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My first reasonably sounding rig? Kenwood belt driver table, Pickering 625 cartridge, Marantz 2200B, Kenwood KA710 cassette deck and Marantz 4G speakers. Purchased in 1976 while in High School. It replaced my Panasonic stereo with Superscope cassette deck.

A turntable with a built-in 1 tube amp and speaker that a teacher gave me in high school. This got me interested in audio and electronics. Later on in high school, I got a Panasonic AM-FM, Turntable, Cassettte all-in-one (with external speakers) system for Christmas. After that, it has been seperate components.

My first audio componant was a radio/cassette recorder. An early boombox but without the boom and only in mono. My first "stereo" was an all-in-one Fisher turntable(!), receiver, with dual cassette deck. I killed a lot of tapes and LPs with that piece of crap. This was long before I became an audiophile.

My first stereo was a Sears Wildcat suitcase stereo!! It was a portable that flipped down the turntable and the two stereo speakers were attached to the side of the body facing out toward you. It had two volume controls

It was a Harmon-Kardon receiver with 11 watts/ch. Used of course. The speakers were home made by yours truly. Utah drivers in a infinite baffle. The particle board was actually from some laminate counter top material that I used to tear up my dad's radial arm saw. (it didn't like the Formica.)Besides FM, the only other source was my Sony 255 reel to reel. It was good enough and loud enough to drive my parents crazy, so it was worth the effort. All circa late 60's.

A Marantz 9 amp and preamp, Klipshorn speakers, and a Dual (German, of course) 'table. I remember these components because every time I see a mint copy of a Marantz 9, I kick myself for having hocked mine for a "better" transistor model.

My first phile-ish system: Fisher 800T Receiver (65 WRMS/CH), Pioneer belt-drive turntable, Shure V15 cartidge, and four, count them, four EPI 100 speakers. The first time I played DSOTM, what a trip. An audio buddy was so blown over he bought the 800T but chose the Advent speaker. We had his system really crankin' at a party one night. The receiver kept heating up and shutting down so I positioned a fan on it. It then played on and on, all night long.

I had a 10W Thordarson amplifier with a plug-in magnetic phono preamp and a GE cartridge in a Fairchild arm on a Fairchild turntable. All of this drove an Electrovoice 12" speaker with "whizzer" cone. Just one, of course; stereo had not yet arrived.

Sherwood receiver, Empire turntable with Shure V15 cartridge, and Wharfedale speakers. I thought I'd gone to heaven.

My very first system was a turntable with a built-in amp/volume control that had a pair of speakers connected to it. A few years after that I got a brown and tan Fischer-Price tape recorder/radio. I loved that thing! I could listen to the radio, or tapes, or even record stuff, anywhere I was. That blew my very young mind.

How far back do you wanna go? I guess my first real impression of stereo was a folding RCA record player with detachable speakers. That is where I started my pursuit of finding the best my budget will allow. Then Lloyds reciver/turntable combo. But my first system of individual componets were a Kenwood integrated, Tuner, and Pioneer direct drive turntable and JBL L150 Monitors. Life was simple and whole lot cheaper.....but it sounded good then. Ignorance is bliss.

Dual 1218 TT, Shure M91E cartridge, Panasonic 10W receiver, KLH 33 speakers, all purchased at the PX in 1971.

GRUNDIG receiver RT901 ( 2x35W RMS DIN 45500 on 4 okm )

Well, I started with a Radio Shack Integrated amp and bose 301 speakers. My first real system was a Dynaco ST70 and Goldsound MTM minimonitors.

All Mid-FI. All on a college kids budget. What did I know? It sounded nice for about $500.00 Pioneer Chanpagne Edition SX7 Reciever Technics D202 turntable (still runs today) Pioner R5 Auto reverse tapedeck Sansui speakers

A 22 watts per channel Pioneer integrated amp;AR turntable with Shure V15 cartridge and BIC speakers

I was 18 years old (1975) and I needed a stereo for my new apartment. I went to a drug store and bought a Soundesign POS! It was defective and I returned it for a refund. A couple of days later my brother told me that a local stereo store was having a sale. I went there and bought a Scott 35Wpc receiver (RIP). Later I bought a belt-drive turntable from a new company called Technics and speakers from Cerwin Vega! with 12" woofers. Naturally my current system outperforms those components and I hate to think what would have happened if that Soundesign hadn't been defective.

Realistic 8-Track Music System, price $99.95. It was an 8-Track Player with built-in 30Wpc amplifier and mid-sized speakers. I was 16 and I thought it sounded great! I've come a long way since then.

Technics direct drive turntable, Sanyo cassette deck, Marantz 1090 integrated amp, Technics SB L300 speakers, MXR 10 band stereo EQ.

Heathkit Crystal radio kit, with earpug!

Going ALL the way back, I started with a Sanyo dual well tape deck boom box when I was a kid (around 10 years old). The next major increment began with the Pioneer VSX-D1SII A/V receiver-which I still have. That became the stepping stone for my entrance into hifi audio.

My parents had a "console" stereo in the house, branded "Curtis-Matthis" which had a magic-eye tuner and vacuum tube audio circuits, circa 1960. I forget which company's turntable was packaged inside. I used to sit on the floor around four feet back from it to get the stereo "effect." When I was thirteen (1967), I got a small Radio Shack system for my room that had a Garrard turntable and bookshelf speakers.

My first audio system (1957) was a Dictograph [spare me the jokes!] electronics and record changer in one box (Collaro w/ GE cartridge) speakers in the other box. My first "components" (1959) were McIntosh C-20 preamp amd 240 amp, Wharfedale SFB-3 speakers, Fisher 101-R tuner, and an Ampex 960 tape deck. I still have them all

Dynaco Mklll, Pam, Rek-O-Kut, Jensen P12l

Reel to reel mono recorder.

Pioneer SA-6500 Int Amp Pioneer PL-12 Turntable Shure V-15III Cartridge Pioneer HPM-40 Speakers I've still got the amp (it works!).

Audiovox car radio, home built power supply, Gerard Turntable, home built speakers; added Fisher amp & Scott Tuner later that week. Year - 1974

June 1969, I'm 11 years old and my older brother who was stationed in Germany sent me a Grundig tubed short-wave stereo, which had a cane-grilled pair of two-way speakers with a

Rega Planar 3, Creek 4040, Mordant-Short speakers (forget the model number). Not a bad little system. I added a Creek FM tuner and an Aiwa tape deck and was happy for a few years. Replaced by Linn LP12, LK-1, LK-280, Helix when I got out of college and started earning. I'm still enjoying this system in one listening room, 2 countries and 15 years later, (with the addition of a Linn Genki 3 years ago).

I bought my first "high-fidelity" system in 1974. It was a Harman-Kardon 330B receiver, Dual 1228Q turntable, and EPI 90 speakers. It included an Empire cartridge, but I don't remember the model number. My big concern at the time was making sure I could update to quadrophonic! A year or so later, I updated to the classic Marantz 4400 quad receiver, but I never made it to four speakers with that unit. For a while I used the Marantz as a stereo receiver. Later I bought a separate Yamaha power amp and just used the Marantz as a tuner/preamp. I never went surround until 1997, when I set up a home theater system.