My Sansui AU11000: bit.ly/2mtWP5l List was $750, I paid $520, which in 1976 dollars, was quite a lot. I sacrificed a tuner just to have this integrated amplifier, the following year I bought...
A Yamaha CT1010: bit.ly/2uyx1JY This was the best tuner Yamaha made, other than its top-of-the-line four figure CT7000. There were three tuners in this class, I needed to have the best, I believe list was $400+ and I paid just under $300, which is kind of amazing, just for FM, now an irrelevant band.
A year after that I bought my crown jewel, my Nakamichi 582 (bit.ly/2zVvwuj) the top-of-the-line, fully adjustable (and I'm sure you have no idea what that means, you even adjusted the bias with a tiny screwdriver!) cassette deck. I paid almost $680, list was nearly $900, I bought it after passing the bar exam, it was a gift to myself, my girlfriend resented what I spent on it, but all that time working at the law firm, I wanted to blow my cash on it.
Technics SL-1300: bit.ly/2O26YTn Replaced my Dual 1218. The SL-1300 was the top of the line, it was a direct drive, fully-automatic turntable, the legendary SL-1200 was manual, the SL-1400 was semi-automatic (you dropped the needle, but the tonearm returned by itself).
Stanton 681EEE: bit.ly/2LbJsWn I wanted a Shure, but the salesman convinced me this would work better with the JBL L100s, it was smoother, the JBLs were bright and so was the Shure.
JBL L100s...WITH ORANGE GRILLES! (bit.ly/2uJrCii)
My Sansui burned up after 23 years and I replaced it with an NAD integrated amp with enough power to blow up the neighborhood.
Sans the Sansui, I still have all the above equipment, along with a Sony single CD player wherein the disc moves, not the laser.
But to tell you the truth, most of the time I listen to my 3-way Genelec computer speakers...THEY'RE ASTOUNDING!
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My most amazing stereo experience was the KLH MODEL ELEVEN SUITCASE STEREO.
It was an actual little suitcase with a handle. It included a Garrard turntable and two speakers which were clipped to the package. Once you opened it up the speakers could be moved away from the turntable to get real stereo.
The shocking part was that the tiny speakers delivered huge sound. I first saw it at an audio convention. You walked into the room and tremendous sound was playing and when you looked around there were no speakers. It was all coming from the tiny little KLH speakers.
My roommate bought this stereo and a few albums and brought then home. That day we unpacked it and listened to the two brand new albums he had just bought. One was CREAM’s first album. The other was ARE YOU EXPERIENCED by Jimmy Hendrix.
That was a memorable day in my life in music!!
Thanks
Jack Tempchin
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Speakers! I remember a phone call from my boyfriend of three years: I just spent $700! Guess what I bought? (Oh, finally! A diamond ring!) JBL speakers... Nope, never married him, but we are still friends nearly 50 years later.
Victoria Lenihan
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Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
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Bob, this brings back such keen memories of "learning to play the stereo." Growing up was lots of similar rigs as you and needing parental approval to touch.
I recall my first Big Boy speakers, a bad-ass pair of KLH 28s that took up almost as much room in my apartment as the couch. A family friend was a banker and let me take out my first loan, $400 to buy these speakers. Thought I was listening to God when Born to Run was played loudly through them.
Wish I still had those babies. . .
Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach, VA
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L26 JBL Decade speakers were the beast of choice in my basement with a Marantz 1030 amp and a BIC turntable. All for less than $500 Canadian with money earned from my paper route (Dad paid half). Thanks again, Bob.
BTW, that solo on When the Curtain Falls is terrific.
Michael Craig
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Still using the Pioneer HPM40's I bought in the late 70's.... And my Akai tuner....
