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First hifi experience...

1971. My dad’s hi-fi, Dual changer. A magical experience!
I remember playing the Beatles and the Shadows a lot on that.
West Side Story, too. My mum bought that record (I still have it) straight after seeing the film at the cinema as soon as it was released!
I also listened to FM radio a lot in the 70’s.
Great moments.
Then in 1980 I built my first tuner and amp, and I listened to Quad ESL’s for the first time, as well as McIntosh amps feeding AR9 huge speakers.
Real hi-fi.
 
Probably my grandad’s music centre. Certainly the best sound that I had heard but I wanted more.

Bought a pioneer system as a student in 1980 which sounded better and somebody living in the same building as me had a pioneer “communications” system. I always liked that and treated myself to an A9 last year - it’s rather nice.

Having secured a job by 1983 I was thinking about improvements. In those days Billy Vee used to have an auction and for not very much money I became the owner of an Ariston RD80 which needed some work doing. BV did the job for pennies.

I then discovered the Sound Organisation which was closed to the office. Isobariks in the upstairs room were stunning and that’s when I moved into the ways of Linn and Naim.........
 
My father was a violinist, played jazz but also played on a few of Rod Stewarts early albums - listening to him playing via his big speakers (tannoys?) turned in like massive headphones was the first real hifi moment but one of my best stories was when we sold our first house in 1989. My CD player died on the same day as the funds hit my bank account so I toddled off to Graham's to get another. I emerged ten grand the poorer but with a car full of Naim and B&W boxes. Even better is the time back in around 1986 when Howard Popeck of Subjective Audio in Camden rang me to say that he had an amp and speakers that I might like to borrow. I turned up at the back of the shop in my old mini van, half full of rubble and tools late Saturday afternoon. The amp was a Beard valve pre and power with rack. The speakers were magnaplanars of some sort, about 5' tall, in even taller boxes. We hauled them out into the yard in the drizzle then Howard locked up and drove off, leaving me to juggle bags of rubble and these big expensive boxes. As I did, a police officer appeared, and my story didn't seem totally convincing, and as mobile phones were not commonplace I had to wait till Howard was home and able to corroborate my story.
The boxes were too big to fit into the van so the back doors were tied together and I set off, leaving a trail of rubble while the boxes got wetter and wetter..
I never had the courage to tell Howard or take the speakers back, but thankfully I like them and the amp so kept both - I gave away the speakers to a member here just a couple of years ago and a friend still has the amp.
 
As the OP here I must come clean. I never had much of an interest in music. It was secondary to defying your parents by listening the Radio Caroline on the tranny under the covers, or some way of dancing with fit girls at the local school on Saturdays. I was 21 when my parents gave me a ‘player’. It was all in one and it was the best they had heard ( you can fill in the speil - nothing changes). They gave me two record to play on it. Peer Gynt was one....

I was at tech college at the time and asked one of the cooler chaps for a suggestion to get me through the ‘ why is isn’t using it’ as it was a small house. He gave me some folky stuff by a Chapman fella but also Hot Rats. The latter just set me off , lit the fuse so to speak...
 
1969 - working in a local record shop after school. System was Lenco GL75, Leak Stereo 70 (or 30??) & Leak 600 Sandwich speakers. Took no notice of it whatsoever but I guess the records sounded pretty good. My first system was a Garrard SP25, Metrosound ST20 & Wharfedale Denton speakers. Perfect 1st system for a student.
 
1970 as a 5 year old my parents had a radiogram and there was always loads of Rolling Stones - Beatles - Kinks 7 " singles belonging to Dad and older sisters and I used to love listening to them.
I think they where piled up on a drop down mechanism.Love of music started there.
Serious HI FI exposure happened when I was 15 with a girl I used to hang out with.Her dad had a LP12 and Quad amps and ELS 57's.
I was gobsmaked by the sound and look of the equipment and there after started buying HI FI mags and by 18 had a LP12 and a Nait 1 and Kans threw saving up with paper rounds and Saturday jobs.
All my mates where having driving lessons buying cars but music was my priority - Records and gigs.
 
