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

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jamesrfisher

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Aug 17, 2007
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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
 
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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

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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

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Nov 15, 2022
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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.
 

clanking

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Feb 6, 2023
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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!
 

Travis Daki

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Jan 17, 2016
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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!
 

Freddy58

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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.
 

Revolutions

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Aug 6, 2023
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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

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Jul 31, 2023
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'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.
 
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My2Cents

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Nov 10, 2023
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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.
 
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Fandango Andy

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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.
 
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