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Thread: How lo-fi was your first "hi fi"?

  1. #21
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,850
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    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!
    Barry

  2. #22
    Join Date: Jul 2009

    Location: Hampshire, UK

    Posts: 3,662
    I'm Adam.

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    How lo-fi was my first hi-fi? Well, it was an Amstrad RP10 record player so I'll leave you to work it out!

    Even more embarrassingly, I then "upgraded" it to another Amstrad - the mighty TS-56 tower system.
    Engineers: fixing problems you didn't know you had in ways you don't understand.

  3. #23
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Witney Oxon

    Posts: 893
    I'm Martyn.

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    Quote Originally Posted by shane View Post
    Left channel:


    Right channel:


    Stereo image was best described as diffuse, but with the lights off and Soft Machine 1 flat out it was bloody amazing.

    that Grundig was a thing of beauty.
    There’s one of those Grundigs in our local record shop.

  4. #24
    Join Date: May 2015

    Location: St Leonard's on Sea

    Posts: 1,136
    I'm Loz.

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    The first one I paid for myself was a Sony all in one jobbie with some Celestion Ditton 130's which are still in service at my brothers place today. The Sony All in One is no longer unsurprisingly!

  5. #25
    Join Date: Mar 2013

    Location: nottingham

    Posts: 328
    I'm nigel.

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    Hmm, a Garrard SP25MK111 into a Teleton amp with about 7 watts on tap.
    Speakers were homemade erm, cabs each fitted with four 8" drivers of dubious origin.

    All the above was swapped for a rather good lightweight racer bike I had gotten bored of and a Webley .22 air rifle....those were the days.

    On first power up I was pleased beyond belief...after a blast through a side of Judus Priest's British Steel....less so.

    The amp had its power bulb blown and replaced with a square form led...not bright enough.
    The SP 25?, I was in love with the strobed up TT on my neighbour's Panasonic music centre....what to do?

    Well duh, why not use leftover Humbrol model enamel to paint strobe markings on the platter? Brilliant idea, so what if the paint is green.

    Result...SHIT!!!
    Did I mention the dust cover?
    Didn't have one...so no danger of cracking.

    I had this abortion for a few months until it was replaced by a gifted Regonda radiogram....which filled my bedroom but looked ace in the dark and fuelled a love of shortwave I have to this day.

  6. #26
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Audio Al View Post
    My first venture must have been around 1972 I think it was a Fidelity Record Player with a lift up lid , It came from my mums Freemans catalogue paid for weekly

    When I had paid that off I purchased another front part only with a speaker in it ( Matching fronts ) and it became stereo with a din lead connecting the two units

    Boy did that unit get some stick , I could not work out why the arm sometimes skated across the record
    I sorted it by putting a penny on the end for some more weight , How nieve was I back in the day . I still have all my LP's from that time and my abuse does not show as they still play very well

    Happy Days

    I got a Fidelity record player for Christmas 1972, It was a HF43 (I think), it came in grey or bright orange, I got the grey one.

    We were so poor, I could only put a farthing on my tonearm

  7. #27
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Martyn Miles View Post
    My first ‘system’ composed of a BSR turntable bought for 30 bob ( £1.50 ) with a crystal cartridge.
    The ( mono ) amp. was some unit thrown out by a neighbour, which I managed to repair.
    The speaker was a 8” unit mounted half way down a brown sewer pipe that a friend and I ‘lifted’ from a building site.
    How we managed to get that pipe upstairs without my parents noticing I’ll never know...
    I bet those speakers sounded shit

  8. #28
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beobloke View Post
    How lo-fi was my first hi-fi? Well, it was an Amstrad RP10 record player so I'll leave you to work it out!

    Even more embarrassingly, I then "upgraded" it to another Amstrad - the mighty TS-56 tower system.
    You're fired!

  9. #29
    Join Date: Mar 2012

    Location: london

    Posts: 246
    I'm bernard.

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    Quote Originally Posted by agk View Post
    Man there are a lot of old ass dudes on here. As I always suspected.
    What’s the saying youth is wasted on the young

  10. #30
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

    Posts: 14,590
    I'm Steve.

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    As a youth, I was always wasted

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