The first stereo you personally owned?

I got my first stereo when was 12. In 1976.
Old Garrard turntable (forgot model)
Sony Amp (early 1970's model)
Very large Sony Speakers (from early 1970's)
Can't remember model numbers all I cared back then was I could play it loud when my parents were at work an that none of my friends had a stereo in their bedrooms.
This worked well as they all used to bring their parents or older siblings albums round and we would blast out these old 100 watt Sony Speakers till I blew the bass cones.
My dad was not best pleased as he had these speakers on loan from his work.
But all ok he had a new bass cones fitted and I never again played Pink Floyd WYWH
at max volume on that first system, though
I do now 42 years later, well sometimes maybe, Floyd Crazy.

 

I had a Grundig ghetto blaster with radio/twin tape deck and detachable speakers when I was 8 or 9. Looked very much like the Grundig Party Centre 2200.

 

Some no-name all-in-one system (turntable sitting on top of the "receiver") in 1972. I quickly upgraded the speakers to Marantz Imperial 4G, and that was the beginning of audiophile mania.

JohnK

 

I think it was Christmas 1977. I got the smallest Soundesign Trendsetter they made. No it didn’t have any disco lights. I picked it out because it looked like a jukebox. It had an AM/FM radio with a BSR changer above in a compartment that had a door you picked up and slid back to access it. Also had an AUX input that my older brother gave me a Soundesign 8 track player to hook up to it. The tuner wasn’t even stereo.

The first system I bought was a Magnavox component system. It came with a digital tuner, 70 watt per channel amp, auto reverse cassette deck with Dolby B and C and a turntable which I gave to my mom. I had a linear tracking turntable so I didn’t need it. Also came with a pair of 3 way speakers with 10” woofers. Still have all pieces which still work except the tuner. Came with a stand but gave that away.

I got the linear tracking turntable to hook up to a boom box that replaced the Soundesign. It was a Magnavox that had detachable speakers and actually had a decent cassette deck that had Dolby, would play and record CRO2 and Metal tapes and had a preamp for a moving magnet cartridge turntable. So I used it for my stereo because it sounded better than the Soundesign. Imagine that.

 

That's a very nice photo!

 

Pioneer SX 350 and Pioneer PL 112D with a pair of home made speakers.

Summer 1977. I was in heaven !!!

 

One of these beasties with detachable speakers. Used to play basketball (badly) for fun after school while blasting out The Prodigy. I suspect with a big smiley face eq set on the front!

 

Sounds like my first system I got from delivering newspapers in the early 7o.. started with the AR turntable, then the AR speakers and amp. My father thought I was insane..wonder what he would say if he saw me cutting holes in the ceiling for atmos speakers!

 

I remember circuit city has a lot of selections on those portable boom boxes and the beauty of it is its all plugged it and you can try it one by one. I think we went through 14 different kinds in the store. Fired it up from minimum to almost max volume and my friend bought this Aiwa. It was the best sounding portable at its category and price range of $250.00. He paid $224.00 and it was in 1986.

 

My first stereo was a Zenith fold-out system. The speakers could be removed from the main cabinet.

 

I had this from about 12 yrs old around 1974 through my teens. I think I had pioneer speakers and a technics turntable but I don't remember the model. Have a lot of fond memories of this receiver.

 

Just remembered something. I know Soundesign was considered crap but I have to say they were solid. Mine mentioned above had RCA plugs on the back for the built in 5” speakers. I remember going to Radio Shack and getting a set of RCA doubler jacks and ran the built in speakers plus I ran a set of 4 ohm Jensen coax car speakers I put in some old cabinets and put them on the headboard of my bed (what did I know I was 8) but the amp never blew up with the low impedance load I put on it. Last I knew of it my brother had it in his basement and it still worked. Imagine that.

 

Acoustic Research turntable, Acoustic Research amp, and AR 5 speakers

 

My now middle-aged, old self is jealous of your young 1970s self!!

You or your family musta' been 'upper middle class' to afford all that vintage AR gear back in the day.

That was probably around $400-$500, (or perhaps more if you were west of the Mississippi), total in the early 1970s dollars, depending on dealer discount.

 

This was my first stereo as well. Received it for Christmas 67'. That same Zenith model was seen in the film "Play Misty For Me" in a bedroom scene!

I thought at the time the sound was great from this stereo. But being all of 12 years old, I wasn't exactly a Hi Fi expert. I played a lot of albums that are now considered "classics" on that Zenith. Great musical memories for sure!

 

I'm wondering about the "350" ... ??? I had an SX-450 which I thought was the 'smallest' of these receivers ...

Anyway, yeah, I bought a new Queen album (News of the World, I think!) in 1977, it skipped on my parents' cheep thing so I marched to "Foley's" department store, got a credit card (my first of 100s which wasn't really a good idea!) and took home a Pioneer SX-450, BSR TT and some Pioneer Project 100A speakers. Maybe the BSR had a cheap Shure cart? Don't recall. I think it cost ... $450 seems to come to mind, maybe like the receiver model number.

