My first 'system' was a very cheap 'Dansett'-type record player with a crystal pickup and a single valve amplifier emptying into a 5" x 3" elliptical. It wasn't very good at all.

It was quickly replaced by a Garrard SP25 Mk.II TT with Shure M3D cartridge, home-built Mullard 5-10 amplifier with a rudimentary preamp, and a home-built Wharfedale speaker design using the Wharfedale RS8DD driver in a 1.5 cu.ft distributed port enclosure. That was much, much better!