Remember my first experience of hifi very clearly. My brother went to The Sound Gallery in High Wycombe (I think they may still be there), and bought a Roksan Xerxes, RB300 and Linn K9 with a Naim NAIT 2 and he picked up some Mission Argonauts from somewhere else. Sounded fabulous to my ears and I think I spent a long time trying to recreate the experience. Unfortunately, the Xerxes suffered plinth sag, but the NAIT 2 and the speakers are still going.
 
I doubt that my parents would realise what an influence they were regarding music, because although, no doubt they hated my music, there was always a record player around the house and it wasn't a precious thing that nobody was allowed to touch, even from a relatively young age, so cheers Mum & Dad!
 
My father's first move into hifi was Lowther Acoustas with a Leak Stereo 30 and Stereofetic and a Sugden BD25. The turntable upgraded to the classic Garard 401, SME 3009 and Shure V15 3 combo. After he upgraded to a LP12 I inherited the deck and got a Sugden A21 (wish I still had it) and AR6 speakers. The start of a long journey.
 
So many endearing and interesting accounts!

I am not sure when I first heard a very good stereo. Possibly it was my own 1984 kit, but he seed was planted 10 - 20 years earlier. My mother always listened to music programmes on her lowly transistor radio and I must have heard a lot of different 50s, 60s, and 70s music while growing up.

Later around 1970 she bought a B&O stereo and that gave us the oportunity to listen to records. One of the first ones being Johnny Cash at San Quentin. Otherwise, I was lucky in the sense that my neighbour's sons were 6-10 years older than me, an in their rooms I had the joy of experiencing "Starry Night" and some early 1970s Danish classics played back on I don't know what. But it sounded lovely while I dug into their store of teenage comic books - Prince Valiant, comic book versions of classic literature like "The Time Machine" and "The Count of Monte Christo" and some thrashy small booklets of "Battler Britton" etc.. I spent many happy hours listening to music there.

Then in the mid 1970s I got my own orange portable Panasonic cassette deck and taped endless hours of music from my mother's portable radio with a microphone. My first stereo bought for money received as gift when I was confirmed into the Protestant Danish State Church was a National all-in one with tape deck, radio and turntable. Crappy but worked for me until I bought a turntable and my brother bought a cassette deck for my mother's B&O Beomaster 900 that we decided to relocate to our shared all-purpose room.

I think that listening to friend's music systems when they moved away from home was another important step in my music education.
 
My first memory of proper hifi was seeing a Sony Amp and Tuner in the late 70’s, we were playing rugby against a posh school in York and got taken into their common room for cups of tea, there was music playing through an ST88/TA88 combo and matching speakers, I would have been 11. I had a little Sony mono transistor radio at home with an earpiece, hearing proper speakers was an ear opener :) My old man was never interested in music, he had a radio in the shed for the news/sport results, no records at all.



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A year later I heard Rega Planar/NAD/AR speakers at Hoburn HiFi in Aberdeen , my Grandad was into records and took me to HiFi shops and car showrooms as a kid when I was living back up in Scotland at his cottage. Hearing that Rega system had me hooked on HiFi as a lifelong hobby/obsession...Have spent the following 40 odd years building up a hifi and music collection.
 
15 years old, Systemdek IiX with a Linn Basil Plus, a Creek CAS4040 and B&W DM110’s.

Bought from Steve at Audiofile in Colchester from holiday work. There started a lifelong habit and have been friends with Chris Harris who took over the shop (& changed the name to Pro Musica) ever since.
 
Rosewind said:
So many endearing and interesting accounts!

I am not sure when I first heard a very good stereo. Possibly it was my own 1984 kit, but he seed was planted 10 - 20 years earlier. My mother always listened to music programmes on her lowly transistor radio and I must have heard a lot of different 50s, 60s, and 70s music while growing up.

Later around 1970 she bought a B&O stereo and that gave us the oportunity to listen to records. One of the first ones being Johnny Cash at San Quentin. Otherwise, I was lucky in the sense that my neighbour's sons were 6-10 years older than me, an in their rooms I had the joy of experiencing "Starry Night" and some early 1970s Danish classics played back on I don't know what. But it sounded lovely while I dug into their store of teenage comic books - Prince Valiant, comic book versions of classic literature like "The Time Machine" and "The Count of Monte Christo" and some thrashy small booklets of "Battler Britton" etc.. I spent many happy hours listening to music there.

