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What's the worst system you are prepared to admit to ?

madmike

I feel much better now, I really do...
My absolute first ever system was a philips mono record player with a ceramic cartridge and a speaker in the lid. It switched on by pulling the arm to the right. That would be about 1970.
Then one christmas I got a proper Philips stereo system with two speakers, and also with a ceramic cartridge, about 1972 I guess. First LPs were Yes, Close to the Edge and Fragile, and Focus III.
Then my first proper hi fi was a Teleton amp, rank domus speakers, and a philips stereo top loader cassette deck.
I later added a Thorens 150 chassis which I put in a home made plinth. The difference in sound from the source material was enormous. That would have been 1975. Then the amp was upgraded to an armstrong 525 reciever which kept me going a long time. I replaced that with a tandberg TR1000 in about 1978, cost me £90.
Happy days !
 
I had an all in one unit with a very cheap plastic BSR turntable in the same box as the amp and two speakers attached by anorexic bell wire. It sounded crap, but it played records and was better than the valve powered mono record player that it replaced (a bit like a dansette but without the sound quality).

At university I bought a friend's system for a tenner. That was a Garrard SP25 Mk II turntable, Goldring MM cartridge, a small step up amp (to provide RIAA equalisation and line level output) and a 5 watt per channel transistor amplifier. This was topped off with a pair of bare full range drive units. It sounded wonderful compared to what I'd owned before, and sparked my interest in HiFi.
 
Dunlop TT/Syrinx/Asak into Quad 44/405/1 into Celestion SL6.
The SL6 is quite possibly the worst loudspeaker on the planet and no amount of money on the front end could save it.

Just dull, lethargic, boxy dirge.

Yuk.
 
mono philps cassette deck. The joystick one. The times I had taping top of the pops off the TV.

First system was bought when i left home. Rega, nytech and ackroyd.

I think I can be excused the philips cassette.
 
Technics SL110 /SME 3009/Shure V15III (the best part) with a dirt cheap Technics amp & speakers. It got better with the addition of Leak 2030 speakers & a Sansui AU217 amp!
The important point was that it was mine!
 
Garrard record player, battery powered RIAA preamp, into a guitar amp, left signal into the clean channel, right signal into the overdive channel, mono 15" speaker is it.

It was bad but great, probably explains why I grew to like noise music so much there.

DS
 
I'm not sure which are worse, the Mordaunt Short MS25i or the KLH speakers they replaced. I think actually I prefer the KLH, hough I thought the MS were better at the time.
 
I had an all in one unit with a very cheap plastic BSR turntable in the same box as the amp and two speakers attached by anorexic bell wire. It sounded crap, but it played records and was better than the valve powered mono record player that it replaced (a bit like a dansette but without the sound quality).

At university I bought a friend's system for a tenner. That was a Garrard SP25 Mk II turntable, Goldring MM cartridge, a small step up amp (to provide RIAA equalisation and line level output) and a 5 watt per channel transistor amplifier. This was topped off with a pair of bare full range drive units. It sounded wonderful compared to what I'd owned before, and sparked my interest in HiFi.

Yes I had something like that with a nasty auto change mech, it was very crap.
I also had an alba midi system with an all plastic tonearm and that was worse, I was only 10 though, at 11ish I had some ex dem genexxa stuff from tandy which was good for the money but blown away by a sony scala system I got when I was 14.
 
When I was a student in the early 80's I had a pair of these:
gen1+.jpg


Driven from a Trio KD1033 and Pioneer SA7700.

They must have had 50dB peak somewhere in the upper midrange, 'cos it went ultra loud and was ultra ear piercing.
Probably worth loads on Ebay nowadays to all the high colouration/efficiency fans out there.

At the same time one of my mates had a Garrard 301 or 401, Leak ST20 and Mission 770s. I wonder why it sounded better than my system :confused: I seem to remember he paid £10 each for the 1st 2 items.
 
Probably my first separates system, handed down by my dad in the late seventies, but items from the late sixties.

Garard Deck – SP25Mk2 large cog drive?

It sat in a very heavy plinth with something large sliding around inside – I had a peep and found a large square block of lead. Helped stabilise it I guess.

Dulci amplifier (kit built I think), which had a very loud hiss. Cutting edge at the time though.

Unknown stereo bookshelf speakers.

:)
 
My father bought a Prinzsound (only available in Dixons stores I believe) record player/stereo speakers in the early '70's as an upgrade to his old Dansette type thing....I thought it was the bees knees until I got my own Sharp music centre a bit later on.
 
My absolute first ever system was a philips mono record player with a ceramic cartridge and a speaker in the lid. It switched on by pulling the arm to the right. That would be about 1970...

My dad had a player like that. It had a cartridge with 2 styli, one for singles or LPs, one for 78s. You simply twisted the cart to select which needle you needed. This would be early 1960s or even earlier.
 
If you think the SL6s were bad, then you haven't heard the SL600. I got a pair of those (800 UKP in 1985) on the tail end of a LP12/Ittok/Karma/42/Hicap/Audio Research D70mk2. And it was dull, insipid, lifeless and totally boring. The dealer swapped them for a pair of 'red dot' ones...which apparently ran the tweeter a little hotter, but it was still unacceptably dark and dull. I ended up swapping those speakers for a very early Musical Fidelity MVT preamp-which was effectively jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I swapped the worst speakers I ever owned for the worst preamp I ever owned.

Dunlop TT/Syrinx/Asak into Quad 44/405/1 into Celestion SL6.
The SL6 is quite possibly the worst loudspeaker on the planet and no amount of money on the front end could save it.

Just dull, lethargic, boxy dirge.

Yuk.
 
Garrard 401/SME3009/ShureV15111 Quad 33/303 AR 3a improved. Very poor dynamically - I stopped listening. I found that the Shure and the ARs were the problems. The insertion of ESL 57s and later an LP12 were a revelation, music returned to my life.
 
Dunlop TT/Syrinx/Asak into Quad 44/405/1 into Celestion SL6.
The SL6 is quite possibly the worst loudspeaker on the planet and no amount of money on the front end could save it.

Just dull, lethargic, boxy dirge.

Yuk.

Better not disclose how long I had my SL6s for then (still have them gathering dust)! When I replaced them with my current Totem Arros, my 1st thought was to wonder what I was going to miss - nothing!
 


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