Your first ever 'hi-fi' system?

Hi,

My first ever system was purchased in 1981, when I was 16. It consisted of a Garrard GT255ap with Ortofon FF15E cartridge, Nikko NA390 amp, Some Pioneer headphones & a pair of Omar Goring Loudspeakers. The speakers were wired up with bell wire. I thought it was wonderful.

My older brother had a Garrard SP25 (a Mk IV I think ) with an Amstrad amp. A Shure cartridge was fitted as well. He used the speakers from my parents Fidelity music centre & Sennheiser headphones. (With nice bright yellow ear pads).

The slippery slope started when my brother bought a Dual 505 turntable, Nad 3020 amp & Heybrook HB1 speakers & I heard this system. I had to upgrade.

SCIDB

 

Although I'd got the Sansui treble-two I always liked the look of the 1033 - you know why?? Because it had the hanging weight bias adjuster; SME arms had them aswell which made the Trio just sooooo cool

 

I purchased my first "HI-FI" system way back in 1995, when i was 23.

These were all chosen from my favourite magazine WHAT HI-FI?

Marantz CD-63 mk 2 cd player
Denon 260L tuner (Still got)
Yamaha KX-490 (Still got)
Arcam alpha 6+ amplifier
Kef coda 8 speakers
Atacama SE24 speaker stands filled with silver sand
Cable talk 3 speaker cable (Passed on to girlfriend)
Cable talk monitor 2 interconnect (Passed on to girlfiend)

It had loose, one note bass and very little detail but with a huge soundstage. I loved it!

 

Funny you should say that..
At the time I demmed the SUV5 against the Krimson monoblocks (with battery pre amp). I chose the Technics - probably cos I knew nowt, and the Technics had those lovely blue flashing lights and a manly 65wpc.
How wrong could I have been!
I also chose the Kef carinas over Ditton 30s...
Still, having the Kefs convinced me much later to buy some 104/2s which were quite reasonable to say the least ( they got nicked as well - bloody London!)

 

showing some peoples age's here!!

mine was from, where else but richers, got a cambridge p25 amp and some jpw sonatas. denon cd player.

 

Around 1983:

Dual CS 505
NAD 3020
AR 18

If I'd known what it would lead to, I'd have bought a TV instead!

It was a cracking little system, btw.

I stuck solely to vinyl until 1998, when someone gave me a CD player. This was a sick & wrong thing to do.

 

first proper hifi

piano cassette recorder with seperate 2 core cable soldered to speaker terminals and taken to a seperate found somewhere to doubt. this would have been 78 , prior to that i used my parents bsr

second proper hifi

pioneer pl12D
sony reciever with lovely weighted tuning knob
no name speakers

this would have been 79 ish


third proper hifi

nad3030
yamaha cdp
dual tt
mordant short ms35

this would have been 86.

I can still remember the buzz i got from listening to this year's model on the piano cassette


I don't need any more hifi - just some time to listen to what I've got.


John

 

My first proper system was:

Ariston AX910 amp - sounded ok but very edgy
Ariston CDX710 - A little bit bright at times, no real bass
JPW 31Oi speakers, no bass from these babies
Matsui £10 car boot turntbale

At the time it sounded good but then that is comparing it my old £100 venturer midi system.

my second system roughly was (ps this was happened gradualy)

Sony CDP XE530 CD Player
Marantz PM4000 amp
Eltax Monitor III speakers
Denon 260MKII tuner (sadly I sold this, but I got more than what I paid for it!)
Dual CS2100 turntbale (secondhand)
Yamaha KX380 cassete deck

This has progressed to:

Marantz CD6000OSE LE CD Player
Marantz PM6010OSE Amp
Rotel RC870BX pre-amp (for phono and extra source switch)
Cambridge Audio DAC1 Magic 1 (for DVD and Freeview box)
Project Debut II turntbale
Sony TU300 tuner
Philips H890 headphones

 

Student days

Sansui SR222 MkIV the Nagoka MP11
Sansui AUD22X Integrated Amp
Wilmslow Audio ex demo kit speakers
Target Speaker Stands (1984 vintage!)
QED 42 strand

Worked pretty well and lasted all my Student days to be upgraded when I got a proper job to a Revolver with LVX/K9 + Rotel 820BX

Mr Perceptive

 

I had the following system when I was in university, blew most of my student grant on it:

Dual CS505II turntable
Mission Cyrus One integrated amp
Tannoy Mercury speakers

The whole system cost less than 220 pounds. At that time in 1985, CD players were really expensive in comparison.

Hon

 

I first listened to stereo in 1973. I bought a ferguson radiogram. It was basically a large record deck. I mainly listened through headphones. Despite it being very low fi, I have never replicated that gobsmacking experience of listening to my first ever stereo record. (America)

Rod

 

My first separates based system from the early 90s...

Denon PMA-350 amp
Sony APM-141ES speakers (the one with the flat diaphram drivers)

The CD player fronting this system was a Sony Disc Walkman for a few months before a full sized Sony in the shape of a CDP-990 was drafted in as my first ever grown-up CDP.

