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

My first stereo phonograph was a Magnavox. The lid contained the other speaker and detached. I think I got it in late 1967, and I distinctly recall returning my unopened copy of the mono Magical Mystery Tour that I got for Christmas. (I had to pony up the additional dollar for the stereo LP!)
I also got a stereo version of Pepper around the same time. I kept both versions of Pepper though. I was infatuated with the way John's voice "walked" from one speaker to the other and back again in "A Day In The Life".

 

If we could just travel back in time.. Ill start off at 1976 and lawn mower any houses, waiting, car washing just to earn money just and get my hands on a brand new 1980's Nakamichi 1000ZXL Computing Cassette Deck.

 

My first stereo, in 1975 I acquired from the Tech School I was attending (originally called City Center for Learning, later renamed St. Petersburg Vocational Technical Institute). Someone brought it in to be repaired (students would work on consumer electronic equipment for training experience) and I got this one: a Sansui TR-707A receiver. However, when I started working on it, I discovered that along with the missing bottom panel, it had been shot with a gun! There was a nice, neat bullet hole all the way through the bottom of the chassis, breaking circuit boards underneath and on top. I talked to the owner, who feigned ignorance (or really didn't know what happened to it).

I talked him into selling it to me for $10. After that, it became a multi-week project to painstakingly patch all the boards back together, soldering jumpers and such. Once I fired it up, I discovered the output transistors were shorted, several resistors burnt, and a few other issues. My electronic teacher got onto me for spending so much time repairing it, but I was determined to have a decent stereo for the first time in my life! I finally got it up and running, and used it for several years until I sold it.

These photos aren't of my stereo - I didn't own a camera in those days, but it's the exact same unit I had. According to RadioMuseum, this unit was produced in 1967. Transistor Stereo Tuner Amplifier TR-707A Radio Sansui Elect

 

This an internet pic of a similar system I had in the early 70’s although I had the exact speakers shown, the cool-looking Zenith Allegro speakers that were the best-sounding speakers I had ever heard, with air from the bass you could feel coming out of the ports.

 

Beautiful...!

 

Early stereo often was primitive: drums in one channel, instruments in another. Or singers in one channel, band in another. Or male singers in one channel, female in another. Sometimes I preferred a mono version. It got better by 1970s.

My parents had a nice record player. I was not allowed to use it when I was a kid. By the time I went to high school I was deemed worthy of playing records on it. I bought a couple of dozen LPs. But I never felt emotional attachment to it. I preferred my lowly cassette-corder, it was mine and mine only.

 

I remember to getting a light show strobe that would do its thing when I played my music. Loved it all.

 

My first stereo was a Sears Silvertone, don’t know the model. The speakers, which attached to the body of the unit, could be detached about five feet to get a stereo effect. I used to lay in bed at night listening to The Doors’ The End while holding each speaker firmly against each ear.

It was a year or two before I saw my first headphones in a store window. I thought, “it’s about time they invented something so you don’t have to hold those big ol’ speakers against your head”. LOL.

 

This taught me about stereo as a little kid!

My first stereo was one of those not so good all in one TT, 8 track, receiver things but I loved it and truly wore it out (and my records, too).

 

I just collected some photographs online of the components of my very first true stereo system last week. All the gear was Pioneer circa 1972. I bought it while in the USAF and serving in South Korea. I got it at the base exchange. It was comprised of a turntable, receiver and a speaker set. A friend from those days still has his set of the same speakers in storage. It is what truly unleashed my passion from music and I will never forget those components. I think the first changes I made to that system was 1979 when I worked at an audio shop for about six months. Then a whole another path of music interest was introduced into my life.

 

GE Wildcat! A gift from my Uncle Alex.

 

I had one like this from December 1982 to 1985. This is a Radio Shack Clarinette 112. I swear that it made great cassette copies off the radio and the sound was actually good with everything.

It had bass and treble sliders and a loudness button, plus jacks for 4 speakers.

 

Don't have a picture of #1, but here's no. 2, about 1979

 

My first personal stereo was a Zenith, with cube shaped "circle of sound" speakers (circa 1972 or '73). The turntable stopped turning a few years later, and I bought a cheap set of components (Pioneer receiver and Scott turntable). I continued to use the speakers, though. They sounded good. I later replaced them with cheap Yamaha bookshelf ones, but still have them.

 

Vintage Stereo Commercials And More

 

Is that actually stereo? It looks exactly like one I remember from childhood in the '70s (I think it was in my elementary school classroom), but I think that one was mono, though I may be misremembering that.

The earliest stereo I used was my parents' big console system, one of those now-vintage 1960s things that were designed to look like pieces of furniture, with lots of real wood and a couple of pretty big cloth-covered speakers at either end. You lifted the lid in the middle section to access the controls and the turntable (which had speeds 16, 33 1/3, 45, and 78), and there was storage in the front (behind a door) for records.

Somewhat later in the '70s, my older brother had a component stereo system in his room when he was in high school. I inherited it when he moved out. It had a JVC receiver and a Garrard turntable. The main thing I remember about it is that while radio stations and cassettes sounded fine, records always had very weak bass. I have a vague memory that the turntable was connected to the aux input rather than phono, and that when I tried plugging it into the phono jacks, the resulting sound had better bass, but was very loud and badly distorted, so I put it back on aux. Maybe it had a ceramic cartridge?

 

That was mine too. I actually had a creme colored one and my parents got me a gold one a few years later. I knew someone would post a photo…so fun to see again. But it sure ruined my records…fast!

 

Mine was a similar Philco-Ford, Christmas 1967. I found one on eBay:



The entire case was black pebble-grain soft plastic.

First stereo record played on it was The Best of The Lovin' Spoonful, a Christmas gift from my aunt. I hardly knew who they were at the time. I still have the record.

 

That was a real common design in the early Sixties. You're right, the similar one that we had was mono, but I bet that there were some stereo ones as well.

 

I had a Zenith. Similar design as your's, but the speakers were smaller. It had a plastic cabinet.

 

Some sort of Bush hi-fi system in the early 2000s, with a CD and cassette player. I have it in the back of an old photo.

 

Loved my first stereo. Saved up for it from the three Jobs I had while at school.
Used some of my dad’s old speakers that were stuffed up in the roof .
It felt so modern, cool and space age for 1983 ! I loved the little plastic flap that would cover the control panel at the front.
Great times .

 

Screenshot 20210729 081044 e Bay — Postimages

My first turntable and I loved it.

Where I first heard all my favourite bands.

Going to hopefully buy another pretty soon purely for nostalgias sake.

 

Mine was this Sony LBT-D115 (1990)

 

Rubber Soul was the first stereo album I heard right after I got my first portable stereo--an Emerson, I think, with a fold-down turntable. I was already had the mono Rubber Soul, so I would listen to the stereo lp first through the left speaker and then again though the right. I learned a lot that way! I also did that with the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday.