Vintage hifi that began your journey...

My grandfather worked for EMI in the 1940s and 1950s at the Hayes factory. Typically, he retired just before the Beatles came on the scene! Meantime we had a house full of HMV, Parlophone and Columbia factory samples in all formats (including 10inchers), which we probably murdered on either a one-box with a Garrard autochanger or the living room radiogram with valve amp and a Garrard autochanger.

My first 'stereo' was a mate's Garrard deck which I bought for £4 from someone who was 'upgrading' to an SP25/ii., coupled with a cheapo tranny amp and speakers from a Bristol electrical/audio shop. Funny thing was, the Garrard I bought was a 4HF, which now go for a fortune on ebay. Naturally, as a student I more or less killed it off, then sold it on to pay the rent. There are no doubt those who'll say it would sound better than what I have now (but the arm was rubbish). It introduced me to most of the great LPs of the early 70s (and many of the 60s).

I do remember listening to some of those 50s LPs on the radiogram, though - -by the state of them, Britten's Young Persons Guide, various Prokofiev and some Mozart were among my favourites. Fortunately I was passed them down and still have about half.

Circa 1972, my father bought a Garrard SP25 mk III, a Sony TA1010 amp, and a pair of B&W DM1s to replace a radiogram.  That started it.

However my first system was a Thorens TD 166Mk2, a homebrew amp (the Mk 1 wasn't successful, but I learnt a lot, so my Mk 2 was very successful), and a pair of Castle Clydes.  Later a Yamaha CD-1a was added.

Vintage depends on your age of course. So for me it was a pair of Bose 901 (circa 1973) and an A&R Cambridge A60 amp.

The rest is history.

Salmon Dave posted:

My grandfather worked for EMI in the 1940s and 1950s at the Hayes factory. Typically, he retired just before the Beatles came on the scene! Meantime we had a house full of HMV, Parlophone and Columbia factory samples in all formats (including 10inchers), which we probably murdered on either a one-box with a Garrard autochanger or the living room radiogram with valve amp and a Garrard autochanger.

My first 'stereo' was a mate's Garrard deck which I bought for £4 from someone who was 'upgrading' to an SP25/ii., coupled with a cheapo tranny amp and speakers from a Bristol electrical/audio shop. Funny thing was, the Garrard I bought was a 4HF, which now go for a fortune on ebay. Naturally, as a student I more or less killed it off, then sold it on to pay the rent. There are no doubt those who'll say it would sound better than what I have now (but the arm was rubbish). It introduced me to most of the great LPs of the early 70s (and many of the 60s).

I do remember listening to some of those 50s LPs on the radiogram, though - -by the state of them, Britten's Young Persons Guide, various Prokofiev and some Mozart were among my favourites. Fortunately I was passed them down and still have about half.

Super memories. Something special about the old radiograms too. We had old 78s etc and I remember having the Sparky's Magic Piano played to me along with Pied Piper records too. 

My first "real" system in the '80s was a Trio TT, Nytech CA202 integrated and Monitor Audio R252s, first put together before my O-levels in the early 80s. Great memories of listening with my mates in my bedroom!

Nearly 60 year old vintage transducers delivering regular satisfaction and musical delight here.

The (still) alien looking beasts formed one of my formative audiophile experiences on the end of an all-Quad electronics system as a 15 year old, and the magical sound 'stuck' in my audio memory. I finally managed to acquire a pair of 57's in 2003.

Rewind to the impoverished youth with a Saturday job at Dixons (and staff discount) in 1971. That allowed me to buy my first proper separates system of a BSR MP60, a Prinzsound SA 2001 amp (with sliding controls!) and a pair of Wharfedale Dentons. I can still remember the smell of the oily brown paper in which they were wrapped in the box. Oh; the excitement and anticipation!

45 years of apparently incurable 'upgrade-itis' later, and I'm still hooked.

John.

May 1971, FA Cup Final Day, my father bought me my first hi-fi, from Allerton Radio in Liverpool. Goldring-Lenco GL75, Sure ME55E, Leak +30, Warfedale Meltons. Sounded better than anything I had ever heard before. Good day for me and Arsenal especially as I'm a true blue!

Like Feeling_zen says, vintage depends on your age.   Perhaps not quite 'vintage', but a Mission PCM 7000 CD player, Rega Bio 1 and Rega Kytes got me started in all this in 1993.