Don Bartenstein
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In high school, I lusted after component stereo systems. I read Spiegel’s catalog—putting my system together countless times in theory. Before I had the money to buy one, in 1965, the Army called and I found myself flying helicopters in Vietnam. After 7 weeks, shot-down and wounded, I ended up in the land of the big PX—Japan, in an Army hospital. Ensconced in a ward with over 100 beds, I decorated the area around my hospital bed with a giant California flag and my first stereo. A Kenwood Receiver with 140 watts (70 per channel), a Garrard Lab-80 turntable, Sony reel to reel, and Coral speakers, I think a Japanese brand. Headphones kept the Army nurses from chastising me and shutting down the volume. I kept that system for 10 years. It still sounded better than any of the micro bluetooth speakers that dominate today.
Steve Greene
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Kenwood receiver, Technics (panasonic) turntable, TEAC cassette deck, and (godhelpme) Lafayette speakers. How else could I afford 12" woofers? It roared.
Michael Alex
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Yama NS-10's, baby! as found on every mixing console in the world, for 30 years or so. Cost me 4 boxes of cleans, but that's a whole other story.
Barry Lyons / Rent A Label
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Re: the Big Rig - at least here in the city, many folks' big rig is now a killer set of headphones along with a good DAC-amp. Brings the thunder but does not annoy the neighbors! You have the Sennheiser HD800, right? With the right headphone amp, they are spectacular (although many would argue
-Dave Lackey
-Inner Sanctum Audo
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My first stereo that wasn't my parents or my two older brothers, purchased in the fall of '75:
- Pioneer PL-10 Manual Turntable with Shure Cartridge
- Pioneer SX-535 Receiver with 20 watts RMS per channel
- A pair of Acoustic Research (AR) 7 Speakers
Rock on bro'.
All good things,
Paul Barriscale
Vancouver, BC, Canada
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I'll have to check it out through my Polk Audio SDA SRS 2.3s (about 5 ft tall, with six drivers, three tweeters and a subwoofer in each cabinet). My friends think I'm nuts, them with their tiny in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. I ask them if they've ever been to a concert and seen tiny in-wall speakers there. No, you want big sound, you get big speakers.
Plus, they look damn good.
polksda.com/srsreview.shtml
Cheers,
Chris Beytes
South Elgin, IL
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Great piece! I remember having to decide, also based on money, JBL 100, 200 etc. We picked our roommates in college (SUNY at Buffalo) based on their stereo they had.
David E. Parker
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I'm 47 and grew up in Cleveland with the cheap all-in-one audio gear you describe here. I never owned the good hifi and my records were scratched up hand me downs from family members. What a great time that was exploring the album covers and songs. About ten years ago when vinyl was starting to make a come back I started buying restored vintage audio gear and the music sounds so great on these units. My main set up is a Marantz 2285B with JBL L-100 speakers with a Denon turntable. I now have all my records in mint condition and they are all from the actual era they were released as they sound better than the newer pressings. Thanks for writing about these amazing speakers. I paid $600 for them last year and that was considered a good deal! I also bought replica grill covers like the ones from the 70's with the orange foam. This gear holds its value, I highly recommend getting a pair. My family could not afford these brands growing up, so it's even more fantastic being able to buy them now, I appreciate it so much. Pics attached including original ad.
Mark Dubec
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JBL 4311B's - which was the studio version of the L100. I still have them. They're the speakers I still listen to every day. And you're right - earbuds don't compare.
hyperbolium
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I'm 47, from the lower class Midwest, and feel like I just missed on the stereo wars of the 70's.
But, I am reaping the rewards of those days, having collected 5 late 70's and very early 80's silver face examples!
Can't wait to get home and listen to your suggestions on one of my rigs...at my work desk I have a small Technics SA-203(30wpc) powering some small shelf speakers that I can only listen to on "1", not "11", but at home the Pioneer SX 780(45wpc) awaits. I know, even the Pioneer isn't a big rig, but I have some Advent Prodigy and KLH Model 6 that sound just fine and will bring plenty of Thunder:)
www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/technics/sa-203.shtml
www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/sx-780.shtml
Thanks for pulling us into your past as you weave the present and possible future!
Jamie Rogerson
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You brought me way back to the days of Tech Hifi in Westport. Their slogan was “Come Play”. They sold a T-shirt with that phrase and I think I wore it a few times a week until my mother tossed it.
Infinity Q series speakers. The big ones (don’t remember if they were 3s or 5s) Spent a summers working so I could buy them. I think I had a Marantz receiver and a Panasonic turntable that I eventually replaced with a Denon. Glory days arrived when I got my first Nakamichi cassette deck and I spent my days making mix tapes. I would list every musician, recording dates, producers, and more on the cassette liner
But nothing was better than listening to music in the car. Driving down the road alone with the music at a deafening volume. I think I stated with a Jenson and then moved to Alpine, a late comer to the stereo market.
Yes - (loved blasting Yours is no a Disgrace). Zep - 1 & 2, Kansas - Left Overture. Springsteen - Born to run.
Those times were the best. The best.
Thanks for making me smile.
Hope you are well.
Peter Denholtz
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Hi Bob,
Memories; thanks for waking them up!
My dad was an early audiophile and built his own hi-fi stereo in the fifties. He had a Weathers turntable (with a featherlight balsa wood arm,) a Harman Kardon FM tuner and a pair of 12" Altec Lansing coaxial speakers mounted in mismatched cabinets, both powered by a pair of Heathkit amplifiers that would shake every pain of glass in our neighborhood on Sunday afternoons when he'd conduct them playing Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, or some such. The sound of those Audio Fidelity direct-to-disk mastered Westminster Classics, to these ears, have never been equaled. It was so clear, you could hear each individual bangle on the tambourines played in Capriccio Espagnol!
When he was at work, my mom would play show music, Harry Belafonte, The Ink Spots and Perry Como, not to mention Allen Sherman and the Chipmunks, just for us kids. Of course it helped that her sister was married to the head of the local record plant (soon to become the VP of Manufacturing at Columbia;) we'd get hand me downs, rejects and duplicates when their kids were done with them. Garnered quite a few treasures this way.
Because my brother, sister and I were not allowed to use the old man's creation, and the portable Motorola HiFi system I had in my bedroom was not stereo (no matter how many speakers I attached to it,) I had to go out and buy my own system just as the music was getting loud and sophisticated. Though my first gig was working at the bookstore in Lafayette Plaza, I finally made my way over to Karl Graf's Record Center five days a week during my junior year at AWHS and managed to save up enough to buy a Realistic Rhapsodie System and turntable from Radio Shack.
I couldn't vibrate the windows in the neighborhood, but I could sure drown out the noises from the rest of the house. That little unit lasted nearly 8 years until I upgraded to a Pioneer amp and turntable and Bose speakers. Still, The Beatles, Mothers, Hendrix, Dylan and the like on vinyl never sounded so good, even on those puny bookshelf speakers.
Years later I went with Denon, Polk and a Micro Seiki direct drive turntable, and the like. Sound got louder but little else. Then the age of polycarbonates/polymethylmethacrylates arrived and everything changed. Our ears were dumbed down by the stairsteps but in the excitement of the new media, we either didn't notice or care, or at least made excuses, noises about "triple beam" or "sampling rates." None of it mattered. No wonder vinyl is making a comeback; the ears have it!
Nowadays, after downsizing, my vinyl is now in storage (including my 3 Westminster Classics) and due to space constraints, I make do with a system cobbled together from Philips and Samsung components. These days, having heard it all many times over, hearing the individual bangles on the tambourines isn't nearly as important to me as it once was. The sound is fine but nothing, NOTHING ever compared to those early days of direct to disk mastered vinyl.
Happy listening, Bob. And thanks for the chance to share!
Your friend and fellow classmate,
Ken Shain
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Summed up by the instruction on Ziggy Stardust - and many other records. "To be played at maximum volume".
James Sadler
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