What was the first hi-fi separates you bought with your own money?

[matthewpianist]

Sony STR-AV370 FM/AM stereo receiver ( https://www.springair.de/en/sony-str-av-370/46741 )

I saved up Christmas money for it and eventually used it with a Sony CDP597 CD player and JPW Radius 1 speakers.

I loved it, and got to know a huge amount of music through it.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

The truly great Pioneer A-400

 

[jamesrfisher]

1990 used my summer holiday working at John Lewis to buy:

1. Rega Planar 2 with AT95 cartridge
2. Technics CD player
3. Yamaha cassette deck
4. Rotel amp
5. Celestion DL6 speakers (still going strong with my dad's Marantz MCR611

 

[davidf]

Started out with a used 1980 Denon PMA-510 which I bought from Bullocks TV & Radio opposite my school around 1982. I bought it because it was £50 - well, I was still at school.

Picked up a JVC LA-110 turntable from Richer Sounds for about £60 (normally about £120). Was pretty good to be fair, and ended up fitting the cheapest Ortofon MC cart I could get at the time, which was about £75 I think. Crazy, but it sounded good!

My mate’s dad had a pair of Solavox speakers which seemed to be able to take a bit of a pounding, so had a look at them (they were sold through Comet at the time) and picked up a pair for about £40. Soundwise, these were the Wharfedale Valdus of their day, for those that remember them from 20 years ago - not great, but you get what you pay for. Quite a hard sounding bass, no real depth, but punchy.

 

[kramer2020]

Way back in the 70's (golden age for Hifi separates?) my first 'proper' bought with my own money... on HP were:

Trio KA 1500
Trio KT 5300
Sansui SR222
Akai CS-34D
Wharfedale Glendale XP's

All situated in my totally unsuitable and tiny box bedroom (8ft x 8ft) But I felt very pleased with myself despite the probably awful sound coming out of those speakers.

 

[Mark Dunlop]

Must have been 2002 when I toddled into Richer Sounds in Edinburgh with a few quid in my pocket and walked out with a Cambridge Audio A1 amp, CD5 cd player and a pair of Gale 3020 standmounts (and a few quid less in my pocket!). A Bush turntable followed in due course. I still have the CD5 "for emergencies" and the Gales are in the attic after having been used as rear speakers for a 5.1 system for a while after I replaced them with B&W DM602 s3s. The Bush turntable served until the end of 2022 and still works.

 

[cxbell]

Ah, yes! THOSE days....

Thorens TD160C, Revox A78, Celestion Ditton 15s
Still got the Thorens and A78 - in the loft....

 

[McThommo]

Pioneer A400
Rotel rcd965bx
Tannoy 605
Dual turntable

 

[clanking]

Back in 2002 when I got my first paycheck from my intern job I bought:

NAD C320BEE amp, NAD C521i CD player and a pair of Mission M73 floor standing speakers.

It sounded great and still remember that first song I put on and the impact it had - Skid Row: Slave to the Grind. Those first few notes were so glorious.

Eventually I decided I didn't like the harsh trebel on the Missions, so I sold the speakers a few years later for some Wharfedale Pacific Evo 40 floorstanders that I'm still using.

Eventually the amp died and the CD player refused to open the tray without encouragement from pushing the mechanism with the top off.

I'm still using the cables that I originally bought though!

 

[Gray]

I'm still using the cables that I originally bought though!

Mustn't laugh, one cable company guarantees theirs for 7 years - not sure why.
Unless abused, all cables will outlive us all.

 

[Travis Daki]

AKAI AM19 amp + the low-end cd player from the same year (circa 1995). Upgraded to ROTEL 921 just a couple of years later. First proper speakers Tannoy M1, and I still own a pair of B&W DM302s!

 

[James105]

Sony CDP 35 cd player, I was 17 with a Saturday job paying £1.48 an hour. I somehow managed to get the guy in the Sony centre to put it on the knock.

 

[Freddy58]

My first ‘stereo’ was in part self built, around ‘73. I made the turntable plinth out of mahogany (wasn’t exactly proper joinery 😕) and installed a Garrard SP 25 mk 3 into it. I bought some off the shelf cabinets into which I installed some 10” Goodmans twinaxiom speakers. To finish it off I bought an Amstrad amp, Integra 4000 mk2, found this link..Amstrad
It was of course, not hifi, but I loved my set-up, so much better than a ‘record player, and it went loud! (I’m speaking relatively). It probably cost me around £60 overall.

