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Thread: Your First Proper Hi-Fi System

  1. #21
    Join Date: May 2015

    Location: St Leonard's on Sea

    Posts: 1,136
    I'm Loz.

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    My first 'Hi-Fi' bought with my own cash in 1985 was a horrendous Sony stack thing coupled with some actually quite nice Celestion Ditton 130's. Which I should mention are still in use at my brothers place as I type. Bought from Richer Sounds in 1988 my first 'proper' Hi-Fi if I can say that, was a NAD 3130 amp and a pair of AR 12 or 112 bookshelf speakers. I can't remember if they were 12 or 112? I can't remember either what CD player I had back them. No photographs I'm sad to say, but lots of fond memories!

  2. #22
    Join Date: Jan 2017

    Location: Kansas City, Missouri

    Posts: 590
    I'm Nathan.

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    I wish I had a picture of it. I wouldn't call it proper either, but I loved it.

    I had a huge Panasonic all in one that I gutted, and filled with parts I tore out of consoles. It had a Fisher tuner/preamp, and Garrard RC 88/4 on the top. A couple of rusty 6F6G based mono blocks on either side. I think they were both made by RCA, but they came out of different consoles so they didn't match. Finalized with some monster 3way Pioneer speakers with 15s that were probably early 80's models. I was probably 9 or 10.

  3. #23
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

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    Fisher amp, from the 'Studio Sound' range. They called it that because it wasn't. Fisher speakers and a Tensai belt drive TT.

    No pictures, I could barely afford to eat back then let alone own a camera, buy film for it and pay for it to be developed.

    I sold the TT to one of my brothers and the amp and speakers to someone else. Replaced the TT with a Kenwood linear tracker and the speakers with some enormous Studio Power 4 ways with metal cones. Little did I know it but this was to be the first of many, many, piss-poor hi-fi buying decisions.

    It occurred to me a few years back to recreate the original system and I occasionally check eBay, but whilst Fisher amps come up quite often it is never the exact one I used to have. My brother might still have the turntable. The speakers I've probably got bob hope but they were arguably the worst bit of the system anyway.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  4. #24
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Glasgowshire

    Posts: 9,656
    I'm Gary.

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    Amstrad Reciever (lots of dials...even had a rumble filter felt dead important....)
    Solavox speakers from Comet
    QED 79 strand (after thinking I was all audiophile and not using that bell-wire rubbish)
    My Dads Bush cassette boombox I spliced an old phono cable from its 5pin din output (clever at the time) to the Amstrads inputs...

    how did it work, no idea, just tried it and saw if it worked!

    The folks had an Amstrad 'Tower of Power' in the living room with seperate speakers, remember them going on holiday and me moving the speakers further apart thinking Hmnnn, that sounds better.
    Last edited by Gazjam; 06-03-2017 at 08:27.
    AC POWER
    Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
    AMPS
    Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
    SPEAKERS
    Wharfedale Evo 4.4
    DAC
    PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
    TURNTABLE
    Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
    PHONOSTAGE
    Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
    DIGITAL
    OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
    MUSIC PLAYBACK
    Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
    Ipad Roon Remote.
    Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
    SPEAKER CABLES
    Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On
    "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
    INTERCONNECTS
    All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables

  5. #25
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

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    Early I didn't have a system as such. I had a reel to reel. Can't remember for sure the make but may have been philips or grundig. Had built in speakers. And I had an old multi band valve radio. Huge old thing picked up the world I loved both


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by struth; 06-03-2017 at 09:42.
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  6. #26
    Join Date: Aug 2016

    Location: Kent UK

    Posts: 223
    I'm Paul.

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    No pictures but first system was a mono valve amp built by my elder brother and an SP25 deck.

    First stereo amp was one sold by RTVC on Tottenham Court Road

    First proper system

    Pioneer SA-7500, Pioneer PL-12 Deck and small Warfedale speakers (possibly diamonds IIRC)

    That Pioneer amp is the one thing I regret getting rid of.
    Current setup Thorens TD-160 Mk1 with Denon DL-110 MC Cartridge, Pioneer PD-8700 CD Player, Yamaha AX-592 Amp, Yamaha CDX-810 CD Player, Yamaha KX-480 Cassette Deck, Yamaha TX-492RDS Tuner, Monitor Audio Bronze 5 speakers, Van-Damme Cables throughout.

  7. #27
    Join Date: Apr 2015

    Location: Southampton, United Kingdom

    Posts: 619
    I'm Paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gazjam View Post
    Solavox speakers from Comet
    QED 79 strand (after thinking I was all audiophile and not using that bell-wire rubbish)
    Wow

    That's freaky.
    I had Solavox and I bought them from Comet and I also bought some QED79 and thought exactly the same thing !

    Add a Pioneer PL-12D and a beefy Technics receiver with a groovy flywheel and you're there
    Linn Sondek LP12, Ittok, AT-F7
    Schiit Mani MK1 Phono Pre-Amp
    Nobsound NS-08P Bluetooth pre-amp
    Marantz CD5004 CD Player
    Pure DAB tuner
    2 x Meridian 205 monoblock power amps
    Tannoy T225 "Mayfair" speakers
    www.paulridgeblog.com

  8. #28
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul-H View Post
    First stereo amp was one sold by RTVC on Tottenham Court Road.
    I remember RTVC. They moved from Edgware Road to Uxbridge Road Acton for a few years and then back to Edgware Road on the opposite side. I knew Lesley who ran the place quite well and bought an awful lot of stuff from him. Mainly speaker drive units.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  9. #29
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    A Panasonic music center. Tape, LW, MW, FM radio, turntable. All silver and lovely. I added a CD player to it. Then the slippery slope happened

    No pictures, I binned it a few years back.

    After that Ariston Q Deck, Goldring 1022, Rotel 820A, Rotel 850AL tuner, Kenwood tapedeck, Celestion Ditton (can't remember the model, small bookshelf type) and a few rubbish CD players ending up with a Marantz 273se. Speaker cable was bell wire until I replaced it with Audio Spec Latitude.

    I then ended up working as a Saturday boy in a HiFi shop.... then I fell off the cliff
    Regards Neil

  10. #30
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

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    I was a Saturday boy in Gateway stacking the dog food isle. Never made me want to buy dogs, though.

    Not sure I can count my first system as a 'proper' hi fi system. That was a few years later when I had traded up to Systemdeck IIX/ Nagaoka MP30/ Denon PMA250 (the first one, the later versions were undistinguished mug-punter fodder) and Wharfedale CRS3 on sand filled Apollo stands.

    That was a good system, owned and heard a lot worse since then at ten times the money and more.

    Never used bell-wire.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

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