida about 3 times straight when I bought it in 1968. Until my Dad came home and told me to, "Turn that s&*t off"! It wasn't long afterwards that I was given my own record player, a GE fold down type changer. I've been upgrading ever since.
     
  20. Mrtn77

    Mrtn77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris
    My parents, fanatic opera buffs, bought fairly good stuff in Montreal in the the very early 80s that's still going strong today : a semi-automatic Technics (a SL-D2 ?), a Luxman integrated and a pair of large Kef floorstanders. (Don't know the particular models, and would guess my folks have long forgotten.) They bought a Marantz CD player in the US during the later 80s and that still works perfectly as well.
    Nowadays, they're more prone to listening to iTunes on Bose computer speakers than turning on the old Hi-fi. Oh well !
     
  21. merlperl

    merlperl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha, NE
    A gorgeous dark wood Fisher console with a Dual TT.

    Was passed down to me when they upgraded and I played a lot of Hendrix Aerosmith, Nugent, skynyrd and Van Halen through that thing

    Wish I still had it for the cabinetry alone!
     
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  22. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    When I was a kid my Dad had a Dynaco PAS 3 and Stereo 70 amp, and Eico tuner and some lower-end EV speakers which he built as well. And when I started getting really interested in music at about 13, he "upgraded" his setup and purchased a Technics receiver, and handed everything but his speakers down to me.

    A couple of years later I was thrilled to discover that some people in the high-end community considered my preamp to be a classic, and that when modified it was even better. This prompted me to learn about modifying equipment, and the whole experience got me hooked forever.
     
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  23. blind_melon1

    blind_melon1 An erotic adventurer of the most deranged kind....

    Location:
    Australia
    Musical Fidelity P270 Power Amp
    Musical Fidelity P172 Pre Amp
    TDL Reference Loudspeakers
    Voyd Reference Turntable
    Harman Kardon HD 7600 Cd Player

    My Dad's hi-fi rocked the house :)
     
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  24. blind_melon1

    blind_melon1 An erotic adventurer of the most deranged kind....

    Location:
    Australia
    I had one of these for a while too! It was my Mum's first stereo. I inherited it when I was about 5 years old.
    Mine was silver, and the inticator for the radio (to tell what station it was on) lit up green. Pretty sure the knobs were all silver too, (as well as the push down's for the tape deck function).
     
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  25. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    As I said, this wasn't exactly mine, but close enough. Beautiful sounding thing. Best 'music centre' I've ever had! My dad now has it in his garage. 37 years after I bought it the turntable and cassette no longer work, but the radio plays fine.
    Would love to have it restored. If I had the cash and could find anyone who'd actually do it!
     
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