What was the first hi-fi separates you brought 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

 

[jimbofisher]

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.