Agree with the entirety of your response to Pharos but that line really caught my eye as something that can't be emphasised enough.
Living through the 60s and 70s, as I did, on close to bare minimum wages, most even reasonably 'hifi' gear was way beyond the means of many ... and that which was reasonably affordable was mostly shite - poorly manufactured and terrible SQ. The only way I could acquire anything reasonable was either (very) second hand or build it myself from kits.
A quick Google search reveals that the now much loved Quad 33/303 combo cost just short of £100 when it came out - which was the equivalent of a full month's wage for the average earner at that time. When I first saw and heard the combo in the early 70s I was instantly smitten - but it would be another 20 years before I finally had a set of my own.
The situation now is incomparable if you look at the wealth of very good gear available for what is effectively peanuts (viz PI/Dac combo....)
I was lucky in that I had a full grant when I went to Uni in London in 1977. I was also fortunate in that I could find reasonably well paid work to supplement my grant and worked through the year not only in the Summer. It allowed my to buy a pair of brand new Rogers LS3/5a speakers for £150. It was a real stretch for me, as this is probably equivalent to close to £2000 today.
Geoff
True, I have kit here that would have cost me six month's wages if I'd bought it brand new in the early 'Nineties.
I don't know where the myth started that multitudes of people had proper hi-fi systems in the 1970s; a lot of people didn't even have a telly or a washing machine back then, let alone a decent record deck with separate amp and speakers. That was exclusively for wealthy professionals, diy-ers and students blowing a whole term's grant in one go then living on toast and cereal for 4 months.
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
Some of the pompous elitism expressed by a few forum members really winds me up. My parents were first generation immigrants to the UK (Dublin and St. Helier, Jersey) in the mid 50's and we really struggled. My father, a chef, had two jobs, and would come home on his bike for a couple of hours kip between jobs. Despite that, he wa a big music lover and our sole consumer luxury at home (aside from a tv) was a radiogram. Access to high quality music in the home is a very recent development. Even now, the notion of spending hundreds yet alone thousands of pounds on a music system is a bewildering concept for many!
Geoff
Cheers ... a better view of it below - I found it in a junk shop in Amsterdam in the early 80s, been in fairly regular use since and only ever needed a new piece of string (no, really)
[IMG]Braun PS500 by miktec101, on Flickr[/IMG]
A true classic. I wanted to get one, but was put off by horror stories about shipping: apparently those Brauns don’t travel well because of fluid-damped suspension.