Other sources were a Pioneer CT-447 cassette deck, Pioneer F757 tuner and Hitachi HT1 turntable (the t/t was a bit but it was free ).

The above was the system I use to have in halls whilst I was at student, back at home in the bedroom there was a Sharp (can't remember the model number) silver integrated amp driving some second hand Goodmans Minister SL speakers.

 

I had a Sharp mono cassette player. Remember the things about the size of a shoebox? Thanks Dad, it was great.
Then moved onto a Panasonic mono cassette radio. Thanks Dad, it was great.
Then saved up my pocket money and bought a NAD 3020. But nothing to plug into it. Dad got a couple of speakers out of some big old radios, and we wired the Panasonic into the amp & put the speaker cones on the floor weighed down with some books. We got sound!! (And didn't killl the amp).
Then I saved some more & got a Dual 505. Still speaker cones facing down on the floor weighed down with books. Not quite as good as it could have been.......
......but then I'm still saying that now.....and I'm not the only one?
Got a couple of 'what should I buy' letters in WHF/Hi FI Choice (I can't remember which, or even if they were around then - probably 1979 or so).
Then I came home from school one day (my birthday I think) & there was a pair of Wharfedale Shelton XP2's sitting in the hall. Thanks Dad!
After several incarnations I now have Linn LP12/Naim/Castle/Tag etc...
Dad is still listening to his Roberts radio (& nowt wrong with them at all!!) & still thinks I'm mad...

What will your kid's first hi-fi be?

 

I was given a Marconiphone Tuner Amp, some rather large speakers and a BSR turntable. They must have been about 20 years old but they still pissed on all my mates midi systems. Next came a Pioneer CD player a comet special offer, and then some Wharfedale Delta speakers from a bloke I knew in a pub. Anyone missing some of those circa 1990 in Manchester
Then bought a Pioneer twin cassette deck and finally the last piece in the jigsaw the ubiquitous NAD 3020i, what a cracking amp.

 

Ah fond memories!

1986

AR Legend TT with Goldring 1042
Mission Cyrus One
Tanoy M20Golds

Oh how I miss the magic that sytem brought me!

 

My first proper hifi is not really very different to the current system, truth be told, but hey I'm still at school . About 2 years ago I was using the following:

Marantz PM7000 amplifier (still in use in my main system)

Jamo D165 speakers (Bought them on the strength of 'oooh big, and 8 inch bass drivers, and only £120'. Damn loud, sure, but very harsh sounding and crude in design - gotta love spring clip terminals, and the fact that despite their size they are a fair bit lighter than my smaller B&W 602s).

Marantz CD4000 (Bought when I thought 'a cd players a cd player, it plays cds, why spend any more, they'll all sound the same. Still in use, but it seems to be slowly dieing and it now runs into an M-Audio superdac rather than use the onboard DAC which sounds damned awful in comparison).

 

history something like this..


CDP

Aura CD50 > Micromega T-Dac/T-Drive > CAL Sigma II/ Meridian 500 V2.

TT

Systemdek IIXE > Michell Gyro > Gyro/Orbe hybrid > Nottingham Analogue Mentor

AMPS

Harman Kardon HK1400 > Musical Fidelity Electra E100 > Beard C35/P35 > Beard C35/P35/P35 > Audio Innovations L1/Lectron JH50 > Consonance Basie/ Border Patrol 300BSE

SPKR

Epos ES11 > Tannoy 611 > Acoustic Energy AE1 > Ruark Talisman II > Spendor LS7 > Cadence Diva > Living Voice Avatar


No more box swapping now, am happy.
Chris

 

Linn LP12+misson 774 +mc34
Cambridge A60
misson 700
qed 79

 

glad to see someone else used a Marconiphone tuner amp as their first hifi system (I was 14 when i got mine). Mine was £7 from a boot sale and came with 2 Marconiphone branded speakers (made by Goodmans) and a Marconiphone branded turntable (made by BSR). Sounded quite good actually and hung onto that for a year.


First 'proper' separates was in '96:
Marantz PM44se amp ('93 WHF winner :roll
Marantz CD52mk2 se cd player ('93 WHF winner :roll: )
Cable Talk Monitor 2 i/cs ('96 WHF winner :roll: )
Cable Talk 4.1 speaker wire
Leak Mini Sandwich speakers (£2 from boot sale (still used to great effect in kitchen)

 

first proper seprate system consisted of a warfdale (actually a garad sp25 with a slightly diffrent arm)turntable with a shure cartrige,£19 from audicraft in northampton ,amstard ex222 tunner amplifier £25, and solavox speakers £25,both from comets bridge street northampton, it sounded exallent compared to my mates music center.Before that i had a bush record player, got my first reel to reel machines when i was around 7, had hours of fun recording anything and everything including the top 40 show,by placing the microphone infront of the radio.
my first cd player was a rather fancy revox B226 that fell off the back of a tour bus