Back to the history - your first setup ever

[JamesOK]

Rotel RA920

Yamaha AX392 CD Player

Some Wharfedale Diamond speakers.

I was a student too. And bought the stuff bit by bit. Had an amp sitting in my bedroom for a while without anything to plug into it!

 

[Anonymous]

I was in the army and bought a pair of Marantz speakers....those ones with the brown triangular foam grill.......looked pretty flash then.........an akai amp dont remember the number soon changed for the NAD 3020 when that first came out and an ADC deck........soon changed again cant remember for what..........and I though tthey were the biz

 

[Anonymous]

15 Years ago. Denon AVC-3020 / Denon TU280 tuner (I think that was the model anyways) / Kenwood CD player (not sure which) / Sherwood tape deck, yes really, Akai VSF-1000 VCR - top of the heap back then as far as nicam edit decks went and before DVD was a glimmer in the eye; JVC telly, Mission 780's main on Atacama SE24 stands, Mordaunt Short CS1's x 2 - when AV amps still had 2 x centre channel outputs - later superseded by 1 x Mission 76c, Canon V100 wide dispersion rear channels - anyone remember those? All of those who can remember that most of this kit was pretty much all the WHF recommended gear back then - yep some of us were reading it in 95'
3 years of wheeling & dealing, saving & TA bounties - sold in a day to move to Oz for the woman of my dreams. Luckily just celebrated our 10th anniversary and she's enthusiastically helping me build it all back, sweet!

 

[survivor]

My first `system` was one of those old record players in a suitcase/carry case which was handed down to me from an elder sister. I have no idea who the manufacturer was? Goodness knows the damage I inflicted on my early records with the `never been changed` needle.

Quick story about it. One day when I was in my bedroom playing my Abba`s Greatest Hits album my mother was calling me down for tea but I couldn`t hear her. What did she do? Come up the stairs to bang on my door? No, she decided to turn the electricity off. The arm flew up in the air and landed back down on the album, the needle making an indentation on the record which was pretty devastating in those days as I couldn`t just go out and buy another copy. I still have the album to this day.

 

[Anonymous]

Sansui AU-6900 Amp
DLK Speakers - lacked detail but man they pounded
Harmon Kardon tape player

 

[fatboyslimfast]

[quote user="survivor"]
My first `system` was one of those old record players in a suitcase/carry case which was handed down to me from an elder sister. I have no idea who the manufacturer was? Goodness knows the damage I inflicted on my early records with the `never been changed` needle.
[/quote]

Actually, thinking about it, I had one of those as well. A Blue Decca Deram with the 5-disc stacker (shudders) - no wonder all my singles are in such awful condition!

 

[Lost Angeles]

My first real setup was a Dual Turntable, Eagle Amplifier and Richard Allan Flamenco speakers,

 

[matthewpiano]

Pioneer PL-12D turntable, an Amstrad amplifier and a pair of Wharfedale Chevin speakers, all given to me and set up by my Dad when I was 8 years old. Quickly progressed by gaining a Sansui AU2200 amp that Dad passed on to me and the bug never really let go from then on in. Over the 22 years since then I've had NAD, Rotel, Mission, Wharfedale, Quad, Mordaunt-Short, KEF, B&W, Naim, Arcam, Fisher, Sansui, Pioneer, Cambridge Audio and others. My current system is definitely the best I've had and the Michell turntable is my pride and joy. I'm a big fan of Arcam stuff these days having realised that my last experience of them was soiled by the vastly over-rated Quad 11L speakers.

 

[timwileman]

denon pma 250se amp, denon dcd 425 cdp and kef coda 7 speakers, still have the lot stashed away. Kefs will get used soon as rears in an av set up..............see how green i am!