R

My parents bought something that looked very much like this, in the middle 1960's.  It really was much more responsible for my keen interest in music than in hi fi per se.

J.N. posted:

Rewind to the impoverished youth with a Saturday job at Dixons (and staff discount) in 1971. That allowed me to buy my first proper separates system of a BSR MP60, a Prinzsound SA 2001 amp (with sliding controls!) and a pair of Wharfedale Dentons. I can still remember the smell of the oily brown paper in which they were wrapped in the box. Oh; the excitement and anticipation!

45 years of apparently incurable 'upgrade-itis' later, and I'm still hooked.

John.

Oh wow, John. I remember those. A good friend of mine got a very similar set-up (Dixons' own brand speakers, I think) . He was couple of years older and had left school to do an apprenticeship while I was being persuaded to stay on a do A-levels, so he had some money that I didn't. I well remember being invited over to his place to listen to his newly purchased separates system and the first LP we played was Black Sabbath's debut album.  Although he didn't play the system loud - parents would have objected - I still remember vividly the bass. Up until then the best reproduction I had heard was via radio-grammes and I was blown away with what that first separates system did.  I guess the bug well and truly bit at that moment.

Mike 

My first experience of HiFi was in the early 1970's, my father bought a Bang & Olufsen Beosystem, it was a combined Tuner/Amp, with a separate turntable that had an aluminium platter with rubber isolation supports. I remember him proudly setting the system up with 'The enjoyment of stereo' LP, narrated by John Borwick.

To me, the system looked very 'futuristic' at the time. In later years, my less than impressed mother insisted that it had cost a fortune and we 'had to go without food' in order to pay for it, an exaggeration I'm sure, but, at the age of 10 or 11, I believed her.

My own first real HiFi system was purchased in 1984 and consisted of a Rega Planar 3, a Creek CAS 4040 amplifier and a pair of Heybrook HB1 speakers. All purchased from West Midland Audio in Worcester.

My Naim journey also began at that dealership.

Andrew

One day I came across a Hi-Fi Experience (or was it Hi-Fi Review) magazine, in which there was an article about Linn - Naim six-pack active system  written by Chris Frankland, well I guess I got the bug bitten from that moment on.

I suppose my first foray into hifi was a sharp music centre purchased from Argos in maybe 1975.

i then moved into separates with exactly the same system as Andrew in the previous post.

The planar 3 was replaced by an Lp12. The creek got replaced by an audio lab 8000 integrated amp.

Then came Exposure pre/power combo with Gale 401 speakers. 

Aah lovely memories.

I'm sorry to say, my first foray into hifi @ age 11 was...

I remember going to the local electrical shop (closest thing my town had to a hifi dealer), explaining what I had and that I'd like to upgrade the speaker cable. The sales assistant rather bluntly explained that I was at the bottom of the pile in terms of quality and no cable upgrade would help. Mortified as I was at the time I should be grateful he didn't take my hard saved pocket money for the fun of it.

My next system was an Aiwa midi system with a compact disc player - which seemed an enormous leap from the Amstrad. It wasn't long (late 80s) before I got my hands on a Sony receiver and a pair of Warfdale super lintons - running a technics discman as a source - it felt like audio nirvana - until I heard my girlfriend's father's Nad amp........

LP12 Ittok Asak 32/snaps/250 Saras  1979 ish 

Chris Dolan posted:

LP12 Ittok Asak 32/snaps/250 Saras  1979 ish 

I think the turntable on our first systems were very similar quality 

This had radio and an inbuilt condenser microphone, but I upgraded with a wired one.

My first experience of high fidelity replay [as opposed to normal average domestic replay] was in 1973 and consisted of a pair of ESL 57s, Quad amplification [and tuner] and Garrard turntable at a near neighbour’s house.

It was so much better than anything that I had heard before that all at once I could never forget it, or expect to have such a set in the family home.

Next time I came across a similar Quad system was in 1986 when I had the bridge lowered on my double bass at a music shop in Leominster. While the work was done, i listened to Vaughan Williams London Symphony from an LP. Same reaction. And by then I imagined that this would be as a proportionally expensive as a Rolls Royce compared to an Austin 1100 in relation to normal domestic replay. 

