Your first proper hifi..

Mine in my sig!

JohnDuncan:

Dual CS505-2 deluxe turntable Creek CAS4040 amp Denon DRM-07 cassette deck Acoustic Research AR19BX speakers Target Hifi rack (in white )

 John,

Snap! Well....... on the turntable front! "The nearest thing the cd quality sound on vinyl" I seem to remember as a slogan, or was that my imagination??  Did'nt the Deluxe model have a thicker rubber mat? Had mine hooked up to a Sony amp (which I got from work with a huge discount) and original Wharfdale Diamond speakers, with QED-79 strand speaker cable. It was the dog's! Those woofers used to pound out quality tunes. "She Sells Sanctuary" 12" extended live version by the Cult and also "Low Life" by New Order were particularly sweet.

That system kept me clinging onto vinyl for about 10 years until I was eventually submerged by the CD tidal wave!

Happy days,

Nick

I have a corker for you:

Pioneer SA9800 / TX9800 / CT-F1250 / Monitor Audio speakers

Mine was a Rotel amp with a Technics CD player and Mission speakers i thought they were the dogs nuts but my neighbours didn't 

Blackdawn:

Mine in my sig!

Enjoy it - I've spoken to many buffs in the past who despite multiple upgrades still have a warm place in their heart for their first system. You never forget the first one!

Mine was:

Kenwood 5050R Amp
Kenwood CD player - cannot remember the model number
Kenwood Graphic Equaliser
Mission 734 speakers

Philips CD604, Rotel 930AX and Mission 760i, with QED 79 strand speaker cables...

Ooooh that was a while ago now!

.

Did any of you guys also try putting your first system in a dedicated room? Back in my student days I managed to enjoy my system in a room just after it was decorated before most of the furnishings came back in. It was relatively small with some acoustical damping (i.e. sets of very thick curtains and books on one wall - sounded superb.

Having said that, if its not practical to do this at home, there is always the option of acoustic treatment and proper room equalisation which should remove any if most of the effects of other furnishings etc.

Rega Planer 2 turntable

Arcam AR 60 Intergrated Amp

 Heybrook HB2 speakers

Bell wire

Homemade  wooden stands for speakers

Argos wooden cabinet

Here's the story of my adventures in audio.

My first stereo was a Dual HS 130 (with a rather rubbish Dual 1224 record player) and a 2x6 watt amp. (Those Dual sets were very popular in NL)

A couple of years later I got some rather decent stereo kit:

- Thorens TD 104 with an Ortofon cartridge

- Akai AM 2530 amp

- Philips N-2508 cassette deck (little did I know about HiFi)

- IMF Electronics Compact II speakers (cascaded from my mum's system). I really liked these speakers.

Around 1989 I replaced the amp by a Yamaha RX 500 stereo receiver and bought a proper cassette deck, the Aiwa AD-3800.

Together with the Thorens and the speakers this was a very nice system. I also had a Hitachi stereo VHS recorder with this system which had incredible features like simulcast. Best trick I ever did was to record a TV show while recording a radio broadcast at the same time on the same tape. Terrific sound on ordinary VHS tapes. Around 1989 I added Philips CD player to this system.

Unfortunately this whole system was lost in a fire, together with all my CD's, LP's and tapes. All of my present kit dates from after the fire. I then thought that Minidisc was the way forward and never have used cassettes since.

I don't buy a lot of kit but when I buy something it seems to be quite durable. All the stuff I bought around 2000 is still in great working order.  Only my first DVD player (a Philips) that was cascaded to the bedroom has failed since. I'll never buy Philips again.

I have described my current system in another thread. 

Rega Planar 2 + Rega cart
NAD 3020
Heybrook HB1
Naim speaker cable

Bought from Russ Andrew's in Northumberland Street, Edinburgh

Pioneer PL12D turntable

Shure M75ED cartridge

Tandberg TR-200 receiver (tuner-amp) - because it sounded good and had presets for FM

Acoustic Research AR4xa speakers, teak finish (a bit bigger than the newer and more popular AR7)

Unknown chrome pedestal speaker stands, with platforms covered in the stuff on ping-pog bats

Ordinary twin-core speaker leads, with din plugs into the tuner-amp, soon to be replaced with 79-strand (wow!)

I reckon that was in 1973/4, because I bought it with the first UK credit card "Access" the only rival to Barclaycard.

I remember thinking a few years before that the Garrard SP25 and BSR McDonald MP60 were the only turntables I could afford, but they were junk compared to the Pioneer.  The arm, which at a quick glance could pass for the (even then legendary) SME 3009 was the real draw.  And of course I upgraded to an SME headshell, until we began to realise that low-mass was probably not the holy grail.

The Op was obviously mistaken is speaking of Matsui in the same breath as the wonderful Sansui.  A bit like comparing Technika with Technics!

Dual CS 514

Musical Fidelity A1

Mission 70 mk.II

CD player : Arcam Alpha CD7SE

Amp : Arcam Alpha 7 

Speakers : Mordaunt Short MS10i

Cables : Yes it had cables.

from Richer Sounds in Stockport.