I've touched on my introduction to hifi it a few times, so in view of (trying 😊) not to bore you as with many of the members I've had all sorts from a kid.
From the joint farther, son hobby in repairing bootsale HIFI's coincidentally around the time people where getting rid of quality hifi for those mostly dreadful all-in one sharp etc things with the Mickey mouse high speed dubbing and complimentary 5 band equalisers, karaoke, flashing lights and don't forget the speaker busting mega bass buttons that saw the back of many a quality bit of hifi like the Sansui AU-550 and Armstrong that where my first amps, the former was and still is a sweet little box of tube like sound from a bootsale most now sell upwards of 500 quid.
(The pictured Sansui is just for reference as mine is missing aka in the loft)
I quickly caught the bug and at 12 saved up 1 pound`a`wk pocket money until my mother felt sorry enough for me and gifted the rest it took to get my first self bought speakers, the Mission 760i that had just knocked the Wharfdale Diamonds from their perch as best bookshelf speaker of the YR and they where mine with their Mary Black endorsement, i remember the excitement when the large box appeared for me to open and i can truthfully say those little speakers where gems, only ever getting thrashed and never giving up.
Obviously I moved upstream and onto all sorts and saying it's far too much to mention is an understatement, going onto djay etc i see so, so many different systems but my love of HIFI's always took precedent.
Not as old or a I like to call it "classic" as the ones posted but i did take a living inheritance not too long ago, given to me from my father on moving to a dorma bungalow as my dear mam decided his hifi was too big and ugly to move with them so in came a selection of mostly the *What HIFI's" budget award winners 91-93 and magazines they featured in at the time.
I'm not home now and can't be chewed to dig around in the loft for the one surviving tape deck in the Yamaha KX which was only the slave deck to a his Aiwa 3 head machine in which as mentioned in a separate thread was given to the charity shop 😫😫 along with his huge collection or records, some now both rare and very valuable, its still is a facetious topic raised when anything vinyl comes up, closer to the time of them all going AWOL even a movie with a record player on set would triggery my old dad into an almost comic strip like tirade.
The much mentioned Pioneer A400 which is still sporadically played and up loud as always never after 33yrs pardon the pun "misses a beat", not being my first amp by a long chalk it was the one to set the bar unconsciously really high for future upgrades right back when I was a early teen and I had the controls when my father was at work, even now when I power it on it's like slipping on an old glove, it IMO (to me) outplays most (not all) of the budget range of today and then some, it took a lot of searching and a considerable budget increase to noticeably better it, sure I picked up a few golden goodies of today in the process 😂 in the Roskan K3 and the unpopular Arcam I kept hold of whilst looking around but it took the Technics SU-G700 M2 I wrote about at the time that went kaput to really wow me, then the further rabbit hole that I followed to find an even better than that replacement in the Hegal H-190 and of course that's an opinion shaped by my preferences.
The Systemdeck IX that found itself even in the What Hifi hall of fame is also now although with a new Goldring E3 cartridge there still turning faultlessly after only a minor service for the occasional pop and crackle.
The Mission 763i speakers are still being repaired 🤣 as they wore out after a staggering 30yrs of abuse at high volumes tore at the spider but the spares are there still looking at me, even after upgrading and having many speakers in-between the sentimental attachment is enough for me to keep them and the warm, deep visaral sound is a welcome bonus.
The Marantz CD 52MK2 I feel needs no introduction after the recent thread I wrote about it in, after 32yrs of faultless service all it needed was the common fault of the Philips draw mechanism cog and belt replacement, even after many in-between players and the upgrading from it, I still play it in the bedroom with the arcam and QA 3050i and it's as good as ever 😊
I even have the Apollo Hifi rack it all used to stand on 30 odd yrs ago
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