YES, heaven !!! and my new (maybe just to me) Yes and Queen and Pink Floyd and Jimmy Buffett and Chicago and J Tull and AC/DC and Cat Stevens and Heart and Dixie Dregs and Alan Parsons and and and and ... sure sounded GREAT. I may have stayed in my room for 6 months ... (prob only to emerge with my plastic card and buy more records !!!)

 

I was 16 (in 1976)... had my first summer job... saved up for like 3 months (Jun - Aug) and bought a Sansui 771 receiver, Pioneer PL-510a turntable (AT cart) and a pair of Large Advents. Still have the components... still worked fine as of a couple years ago anyway. Did replace the speaker surrounds in the Advents a few years back.

 

I was 18 in 1981 and managed to finally save up enough money by working in a aluminum plant for the entire summer to buy my first proper stereo system. I don't have pictures of how it looked in my room, but here are stock pics of the various components. All are Akai, except for the speakers, which are "Classic by Bose".

 

First stereo was a reel to reel tape deck from a no - name outfit that ran too fast. It didn’t matter when playing self recorded material but pre recorded tapes were unsatisfactory. I had a genuine Satanic Majesty’s Request tape with the lenticular cover. I have no idea what happened to it. Had built in tube amps powering 4x6” speakers. Junk but it was a start. Also had koss pro .4A headphones.

Next rig more satisfying, but not for long.
Sansui tube receiver, cheap Garrard turntable with $.01 Shure m91ed, klh32 bookshelf speakers. this line up lasted less than a year.

 

First time Ive seen this was all the way back in summer of 1981 and I was 15. My uncle bought the receiver and with the rest of the components and I wouldn't forget the speakers was a Technics wooden decorative grille speaker cabinet that has a hinge on it so you can open and close the front. Every time we visit them, all I do is just look at this unit when it plays, how it plays dropped jaw just like listening to the voice of the world. As years gone by I finally can afford to get my own amps and I'm happily settled on tube sound. This stereo was always in my mind and until yesterday on the cassette crosstalk threading, I did mention that I want to get a real good solid state amp/receiver.
While I was leaving work today my boss the owner of the company is asking me if I want some chairs and some old radio that I can maybe use on my garage.
When I saw it, my jaw dropped. The onkyo that I was staring at all the way back in the 80's was just there waiting all that time. It was even covered and in very nice clean shape. He told me he haven't use it for almost 22 years. I couldn't stop saying thank you to my boss.
Took it home, open the cover, air cleaned it, I deoxit all the controls, gently moving the pots and switches. and finally load it on the dynaco. ran in idle no hums or anything. I shut it off for 10 minutes and fired it up normally. I remember right away that the volume has graduated feel. Incredibly sounded just the like yesterday when I was dreaming in the golden years of solid state hifi. Pure 100 watts per channel all solid state. 1980 Onkyo TX-6500.

 

I had a portable Aiwa mono cassette player back in 1967, when I was 13. It was about $59 and I thought that it sounded better and was better made than many other more expensive units.

It ran on batteries or AC, with the AC power supply built into the unit. You only had to plug in the power cord.

Back in the 60's and 70's Aiwa made some quality entry level compact tape based stereo systems.

The even made some decent car stereo cassette players. But back then, this was all coming from Japan, who still manufactured good quality products, even the entry level ones.

 

The Aiwa car and home audio looks deceiving in simplicity but they were really in solid competition with the early pioneers cassette radio with all metal cases. Both sounds really good.
One day my other cousin came in with and late 60's Opel Kadett pimped up all the way to car stereo. He had an all metal Aiwa with auto reverse cassette connected to a blaupunkt equalizer gooseneck with 4 -channel output connected to 4-6x9 all mounted in the decklid. Definitely the early pumps and they sound great... at its time!

 

Oh boy, you guys are gonna love this...

The first “stereo” I ever owned consisted of a Panasonic Boombox from the mid 80s with detachable speakers that I left connected about a foot apart. Then I ran rca cables from a really terrible department store brand AM/FM/8 track/Phono receiver Into the line in on that boombox. The turntable was a Technics SL-B2 that I was still using up until last month. Something was wrong with the preamp in the receiver so to get it loud enough, I’d turn up both the receiver and boombox all the way and that gave me about listening volume. The problem was, there was so much hiss and hum that I could barely hear the music. This is because I didn’t ground the turntable and I essentially had 2 amplifiers daisy chained together. This was my 2nd year of college. I only used this a few months until I got my first real amplifier, a Pioneer SA-5500 II. God that hiss will never leave my memory.

 

I bought one of these from a schoolfriend for £4. Then added a rather cheap amp and speakers.... but it sounded great playing the Doors and Yes!
And no, I don't have the t/t any longer

 

It was a Philco table radio and turntable. My first real stereo was a Rotel receiver with a Dual TT and Webcor speakers. This would have been around 1970