|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
68.217.125.141
I can still remember like it was yesterday, in high school some 25+ years ago listening to Joe Walsh at a friends house on his TT, Scott receiver and Advent speakers and thinking WOW this sounds really great. I don't have a very good memory, but I can remember in detail almost every system I've had with the frantic joy of getting it home and set-up. How did the bug bite you?
Follow Ups:
It was 1961, my parents had just purchased our first console stereo, a Stromberg Carlson beauty, I can still remember lying on the floor being mesmerized as the music went from 'side-to-side' !!! It wasn't untill my high school days in the late sixties that I got the unit handed down to me when my parents 'upgraded' the console !Wish I could remember the model number, AM/FM 'multiplex' tuner, w record changer and the glow of tubes !!!
I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, and went to high school in the late 1970s. My best friend Bill had an older brother who lived in the basement of his parent's house, and had hung a pair of Bose 901s from the ceiling beams. He had a TT and I think a McIntosh amp of some sort. Even though it probably wasn't the most expensive thing in the world, we were under strict orders never to touch it.Anyway, like a lot teenagers in that time and place, we soon discovered drugs, particularly acid (LSD). Bill and I took to ditching school in our senior year and dropping whatever it was we had. One of the first times we did this, we had a version of what used to be known as "4-way Window Pane", which was a clear square that was supposed to be broken up into 4 pieces and taken individually. This time, we took all four at the same time. After kicking around Bill's empty house for a while, we went downstairs and put on a record. It was Jeff Beck's "Wired." Loud. I remember standing in front of one the 901s, tripping my little teenaged buns off, and feeling the air pumping out of the speaker blowing my perfectly feathered, 1970s-styled long hair off of my forehead. Needless to say, the experience left a deep impression on me. It was a combination of the thrill of doing something forbidden, a small understanding of the importance of rock and jazz music, and a huge appreciation for the power of audio equipment.
After that, "Wired" was the very first record I ever bought, and, like many of you, I've dropped thousands and thousands on vinyl and gear ever since.
How loud was that 1st floor with those 901s bracketed to the basement ceiling ;-)I can certainly identify with growing up in the late 70s - early 80's and the, cool older brother/sister in the house, thing. Also, with the "don't touch my stuff" mentality. It all brings back so many personal memories. Sometimes replete with blacklights, beads, cannabis (dope seeds in the gatefold).. haven't to scramble out've there when someone came suddenly came home.
Whether it be my older sister (my older brother was a bit of a jock dickhead) or my friends older sibs.. to be called into the inner sanctum to listen to albums on "the really good stereo", or like you said, to sneak the experience and trespass.. It was always thrilling to be able to exp. the better gear (where were you when you first heard DSofTM?).
I'm sure the same feelings are valid if it was with some adults finer system.. or a "straighter" experience ;-) But my formation of a desire/need for cool audio gear one day was not unlike yours..
How could those kind've exposures not leave a lingering desire to want a fat system and a bunch of records one day? Or to want to do a sh*tload of drugs, throw up and pass out in a beanbag chair ;-).
I remember that the speakers were hung with huge silver chains into an eye-hook in the wood ceiling beams. If you touched them, they swung back and forth, which I'm sure meant no microdynamics or serious bass response. But they were friggin' LOUD. If you stood upstairs, you could hear everything - in fact, the TT was upstairs for that very reason. In the end, all I knew was that they were cool, and anyone's older brother must know what's best when it comes to something like that.One day, maybe I'll tell the story of the roach, the paper bag of Kleenexes, and the bean bag chair. Suffice it to say, there was a fire and a serious harsh on a buzz.
...I can't remember how old I was, very early teens perhaps. His system then was a Heybrook TT2, I think linn Basik Plus arm and K9 cart ( may have been an MC into a lentek step up....hmmmm), into a Sansui amp ( I don't recall the part no, but it was BIG and black pro looking thing ), this drove JBL 3 way speakers with a 10" bass unit (again I don't recall the part no. ).Anyway, he was trying a felt mat and a heavy rubber like mat and combinations of the two...........I remember commenting to him that the bass was tighter and the mid was clearer with the combination.....
He was suprised and agreed !
I've wasted vast sums of money ever since !
Greetings from Rob in the UK.
Hi Rob, I'm currently using a TT2 in a secondary system with a Magnepan Unitrac, Denon DL-160, and a cork mat. Aside from some belt squeal upon start up and shut down, I get some hum--not alot but noticeable-through the cartridge because of the unshielded motor. Since your Dad was using a Linn K-9 cartridge I'm now interested in finding a NOS Linn since they're not manufactured anymore. Thanks for the anecdote!By the way, I bought the table used with a Dynavector Ruby and replaced it with a Garrot K-3, both of which hummed on this table much more than the Denon.
