My Grandfather inadvertently got me into hifi in the late 70s when he gave me the money to buy my first set up. My first turntable was the Garrard GT20 manual. I bought also bought an Ortofon cartridge. I can't remember which one. Age 17 when I powered it all up i was amazed. I was hooked. What did everyone else start with and when?
When I was 14, my dad came home from a yard sale with a Garrard RC88 and an Eico amp for me and my brother. Here's a pic (not mine) from the internet: I still have a few of the albums we played on it. I've thought about buying one off ebay to see if I can get it to work.
I think these things also bring back lovely memories. My grandfather was special to me. My first hifi memory is really a memory of him and our affection and love for each other. I suspect its same for many people
Give the OP says hi-fi, it would be 1974 with a Pioneer PL12 and this rabbit hole started when I saw and then heard my friend's system. When I saw it I was baffled by the idea that, you had separate components and you had a thing called a cartridge, which cost more than my 'all in one' system.
My first was a Marantz TT2000, bought secondhand from a pawn shop in 1983, with an ADC cartridge bought new. It was a pretty good turntable.
I can't recall exactly what it was or even where I bought it. I think it was at Pacific Stereo or maybe Federated Group in the late 70s. That's all I can remember.
A Pioneer PL-15D in early 1973. It was purchased at the at the PX in Stuttgart, West Germany. It was used until 1997.
1980ish. Fisher Price Suitcase that only played 45s. Had a plug-in microphone that got ignored for 6 years until Ferris Buellers Day Off came out and I realized in my moms stack of 45s from her youth, she had The Beatles Twist and Shout. Oh boy. We drove my parents nuts signing it over and over and over.
Various PYE, Clairtone like floor standing consoles. Viking and similar portables then I stepped up to real HiFi and got my first Radio Shack stereo system. Fortunately it only could go upward from there. It was Last Post for turntables for me when “perfect sound forever” made its appearance.
The same pioneer pl-600 (silver dd) that I am still using today. my dad purchased it in 1980. Recently swapped to new rca tips and a new ground plug. still spinning
My very first was a Radio Shack Clarinette 12. It contained a ceramic cartridge and I ruined a several of my favorite albums on it as a kid. But in 1981 my dad "upgraded" his stereo to a Technics receiver, and so he handed down his old Dynakit tube gear to me, along with a BOTL Pioneer PL-100 turntable. That was my first decent TT.
The first stereo I bought for myself was this: It's a Sanyo UMC 9003. It also kind of looks like individual components, but it's actually one big box. It shipped with two speakers. I played and fell in love with a lot of music on this thing. It was totally glorious. The sound was excellent. Except memory plays tricks on you, because looking at it now, it's hard to believe it sounded anything other than poor. But to my young ears, it was heaven. I'm sure if I heard it today I'd die laughing at how bad it is/was. But it's relative, right? I remember the pots on the dials started to crackle and hum, but tbf, I wore this thing out. This did for years, but eventually I upgraded, and when I did it was to a Linn setup. The Linn was much better.
That goes way back. The first turntable in our house was in an early 60s b&w TV/stereo console. The thing was a monster with a less than 21" screen sitting above a pull-out automatic turntable, all flanked by speakers. All my first Beatles LPs spun on that baby. That covered things until about '74/'75 when I went into a Pacific Stereo and left with my first system. It would have been a Pioneer turntable, likely a notch or so above the entry model. It left in '78 when some nice folks used a credit card to pop open my door and leave with it and my treasured Infinity Monitor speakers.
Mine was a GE that looked like a suitcase and the turntable folded down when I was about 10, ‘ 77 or so. Super Low Fi. After that I had a Technics when I was around 13 , direct drive SL something or other.
I had a Fisher Price record player as well, but it played 33 and 45 RPM both. I tried looking for a photo of the player you mentioned with the microphone, but usual internet searches didn't turn up anything. Tons of F/P cassette players had the built-in mic. It looks like the most popular model F/P record player was the one I had as a kid (#825). Could you possibly find a photo of the Fisher Price record player that you had? EDIT: I might have just found it. Radio Shack made a kid's record player with a built-in mic.
Vintage Mod Record Player GE Desktop Modern Design | eBay Don’t think I will buy another one, lol. It was not very good. Think I was about 7 or 8 when I received it for Christmas. I did not have the cool stand this one has.
I tried and didnt turn anything up. It might not have been F/P? I do remember the case was white and blue plaid vinyl wallpaper like coated. My memory is pretty fuzzy from that age so a detail could be off.
Technics SL Q2 in 1981. Along with a Fisher amp with a set of POS speakers from a Yorkx/Pioneer receiver 8 track combo thing which I blew out immediately just before my 16th birthday.