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="Cyberbob"]What about Clare and Andrew? Come on ![/quote]

I'm sure I did mine elsewhere ages ago - first proper system was a Sansui SR-222 (from Unilet in South Ken IIRC), a NAD 3020 from Hi-Fi Markets in Cambridge and a pair of Mordaunt-Short Pageants from Robert Sayle in Cambridge, which is now John Lewis. Oh, and a very flaky Amstrad 'digital' tuner, which lasted about three weeks and was replaced with a nice simple analogue one, and a fiendishly complex Sharp tape deck.

I also had a bright orange Hitachi black and white portable TV at the time, which got replaced with a scarily expensive Sony Trinitron colour portable as soon as I started working after leaving university.

Phew, confession really is good for the soul...

 

[plastic penguin]

[quote user="Damien Buckley"]15 Years ago. Denon AVC-3020 / Denon TU280 tuner (I think that was the model anyways) / Kenwood CD player (not sure which) / Sherwood tape deck, yes really, Akai VSF-1000 VCR - top of the heap back then as far as nicam edit decks went and before DVD was a glimmer in the eye; JVC telly, Mission 780's main on Atacama SE24 stands, Mordaunt Short CS1's x 2 - when AV amps still had 2 x centre channel outputs - later superseded by 1 x Mission 76c, Canon V100 wide dispersion rear channels - anyone remember those? All of those who can remember that most of this kit was pretty much all the WHF recommended gear back then - yep some of us were reading it in 95'
3 years of wheeling & dealing, saving & TA bounties - sold in a day to move to Oz for the woman of my dreams. Luckily just celebrated our 10th anniversary and she's enthusiastically helping me build it all back, sweet![/quote]

Purchased my first copy of What hi-fi way back in 1978 (I think. . .)

 

[Anonymous]

....thats a long time back!

 

[HDNumpty]

Marantz 4001 amp
Awia double cassette borrowed from my Dad
VERY warm and sleepy (and cheap) Technics CD player
1970s Sony hard-wired speakers

It sounded superb to my ears at the time

 

[Frank Harvey]

Started off listening to my dad's system before I bought my own. He had a Pioneer PL12D turntable with a Sansui amplifier (model number escapes me - AU22x or 33x?), a Technics RS273USD flatbed cassette deck, and a fantastic pair of Jim Rogers JR149's. The 149's still sound great even now, shame they deteriorated in storage.

Buying my own first system, it was just made of cheap components. A JVC QLA110 turntable from RS, Denon DRM-07 cassette deck from Bob at Griffin Audio, a used Denon PMA510 from Bullocks TV and Video at the Fox & Goose near my school, and a pair of rubbish Solavox speakers, because at the time, my mates pair sounded great......

But that was 25-30 years ago.......seems like 10 🙁

 

[Dave_]

back in the 90's, my first proper system was, kenwood ka-3020se amp, arcam alpha 7 amp, and boston acoustic speakers, not sure on model, but think may have been a90's,

 

[JoelSim]

I had an Amstrad stack system when I was a teenager.

ÿ

But then moved onto a:

Yamaha CDX100 CD

Pioneer A-400 amp

Kenwood 3020 tuner

Celestion DL6 Series 2 speakers on target stands

Furukawa interconnects and speaker cable

ÿ

Then

Arcam 7 CD

Arcam 7 amp

Arcam 8 tuner

Linn Index LS120 speakers on KuStones

ÿ

Then

As my tag, although had a CD92 before the 192ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Systemdek IIX , Helius Scorpio Arm, Goldring MM Cartridge, a small 20W RMS Cambridge Integrated Amp and a tiny pair of Kef speakers.

Still have the turntable and arm, they still sound good.

 

[John Duncan]

Dual CS505II-Deluxe, Creek CAS4040, Acoustic research AR18BX........

 

[Anonymous]

I have only purchased (all second hand kit from ebay) my first proper Hifi set up recently:

Musical fidelity X-A2 amp
Musical fidelity X-ray CD player
Monitor Audio B4 floor standing speakers

Very happy with it.