Your first HiFi setup

EYEREX

EYEREX

EYEREX

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South London
Just wondered what people first HiFi setups were mine was from the late 80's early 90's JPW Sonata Speakers (still have) Arcam Alpha 2 Amp, ROTEL RCD 855 CD Player and a Rotel Rd 855 Cassette Deck

I had to do so may hours of overtime to buy as i was only earning about £1 an hour at the time :eek:

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Saved hard for my first system when I was 17 back in the mid eighties and I went to Russ Andrews in Edinburgh and went with

Rega Planar 2 Turntable
Nytech Obelisk CA102 amplifier
Accoustic Research AR8BX speakers.

Came to three hundred and something quid and was a great sounding system.

I've still got the turntable which now has some sentimental value as it was my first one.
 
Can't remember my first full separate system as it was 30+ years ago but I know it had 2 Aiwa tape decks,nad amp,pioneer graphic equaliser,speakers were Goodman's Jamo I think but over the years I've had pretty much all the week known brands.

The best speakers I had I can't remember the name but they had a brown sock that went over the while speaker on all sides and a wooden plinth that would sit on top and keep the sock tight,great sounding speakers.
 
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My first stereo system was an Aiwa NSX S70. Proper lol flashing lights thing. Moved on to a Sony STRDE475 which was great for gaming and a massive step up from the Aiwa! It was paired with mission m72 speakers and a Sony CD XE570 both of which are still going strong. Moved up to a Denon 3802 which was fabulous.

First proper hifi was a Cyrus 3 amp, Cyrus DAD3Q24 CD player and Mission 783 speakers. For a while I had the 3 powering the front channels using the Denon as a pre amp and a 78c centre too. Only upgraded the 3 to the 8vs2 because it developed a fault. Add in a Project Debut 3 and that’s the history.
 
I can't recall the exact details off the top of my head now but it had the Optimus Pro x5 speakers hah - just because of the all metal enclosure design.

EDIT: Or might have been the X7 I'd have to check now that was a long time ago.

Think the tape deck was a Sony TC-K45 though it looked a bit different to the images online and had a similar Sony amp - actually was using the amp until quite recently but I can't recall the model to save my life.
 
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If you ignore the Leak and Sony stuff I borrowed from my Dad, my first setup was a Dual CS-505, NAD 3020 and Mission 707s plus an Aiwa cassette. It was well travelled to and from uni every term.

Still rockin' with Kef 104/2s so not exactly suffereing from upgradeitis.
 
For me:
- Walker CJ58 record deck and a mission 774 arm and an Ortofon MC10 super cartridge
- Quantum IA100 integrated amp
- Tannoy mercury (mk1) speakers

Within a couple of years that had changed into an LP12, Cyrus 2/PSX, Musical Fidelity MC4 speakers.
Bit of a shame that I went the Cyrus route, as frankly, the Nait 2 (at the time) turned out to be a much better sounding amp.

Have no records now. Everything is cut to hard drive, CDs in the loft. Currently stream to a Meridian source with DSP to cater for room effects. How things change eh.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
For me:
- Walker CJ58 record deck and a mission 774 arm and an Ortofon MC10 super cartridge
- Quantum IA100 integrated amp
- Tannoy mercury (mk1) speakers

Within a couple of years that had changed into an LP12, Cyrus 2/PSX, Musical Fidelity MC4 speakers.
Bit of a shame that I went the Cyrus route, as frankly, the Nait 2 (at the time) turned out to be a much better sounding amp.

Have no records now. Everything is cut to hard drive, CDs in the loft. Currently stream to a Meridian source with DSP to cater for room effects. How things change eh.
Click to expand...

Still got your LP12?
 
Arcam Alpha 8r
Marrantz CD6000OSE
Mission 702e

I bought them new around 1997 from Richer Sounds, Liverpool. They had sold out of the bits I wanted (all sale items) but gave me a huge discount on the above, which weren't in the sale (edit: actually the speakers might have been but the amp and cd player weren't).

About 5 years later I added an Alpha 8p (bi-amped) and swapped the Missions out for a pair of Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 3 floorstanders.

It's all still going strong too. :cool:
 
I asked for a all-in-one twin deck system for Christmas back in the early 80s, I ended up with some cheapo brand called Hinari and it was awful - it caused drop-outs in quite a few pre-recorded cassettes if you paused it while playing!

As soon as I could afford to buy separates I ended up with:

Kenwood KA-5020 amp
Yamaha KX-330 tape deck
Philips CDC-586 CD player
Technics ST-G70L tuner
Cerwin-Vega AT-40 main speakers
Cerwin-Vega L-7 bookshelf speakers
2 x Technics SL-1200 Mk2 turntables

Luckily I had hard-of-hearing OAPs living on both sides of the house.
 
sk3lph said:
Still got your LP12?
Click to expand...

Nope, that went back in around 1990. Have been using digital only since.
I'm conscious that a benefit of that is being able to optimise the rest of the system for the specific source.
I've heard plenty of systems containing both digital and analogue sources, and with the exception of just one, almost all of others had a slightly different presentation between the two formats. To me that struck me as not a good thing, as either you compromise both, or optimise on one, and leave the other sounding a bit lacklustre.

Right now, my missus spends more time listening to an Amazon echo that I've recently plumbed into the main stereo using the analogue outputs from the Echo. Basically, she just doesn't care that it's MP3 through a ridiculously cheap internal DAC, compared to the usual FLAC or HD FLAC. Gotta laugh.
 
The first setup I bought (paid for by myself when I started work at 17)
Monitor Audio R352 Speakers
Technics SU-V5 (matching tape deck & tuner was bought later)
A NAD 5120. NAD's first turntable at the time. It had a flat Tonearm & it was OK but it buzzed quite badly.
specs: https://www.vinylengine.com/library/nad/5120.shtml
CD player was a Philips 2nd generation top loading model - I had to go to Tottenham Court Road to buy that in 1985.
 
Back in 1982 I was fortunate to leave school and get a proper job unlike most of my mates who were on YTS (government slave labour scheme for £25 a week) so within a year I had enough money saved for a nice separates system. Can't remember model numbers but I had a very nice setup consisting of all Pioneer components (record deck, twin tape deck, amplifier, tuner) and a set of Wharfdale (may have been Diamond 9) speakers. When I left home and eventually joined the RAF I gave it to my father. I now have a JVC stack system from 1994 which is ok but nowhere as good as the Pioneer/Wharfdale setup that I had but to be honest most music I listen to these days are on my pc or in the car.
 
My first system I had was a Pioneer A400 amp, Rotel BCD865BX CD player, Tannoy 603 Speakers and a Dual CS-505 turntable in the early 90's which I got from Richer Sounds at Tower Bridge I think

Lasted me a few good years until I upgraded to my first Cyrus system
 
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My very first system was something i was very proud of at the time. Paid for by spending my school summer holiday Pea picking, getting up at 4am and then picking peas until about mid day. We were paid by the weight of a bag of Peas, the earlier they were picked the more Dew they had on them, so those early picked bags were always heavier.
Bought an Amstrad Integra MKii, a Garrard SP25 Mkii with a Shure M75ED cartridge and a pair of Celestion Ditton15 speakers. I loved that system until in my early 20's i discovered and could afford much better.
 
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