By 2011, I had decided to see if I could at least get some ESLs. I listened to John’s pair [as seen in the photo a few posts up] and got my own pair later in  the year. By now I have realised how much better a good mono loudspeaker is than any stereo pair, and the ESL was designed as a mono speaker. Not only the greatest speaker yet designed, but still being made today, 59 years after being released as a commercial product.

I am going to get the proper power amp for the single ESL now in use. The Quad 2, sixteen Watt valve single channel amplifier. It is strange to me that the only aspect that has changed is the ability to go louder with modern designs! In essence all speakers are still playing catch up on actual quality after more than half a century.

ATB from George

Then this , micro cassette recorder, felt empowering making field recordings from inside pocket of everyday sounds and noise.

Chris Dolan posted:

LP12 Ittok Asak 32/snaps/250 Saras  1979 ish 

almost exactly the same as mine, except Linn Kans for speakers.

enjoy

ken

TOBYJUG posted:

Then this , micro cassette recorder, felt empowering making field recordings from inside pocket of everyday sounds and noise.

Working for the Security Services?

I was only minimally exposed to recorded music at home when young.

I bought my own first stereo receiver as a college student working part time.  Like the photo, mine did not have the walnut case, because I could not afford it:

I remember how helpful was the dealer in Urbana, Illinois, who split a pair of Fisher speakers to sell me only one.  I went back to buy the second one over a year later after saving more money.  I also had a Garrard turntable. This was all around 1964.  For years I made my way through mid-fi, including building Heathkit equipment.  My first exposure to "high end" audio was while working at Speakerlab in late '70's as a loudspeaker design/test engineer.  I worked for a short while with Mile Netorovic helping to assemble his speakers.  I discovered Naim only in about 2003.  Now am totally hooked...

Charlie

It's very strange that I don't think of my first hifi as vintage.  I first listened to record on my dads fold down record player, he's bought it in Holland and thought it was awesome which I'm sure it was at one point.  Later I had a Binatone, all in one stack system and an Aiwa 'blaster' which I loved and then I hard wired an old JVC amp, with a wonderfully weighted volume nob, to my Binatone and the improvement was wonderful and so I started to read magazines.  And bought an A&R Arcam amp, the first one, and Heybrook HB1 speakers and fed them with a variety of sources including one of the first CD players, and then a Pink Triangle turntable, and so I was hooked.  And then I drove my self mad with upgraditis and sold it all and bought a B&O all in one, and then got into streaming with a Pinacle Show Centre and then discovered a Naim UQ2 and then was hooked all over again.  Plus Ca Change, Plus Ce la meme Chose 

CharlieP posted:

I was only minimally exposed to recorded music at home when young.

I bought my own first stereo receiver as a college student working part time.  Like the photo, mine did not have the walnut case, because I could not afford it:

I remember how helpful was the dealer in Urbana, Illinois, who split a pair of Fisher speakers to sell me only one.  I went back to buy the second one over a year later after saving more money.  I also had a Garrard turntable. This was all around 1964.  For years I made my way through mid-fi, including building Heathkit equipment.  My first exposure to "high end" audio was while working at Speakerlab in late '70's as a loudspeaker design/test engineer.  I worked for a short while with Mile Netorovic helping to assemble his speakers.  I discovered Naim only in about 2003.  Now am totally hooked...

Charlie

 

Great story Charlie. Different world back then. I remember those days with fondness.

Not my first system, but my first foray into real hi-fi, and a ridiculous amount of money for a hard up student to spend. My purchase was funded back in the mid seventies by a lucrative summer vacation job in an oil rig construction yard, and I ended up with the system that remained my pride & joy for quite a few years. It comprised a Michell Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable with a 9" unipivot fluid arm and Shure V15/111 cartridge, a Cambridge P50 amplifier (I couldn't quite stretch to the Lecson AC1/AP1 I really wanted) and a pair of Celestion Ditton 66 speakers (still used to this day by my brother). The following year, I added a Pioneer TX-7100 tuner and a Technics RS-279-US cassette deck.

Even though my current system sounds so much better, I know that I will never match the excitement of ordering and setting up the above system. My one downer was that I managed to break the stylus on my Shure V15/111 when setting up the system (don't buy a unipivot arm unless you want to spend hours of frustration getting it set up just right), and had to spend a week or so of my summer vacation waiting for a replacement to arrive.

In those days, I used to subscribe to 3 or 4 of the hi-fi magazines. Nowadays, I don't subscribe to any.