Then in the mid 1970s I got my own orange portable Panasonic cassette deck and taped endless hours of music from my mother's portable radio with a microphone. My first stereo bought for money received as gift when I was confirmed into the Protestant Danish State Church was a National all-in one with tape deck, radio and turntable. Crappy but worked for me until I bought a turntable and my brother bought a cassette deck for my mother's B&O Beomaster 900 that we decided to relocate to our shared all-purpose room.

I think that listening to friend's music systems when they moved away from home was another important step in my music education.
Click to expand...
I listened to my parents Live at San Quentin lp when I was very little. I became a lifelong fan. I passed Folsom Prison when I was driving through America a few years ago.Also passed Ma Baker’s house in Maine. It’s funny how much early music listening experiences influence your own. I remember listening to Neil Young, Jim Croce, Christopher Cross etc.They have all left an indelible mark on my listening preferences.
 
Mine was where I grew up in the 70's which was in a left-wing commune where I remember listening to a lot of Stones and Beatles from around when I was 5 or 6. Until we hit the 80's and I got my own tape "boombox" and listened to glistening pop instead. :)

I'm guessing the TT back then (from visual memory) must have been a nice Thorens TD160 and all the electronics was (probably uber expensive) Studer Revox. I remember being fascinated by all the buttons and dials and I guess it started there. I remember it sounded very good and growing up with Stones/Beatles etc. is not the worst place to start. The amp could have been something like a B750 but not sure. Maybe it was a receiver. The speakers I don't know but largish bookshelves - could be anything from Dynaco A25 to Tannoy Eaton etc. but I had to dance.

Got my own real hi-fi in the latter 80's (Rega/Rotel/Dali).
 
An unknown TT, an Amstrad amp and dodgy kit speakers, all very second hand, was my first hifi after the family Dansette then Sanyo music centre.
Comet provided a Sansui P50 TT, A Goodmans amp (kept blowing fuses), a Sansui amp, Goodmans RB18 speakers then a pair of Mission 761s (NO BASS!)
Now I have LP 12/Grace/Supex (still sounds good amazingly), 72/140/PS (but have an Avondale 250 and Hicap on loan) and a pair of Tannoy Chesters, these with a view to buy.
So thankful to be able to appreciate music like this! :)
 
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A TD150, Technics SU500 and some version of Tannoy DC. Lancasters, I suspect. My Grandad’s system. I don’t remember it being amazing but I was fascinated by the rats nest at the back.

He gave me a Sony Casseiver with matching speakers shortly after and I was hooked.
 
Great thread! :) Mine was at the family house. Thorens TT; possibly a '160, Crimson Pre and Power Amplifiers and Cambridge Audio R50 Loudspeakers.

Couldn't be more different from my system at home!
 
Amber Audio said:
My first memory of proper hifi was seeing a Sony Amp and Tuner in the late 70’s, we were playing rugby against a posh school in York and got taken into their common room for cups of tea, there was music playing through an ST88/TA88 combo and matching speakers, I would have been 11. I had a little Sony mono transistor radio at home with an earpiece, hearing proper speakers was an ear opener :) My old man was never interested in music, he had a radio in the shed for the news/sport results, no records at all.



​
A year later I heard Rega Planar/NAD/AR speakers at Hoburn HiFi in Aberdeen , my Grandad was into records and took me to HiFi shops and car showrooms as a kid when I was living back up in Scotland at his cottage. Hearing that Rega system had me hooked on HiFi as a lifelong hobby/obsession...Have spent the following 40 odd years building up a hifi and music collection.
Click to expand...

Mine was somewhat similar. At high school one of the classes had the usual Philips reel to reel recorders of the day a Goldring turntable with a pair of Beovox 5000. Cant remember the amp though, gone blank!
One of the other classrooms had just taken delivery of a complete Sony system.
PS5520, TA1055, ST1055,TC377 and SS7100. Looked amazing in a long cabinet and sounded pretty good to in comparison to what was in the other rooms.
I actually bought the same amp and tuner for my father in the late 90’s when his hifi packed in.
Still got it, I guess for nostalgia. Still got a Pioneer rt707 reel to reel, tx9500/2 tuner and ctf900 cassette deck as well?
Luv the look of them, can’t see me ever getting rid of them.
 
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