Somewhere in the early 90s i played guitar in a bluesband. The other guitarist had a high end set with Accuphase amps and huge column speakers. I listened to it in amazement. I had a midfi Yamaha set with JBL speakers. Time to go to the bank!
"The torture never stops"
had what he described as a "component system": a TT, amp, and two small bookshelf speakers. I had never seen or heard anything like it. It blew me away. The following summer, I worked in an auto plant and had some extra cash beyond what I needed for tuition and books for sophomore year and I went to Allied Radio in Chicago and bought a killer "component" system with a 5 watt Allied tube amp, Garrard TT, Stanton cartridge, and Jensen 2 way speakers on sale for under $100. I've squandered thousands since.
which I paired with a Knight 10" 3-way speaker system and a Knight turntable (VTF set by sliding a weight along the square arm tube) with an Empire 808 cart. All bought from Allied Radio by mailorder. IIRC, the bill was $49 fot the TT/cart, $39 for the amp in kit form and $24.95 for the speaker kit.
Henry
--
vice versa! One was a linear taper and one was a log taper. No switching allowed. Had no bass until I caught my error. Duh! One of those "all night, gonna solder til this sucker is finished" thangs. All point-to-point wiring.
Henry
--
.
no, but i do remember looking at all these guitars and microphones and things i had and thinking, "but i dont really spend any money on my stereo and I listen to music all the time."
my brother came home from a stint with the Army in Germany and had a big assed Pioneer quad receiver, 4 one-note Pioneer speakers, a 4 channel open reel deck (damn sure wish I had kept that)and a HK/Rabco TT with linear tracking arm. That system turned me on to audio in a big way and I haven't stopped since.
... it was Ravel's Bolero, about 1965, played through my uncle's system including Macintosh tube monoblocks, AR 3's, a Garrard tt with probably a Pickering or Shure cart, and a Heathkit tube preamp that he built.
By age eleven I already had an eclectic set of musical influences: I grew up in Nashville, so Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, and Elvis were facts of life; my father was an out-of-the-closet avant-jazz fan who played Miles and Coltrane after (he thought) everyone was asleep; my mother loved opera and cried when she played Mario Lanza records; my brother, eight years older, was coming home from college every few weeks packing Yardbirds, Animals, Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Who, and the like; and my sister, four years older, was dosing me heavily with the Motown and Stax stuff that the hip kids were into at that time. But when Uncle Stan dropped the needle on Bolero and cranked the volume, it: 1) immediately cleared the room and 2) rocked as hard as anything I have ever heard before or since. Since then I have spent decades of time and thousands of dollars in pursuit of that experience.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
I must say that I always have been receptive to music nearly all my life. One of the most special gifts I remember was getting a Sony tape recorder with 3 band EQ and two detachable speakers back in '86 (which is still around, BTW). I also began a lifelong affair with jazz and classical when I was 13, while all my classmates were listening to GNR and Motley Crue.Then about two years later my first "real" stereo was a hand-me-down of a 1970s National all-in-one receiver with a BSR-style turntable. Man did I used that thing... around the same time I was able to get a Sharp cassette deck (also as a hand-me-down), and I felt like I was in heaven for a while.
Then I passed through another couple of big box systems before hitting the high end ground fairly recently (in 2002). Well, that has been more or less how it all happened.
_________________________________
If your talking about just loving to listening to music, its been as long as I can remember. My mother always had a radio on listening to all kind of music & if she did'nt have it on, I would. If you mean first "hi fidelity" system, it would be 1963 & my grandparents bought a console stereo. Thats when I first played albums & said to my self, "This sure sounds alot better than a counter top radio".
But its still about the music. I listen to boom box at work & I still enjoy the it.
Larry
My friend's older brother was an audiophile and kept his system and music in his grandmother's living room.
Frank's System consisted of:
AR Amplifier
AR Tuner
AR XA Turntable
Shure V15
AR 3A speakers in front
AR 2ax speakers in the rear
Dynaco Dynaquad decoderIt was the first real system I had ever heard and I was in awe.
That afternoon was a life-changing event. I started buying music, buying "Audio" magazine, buying "High Fidelty" magazine and circling every single number on the "reader Information" cards the magazines had in order to get on everyone's mailing list just the very next week!
Frank's System evolved over the years and I was lucky enough to hear it several times afterward. His was also the first system I ever heard in a home setting that had electrostatic speakers.Great memories...
Cheers,
Me, I'm just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk....
-Ray
A classmate had landed a good job and invested more than a few paychecks in a system. I can't remember for sure what it was, but it was the first time I remember hearing separates (SAE?) and speakers that were bigger than than ones designed to sit on a bookshelf. He let the needle drop on "Morning Has Broken" and it was amazing. I will never forget it.
