My stepson saved up and we helped him buy a 1 BY ONE system. The amplifier is built into the turntable, and there's two passive speakers. It's not what any of us would call hi-fi, but I've been surprised by how reasonable it is for the money, and it has Bluetooth too, so he can play from Spotify. It has a basic AT cartridge (AT3600). A low fuss start for him, and at 14 there's plenty of time for him to get more serious.
i started to listen to records daily when i was 12 ,using my father´s stereo system that was incredible expensive and in two years i had a ES-2000 complete system bought in Japan in 1974 for 400 dollars.
At the time money´s value, against japanese coin , yen?not sure now and added a 1970 open reel deck from Akai the X-165D from 1970 catalog ,
that was a reference sold earlier in the 60´s but in 1970 they added Crossfield in the deck,
this receiver had stronger loudness and better sounding treble and bass knobs, also the turntable was bigger and better built than the PL-12D or PL-15D,
this ones were similar but the plinth was litle and the materials were inferior allthough at the time i thought it were the same,
only after a few monthwes i notice speakers A had some problem as when conected one listen part of the right side on the left side and the inverse in the other speaker,
but in speakers B it was plain stereo output sound, only later as all the pappers were written in japanese characters and unfolded like toilet paper,
i learn that it was like that because of the matrix four that simulated quadrophony, that having a pair of extra speakers, Celestion Ditton speakers from the 1970 i conected them and one at each corner of my bedroom .
Only in 2017 i saw on ebay a brochure with pictures in full colour that i ordered from Ireland and said in big letters "Fantastic surround sound" .
i´m refering to this because i´ve seen locally people selling entire 70´s systems for 50 to 100€, this to say that locally one can find a lot better quality components than on ebay,
but if looking for it ,it appears on ebay from time to time cheap but better sounding components than what is regular all year.
I even was asked by kids that have bands in my town to buy them a cheap system for at the most 500€ and i ´ve bought some 6 or 7 components systems depending in what this kids i know from 18 to 20 years old want,
one of them had a t-shirt with a lot of cassettes printed and one night i was drunk and with a friend we grab the kids t-shirt and started to say "i have this and this " etc.
but the kid made a coment like "the cassette were really bad they didn´t had high´s" to what i reply , "i have to show you my stereo system as they were recording a demo at my home,
my fathers home till he died some years ago, having a very expensive home studio at home assembled in 1970 and improved since then,
the next time they went to my home i putted a tdk D c60 playing on a DRM-800a from 1989, and the kids from the band never had listen to a cassette, and they couldn´t believe that some had cd players that had not then qualitty of sound of my cassette deck and system,
was then when they started to ask me to buy also a cassette deck, i even bought from letónia or something similar, a DRM-800a Denon deck, restored and when opening it it had new knobs still unpacked for the deck, cost me in total almost 50€,
it was much expensier when in 89 i bought mine as i had a CT-91a from Pioneer but wanted a second deck, and i like Denon decks previous to this series had already a good sound , i went for the denon and when people stoped using cassettes two friends ofered me a DRM-700a and another DRM-800a ,
both almost equal but the drm-700a doesnt have light on the cassette compartment and in the cover of the cassette insert instead of golden brown letters have them white,
and it as regular heads and the 800 as amourphous heads, but both sound very good and cheaper than other brands at the time,
i think they have what people call coloured sound as they stoped releasing decks with calibration and still had great sound, playing or recording,
and i think the 800a was their last better deck they released as after in the 90´s the top end model with a drawer the DRS-810 was like the 700a of 89 in specifications,
and in a brochure i have from Denon they say that because today with the cd players having a drawer they made the cassette deck with a drawer, to look more modern as people wanted it that way,
i don´t remenber it well but i think they refer to Audiophiles, sorry for the long coment, hope you understand.
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