My first actual stereo: Zenith portable! What was yours? Do you have a photograph?

Mine was a hand me down suitcase model from the parents, and looked vaguely something like this.

 

Unfortunately, no photo. But I got it in late 1970, I was 13. It was an all plastic little thing by a company called Arvin. All white with red plastic grills on the speakers....6" turntable. It had two volume knobs, one for each speaker and yes, it was true stereo seperation. I can still remember smiling those first few seconds of Wah Wah with the seperated guitars on each channel. ATMP was the first album I played on it. I only had this thing for about a year and subsequently graduated to a portable with fold out speakers made by Symphonic with an automatic BSR turntable.

 

I don't have a picture of it, but I remember my mom letting me buy a console stereo from JC Penney outlet store in the Southcenter shopping area in Tukwila, WA when I was about 12-13.

 

I had a green thing in 1973 or thereabouts. I was 3ish. I didn’t appreciate stereo until many years later. I had a Sears thing with tape and record player and a four or so band EQ. Can’t find any links though.

 

No photos extant, but my mom bought a P/E (Perpetuum Ebner) radio/phonograph when we passed through Germany en route to Lahore, Pakistan in 1960. Had two detachable speakers, and a 5- or 6-band radio section(!). Played 16, 33.3, 45 and 78.

That machine was where I heard Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Everlys, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and many others for the first time. When I bought With The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night in Delhi in '64, those got played on it too.

Had a headshell where you had to turn the cartridge over to play 78's, of which we had many -- there was apparently a big installed base of old cranked Victrola-style 78 players in India and Pakistan, left over from the British days (in fact, the Punjab Club where we went to watch cricket, had a big old Victrola or similar in the billiards room, playing old music-hall, foxtrots, etc.) You could buy the Beatles on 78 on the subcontinent!

Very good times ...

 

70's National/Panasonic console. That's when I became the master of disastering LP's and 45.
Right after that began my quest in cassette tapes till today.

 

Used my parent's console stereo for quite a while until I could afford to buy my first setup. Lawn mowing money bought my Sony STR-6055 and I had it modded years later by a friend to add Pre Out/Main In jacks on the back. I added an SAE Mark XXX1B amp (on the shelf above) driving a pair of (forgive me) BIC Venturi's. This photo is around 1972 or 1973.



I used to be able to post images on the page but not tonight.

 

Lloyds console that my parents put in our new basement rec-room in the mid-1970's. First album: KISS Alive! Those 7 watts per channel blew my mind. And you could tape stuff! I was in heaven & only 10 years old...

 

Something like this perhaps?

 

My first was a mono cassette-corder. My first stereo was a walkman. Never had a turntable.

 

Yes my friend. Wow...that's a nice little mind trip.

 

Then and Now:

Okinawa Japan circa 1970. I ended up with the gear, a bunch of records, and tapes when I was around 8 and used it up until I got out of high school. It was the beginning of what has become 51 years now.

 

I don’t recall who made it, but my first record player played 78’s. You had to screw in the needles. I remember they cost 10 for 25 cents. I played my parent’s old 78’s mostly. We got our first stereo console in 1967, a Zenith. First album I ever played on it was Piper at the Gates of Dawn on Tower Records.

 

GE Trimline:



It was my older brother's, not mine.

I had a hard time finding a photo of one in the same color.

 

My dad had the same headphones. Loved those! Panasonic, if I remember correctly.

 

At that stage of the game, stereo simply meant stereo to me. But it didn't take long to start with the nitpicking and what was real and what was fake and what it all meant from a technical standpoint. Shortly after I got my Symphonic, my parents got a Capehart console. It was then that I started in with thinking things like, "I don't like the sound quality."

 

It was so fun in the 80's being a student with no budget browsing and looking at high fidelity system watching people at Roger Sound Labs and Pacific Stereo in Torrance, California. Youre entering a High Fidelity Haven (mountain of gold) I could spend hours on looking and dropped jaw at promising 70's/80's system right in front of you fresh off the box.
Honestly stereos back then are more expensive...BUT., its still affordable for cost of living is low. with $200.00 1 bedroom rental, .68 cents a gallon of gas and lower cost in college, Bingo. I was able to earn my first hifi cassette deck in 5 months from waiting.

 

I would have used my parents till sometime in high school. Then my dad got me my own system. It was a Rotel RX-850A receiver, Sony six disc changer (that beat the crap out of my cds) and a pair of Celestion 3 speakers.

That Rotel was pretty nice. And I absolutely loved the Celestions. They were a great little pair of speakers. But after a being used through my college years (and being blasted at a lot of parties) and moving around the globe and back, they were just beyond any hope. If I saw another pair I’d probably grab them for my sun room, garage or workshop.

 

Very cool…thanks for posting that.

 

Speaking of.... what about car stereo? How come my old alpine cassette tuner sounds better than my car stereo today sounds like plastic..

 

The major concern for me was W&F. Luckily, I did not hear excessive wobble from my cassette-corder when playing back my usual fare. Frequency response? Dynamic range? C'mon. Later, CD became a revelation.