Electro-Voice bass reflex with a 15 inch bi-axial driver, I was in Hi-Fi hog heaven as young as I can remember. Mom played the classics, while Dad spun the jazz. Thanks to my parents this spurred a life-long love of music that is one of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me. Guess that's why I also played the trumpet for so many years. I also have VERY early memories of watching the glowing Genelex KT-66s and wondering how such wonderful music came from those firey bottles. I'm STILL watching the glowing output tubes, although now they're 6550s.
as played back on vinyl in my brother-in-law's system which included a Yamaha receiver, Dokorder reel-to-reel, a Marantz turntable and Braun speakers. That was a stunner, and I was hooked on hi-fi after that.
He had A Macintosh MC240, AR 3A, AR TT, Mac pre.
It was not that it was spectacular sounding by todays hyped up standards but it had that way of making music sound like music should sound.I dont think one needs super expensive equipment to do it but tubes are an important ingredient (unless you want to get prohibitivly expensive solid state).
Actually the fist high quality sound came from my uncles' system in 1958. He had A gerrard TT, Pilot pre, Radio craftsman amp, And a speaker cabinet he built himself with Coaxial drivers. It sounded great but being only 8 years old I couldnt pursue the hobby. He liked to demo The Mercury 1812 overture with the cannons and all.I made sure I found a copy of that One. I could never locate 'Havana 3 AM' . I dont even Know who the musicians were.I remember a Scherizad (?) but dont know which one. I have been looking at album covers but either my memory is failing or I havent found it yet.
CD covers (reproductions of LP covers) linked
The Mercury 1812 overture with the cannons and all.
Dorati on Mercury?
http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Overture-Capriccio-Beethoven-Wellingtons/dp/B0000057MWI remember a Scherizad (?) (spelling is Scheherazade)
but dont know which one. I have been looking at album covers but either my memory is failing or I havent found it yet.
that was either Reiner RCA
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=93887
or Dorati Mercury see link
Hi DOCW,
Thanks for the leads. Im pretty sure I have the right 1812.The Scheherezade I have is on Living stereo and it might be the right one.Thanks,
Correction. I was 13 years old in 1958. Bad math
I was wandering around the various listening room and drooling over the Mac amps, when I came accross a pair of Maggie MG-1's.I ended up taking some "excess" student loan money and buying a pair and have never looked back. ( Much to the chagrin of my wife)
was where my Dad bought our first "good" stereo. It was a Dual tt (not a good one) and Pioneer SX-424 receiver and no name house brand speakers. Even with the system's limitations, the thrill of hearing Close to the Edge got me totally hooked, and I started to save for my own system straight away. I remember the Sound Room being a pretty foreign looking place for us, but it was very cool. Soon after I was lurking at Lafayette and ordering information from audio magazines all the time. We all tried to talk our Dad into a bigger system, but no dice. The Pioneer was okay though - we spent alot of time listening to LAV 45 miles away in GR with no problem.
Mike
You are right. It was a pretty quirky place. The sales guys were very knowledgable and for the 70's they carried a lot of cool gear.I lived in GR for 5 years and always felt the Sound Room was the best until Hi-Fi Buys bought them out and started selling Micro-Waves!!
WOW. Lafayette. You are really taking me back on that one. Remember those hugh Lafayette Speakers.
I love that song!
The Sound Room was a great store.I bought an Acoustic Research ES-1 equipped with a Sumiko MMT arm and a Shure M97HE cartridge that was a demo unit for 45% off the list price in 1984 from them.
--
Al G
That is a nice rig. I could only dream of owning the high end gear they had, but it was the start of a fantastic journey. I still own the MG-1's that I bought from them. I am running a pair of 3.6's in the main system now, but really enjoy trotting out the old Maggies every now and then.
...it was a Police reissue pressed in Germany that my European colleague gave me. Synchronicity. 180 gram. I kept the album for a year before having a chance to hear it. It was the first album I put on after getting hold of a TT, a Dual (forgot which model, I borrowed it). The year was 2002. For me, that was the beginning of the end of the CD!
I think it was around 10 a.m. when I walked into the main listening room to hear a Marantz tube system driving big Bozak speakers. Sources were a Rek-O-Kut table and a Roberts open reel deck
Henry
nt
Soon after my family moved to a new neighbourhood we had other neighbours move in and they had some older teenage boys who kinda had some nice gear for the time, a Dual turntable, a Sony integrated amp a Realistic cassette deck and tuner with some neat speakers that I can't recall the brand. One older son had a subscription to a magazine out of Canada at the time called Sound Canada, a superb magazine for its day and still in terms of layout, scope and breadth without superiors today. It is no longer around though. I sorta began thinking this stuff was cool but it still took a little more prodding for me. My other teenage buddy (Rob) who just, moved in the neighbourhood about 6 months earlier was into stereo gear because his father was. Anyways around Christmas 1979 myself and Pete another buddy were out and about when we heard some music blasting from Rob's place. Well we had to go check it out. He had Supertramp Crime of the Century wailing away. He got some new speakers for Christmas and of course cough,cough was breaking them in LOL. It was way cool and I knew I was about to marry into a cool hobby. Soon after that for my next few birthdays and Christmases I got some neat, cool but still modest stereo gear and then once I became a working stiff began buying my own stuff too. So it all came about the summer of 1979 through to winter of 1979 that I like a fish on hook became hooked on this stuff.
corner of Smithfield and Fourth in downtown Pittsburgh. It was October, cloudy, about 45 degrees, wind out of the west at about four miles per hour ("mahl-nahrrr" in the Pittsburgh parlance)...