 

[Freddy58]

Eagle amplifier is a new one on me.

I remember them. Nearly bought one instead of my Amstrad, but I think it was more expensive.

 

[Revolutions]

First separates I bought was about 2002. Went to Richer Sounds in Watford & fell in love with the sound of the cd player & spent around £2k. Thank you 20 year old with credit card. I loved it. Spent the next few years living out of my car boot, so slowly sold everything.

I can’t remember exactly what I had, but think it might have been
- Arcam A75 & P75
- Arcam CD72
- Pro-ject turntable
- some really ugly Tannoy speakers with external tweeters on top (sounded great though)

 

[Rodolfo]

'Twas for my first condominium in '85: a Cyrus One, Mission 700s, a B&O turntable, and a Sony carousel CD player. Still have the first two as/in a secondary setup, and an updated Sony carousel is playing nice but currently ailing.

 

[My2Cents]

In 1983 when I was in college my flat was broken into. I used the renters insurance money to buy:
JVC LA-31 (I think, or perhaps Q-LA F300) turntable, Sony TA-AX2 amp. and a pair of AR 18LS speakers.

 

[Sixtyten]

Rotel RA820BXII
Mission 70MkII
Rega Planar 2 (RB250 - AT95E)
Which I then added a Denon DCD 800 and an Aiwa AD-F660

 

[Fandango Andy]

Marantz CD5000.

My parents got me an entry level Sony system when I was about 15. That lasted me all the way through university. Then the CD failed so I replaced it with the Marantz, that was the first thing I purchased and I still have it.

 

[jonboywalton75]

Rotel RA 820 b
Rotel RP 830 turntable,
At 110 e
Denon DR 170 CASSETTE DECK
Kef Coda 3's

 

[Steve983]

Way back in about 1981 I bought my first hi fi which was an Akai rack system called the Pro 1011. Yes it was a rack system but made up of separate units. I remember seeing an advert in the local paper and my Dad gave me a lift to Comet in Catford (London) to get it. It felt like it took all day to put together. I kept it for a couple of years and probably soon after I picked up a copy of What Hi Fi which is when the hi fi bug really took hold. I did keep the CSM3 cassette deck well into the 90's though until it started playing up. ( I had other newer tape decks too!)

 

[AJM1981]

Harman Kardon HK3270RDS
Hands down one of the most powerful amps with loads of connections (including sub out). They go for a bit online, heavily undervalued.

B&W 602/S3 Sorrento

I liked it for the time being, weird thing was that huge bass port at its front. Gave the appearance of a three way system.

 

[Tapper82]

When yung I had me a JVC all in one thing my dad got for me from a bloke in the pub.

As I got older I wanted better and dropped on a AURA Evolution Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) VA-100 in a second hand shop. I did not know what I was buying. Man that was a stonking amp! I got lucky. cost me £100.

Then for speackers I got some kef stand mounts and man did they sing. I never new what model they were. I got them from a shop and the stickers were removed from the back of them. They were the Uni-Q drivers tho. They had a big base port at the bottom of the frunt like looking in to a funnel with ridges on the sides.

I would look at some pics to find out what ones they were, but I am blind so I could not tell you with out feeling the said speackers.

For CD play back I had a Arcam alfer 1 CD Player.

to this day I don't think I have loved a system so mutch.

The amp got broken after a wooden case of about 150 CDs was dropped on top of it, cracking the mane bord. I was pist! In both meanings of the word. lol After that I got me a Rotel RA01 from superFi as they shuttdown . the bloke nocked me £100 off the price. It was never as good as the av-100 I was thinking about getting me one off ebay to see what it sounds like now I am 41. People are asking daft prices for them tho.

 

[SallyB]

Shortly after I started work, I bought a Beocentre 2000? on interest free credit. This was followed a year later by one of B&Os first CD players. Both lasted into the 1990s until they were passed on. My first proper separates were a Roksan Kandy MK3 amp and CD (a WHF favourite of the time), together with a pair of Quad 12Ls. A basic Project Turntable and a Yamaha HD1300 recorder followed slightly later. The Yamaha is now the only survivor!

 

[James105]

MIne was silver rather than black Eagle AA6

So was mine, but it was a hand me down from my Father.