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| Re: What Was Your First Stereo? [message #75267 is a reply to message #75258] |
Tue, 15 January 2013 21:58   |
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gofar99
Messages: 1951
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona
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Illuminati (5th Degree) |
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Hi, Not so high class... a 10 watt solid state amp from Lafayette Electronics (long gone into the sunset now) a BSR record changer and a pair of Lafayette Minuette speakers. Complete with a Sonotone stereo ceramic cartridge with a saphire needle (really high tech then). All the stuff is long gone but it was cool back then. Eventually a 7 inch reel to reel monaural tape recorder joined the fray.
Now I have more stuff than I can count. I should open a stereo store... 4 turntables, at least 6 preamps, 3 stereo receivers, 2 HT multichannel receivers, unknown number of amps (6 tube mono blocks and 3 stereo tube amps in the living room alone - probably about 6-9 more in the shed). No idea how many pairs of speakers are here now (best guess is about 20 pairs, many name brand vintage ones, Altec Lansing, Klipsch, etc, 6 powered subs of assorted sizes, a pair of huge free air sub woofers. Small wonder I had to get a "barn" style shed with loft to store much of it. I guess this is what happens when you become your own boss and design electronics for the fun of it. Being half owner in a company that sells kits of a number of the things designed could be part of it as well. No telling how many prototypes are on the premises. Sorry everyone... the topic got me carried away. 
Good Listening
Bruce
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| Re: What Was Your First Stereo? [message #75729 is a reply to message #75188] |
Wed, 06 March 2013 16:33 |
FloydV
Messages: 124
Registered: November 2011
Location: Boise, ID
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Master |
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I think my first experience (you have to be really old to tell this story)was right at the introduction of stereo. We had a mono record player with amp and speaker all in one.
I started looking at the (crystal) cartridge and noticed it had four pins, but only two were being used. I hooked the other two to a radio that had a phono input on the back. The sound was horribly mismatched, but it was stereo.
After that I assembled an EICO tube pre/power amp from a kit with 14 watts per channel. All point to point wiring and discrete components. I bought some Jensen speakers that weren't all that good and a turntable with a ceramic cartridge.
After that I went to a magnetic cartridge and Dual turntable. If memory serves, that turntable had an arm you zero, and then you dialed in the force in fractions of a gram that was applied by a spring. One of their ads showed the turntable playing at a 45 degree angle with the arm playing up hill.
After that it was a regular progression from tubes to transistors, more power, better speakers, more expensive turntables and cartridges.
Floyd
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. -- Albert Einstein
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| Re: What Was Your First Stereo? [message #75736 is a reply to message #75730] |
Wed, 06 March 2013 17:40 |
FloydV
Messages: 124
Registered: November 2011
Location: Boise, ID
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Master |
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They were a big improvement over anything previously available to the consumer. I don't remember them being that expensive either.
I found the whole learning experience exciting. I had friends who would bring records over because they wanted to hear them on a system that sounded good. It really wasn't that good, but this was the time of real transition in music and equipment and most people were just becoming aware.
Floyd
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. -- Albert Einstein
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) with a dual cassette deck, CD player and separate speakers. Clearly I had moved up in the world.