Hey I don't remember about the weather or even the time of year exactly.
But we (me and two friends) walked into Opus One and they were playing "America" from Lincoln Mayorga And Distinguished Collegues , Sheffield direct-to-disc. Don't remember what they were using for amplification, but the turntable was a Transcriptors Saturn with a Vestigal arm and some kind of wood-bodied Supex cart. The speakers were Magneplanars.
It was an epiphany, a true Saul-on-the-road-to-Damascus moment. I loved music and had a stereo at home, but had no idea that sound could be so stunningly reproduced.
My life has never been the same...
______________________
If you can read this, you're not our president.
I like that story. I remember much of that gear. And I still use America for demo, just did last week to show relatives from Asia how vintage high end sounds.The Saul to Paul experience is a really good one. Mine was my father going from a Philco all in one stereo to a system. Scott 382 SS receiver, Dual 1009SK with Shure ?, AR 3's. Although woefully underpowered, suddenly, we had sound.
The one with the Garrard turntable and amplifier in the oak base, and two KLH speakers.The store was in Oakland, on Forbes Avenue. Wish it were still there.
I e-mailed someone in the last year or two, either on Craigslist or a PPG classified, about a pair of large Advents, and it was the guy who owned Opus One...Tassos, I think his name is.
They had a store in Indiana, PA that was awesome. I used to drive the 45 miles to Indiana rather than go to Pittsburgh. We'd go up just to watch old reruns of Star Trek on the Advent Videobeam.
The guy who ran the outfit was Tasso Spanos--the old store on Smithfield is now a Greek restaurant. Who says irony is dead?
______________________
If you can read this, you're not our president.
Man did that thing give off some nice bass( I remember a switch on there for "mood bass"---just a way to boost up the low end frequencies when at lower night time listening volume)---not exactly audiophile quality sound but it was something that fascinated me. I enjoyed watching the records being stacked(auto mechanism changer working) and plopping down after the previous one would end(yah, any audiophile's nightmare to have a record stacker with vinyl just crashing down on one another :(Pops had to drill a small hole on the cabinet lid and attached some sort of kid proof latch or lock to keep me and my brother from messing around with it...For my bro it was just something to toy with...For me, I actually wanted to listen to records!
Finally got rid of that console about 2 years ago...
My old Panasonic plastic midi system were on it's last legs, so out it went. Had a Hitachi music centre before that & it was a lot better. Bought an Aiwa CD mini system. Modern for me, sounded good (ish).
After a while it was niggling me to play my records, so looking through adverts I found a Thorens TD150. Rang the bloke up & he explained it was a Hi-fi deck. Well to me a record player is a record player so I bought it for £40 'cause it looked different.
Got it home & the light of my life said "it looks home made to me!"
Bought a cheap phono-stage from my local dealer & plugged it into the inputs on the back of the Aiwa.
Blimey or crikey or both, what fantastic sound.
Yes you've guessed it, Aiwa went into the daghters bedroom, in came the amps, speakers, record decks, CD players.
What have I done.
I need therapy or a new whatsit for my rotating thing.
Pretty fine music, even with a cheaper "stacker" style Garrard table.When I was a teenager I wanted my own system. The first shop I went to had a killer vinyl system and Infinity electrostatics. Wow! Talk about hearing things for the first time....
Who even made SET amps then?
Wish I still had them. Very low power yet they had a really awesome bloom to the sound. None of them was push pull, all single ended amps.The Universal dual driver 12 inch woofer in a Carleson coupler cabinet really sounded full and relaxed. Later I found out it was way shelved down in the highs but I sat so nearfield I never felt the highs were substandard.
I saw a Fisher preamp go for 275 dollars a while ago on sleeze bay. I bet that is twice what my Dad paid for the thing.
Olly and I were laughing it up about a 1956 stereo guide and looked up the 301 Garrard. It was selling for 86 dollars and you could buy an Ebony plinth for it for an additional 25 dollars.
I wish my Dad had bought a thousand of these! Who could have known.
Great to hear from you Garth.
My Dad was an ex Navy radio guy, spent time with the Phone Company and put in 26 years at Hughes Aircraft building stuff that is still blowing things up to this very day.
Cheers.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: