Cira 1979
Black LP 12 mission 774 P77
bought Used from Canterbury Hifi ( Ken Kessler ) worked at the shop at the time.
A & R Cambridge
Bought new from John Jeffries Tonbridge
The original ProAc Tablette
QED 79 cable
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Circa 1991
Rega Planar 3
NAD 3240 PE
Rotel RCD 865 (and matching tuner that I can’t remember the number of)
AIWA ADF250
Mission Cyrus 780 SE
All on Sound Organisation stands
EDIT: Tuner was a Rotel RT 845
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Summer of 1981
Garrard GT-255AP Turntable with Ortofon FF15E Mk II cartridge
Nikki NA390 Amp
Omar Goring speakers
ÂŁ150 to you squire!
Bsr Mcdonald ht70 turntable and Goldring G850.
Rotel Ra310 amp
Wharfedale unit 3 loudspeaker kits.
It was pants really, but my intro to a lifelong interest.
Circa 1972
Circa 1975
Garrard AP76 with Goldring G800E
Sansui AU101
Wharfedale Denton
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Technics SL-20
Stanton 500
Armstrong 621
Mordaunt Short Pageant
1975 - Regent Studios, Hartlepool - ÂŁ300
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I can’t really cuntribute to this thread because I was a sofasurfing career alcoholic for ~20 years, stumbling from one disastrous relationship to another, and one very low-paid job to another until I hit 40, which rather precluded the teens’n’twenties funtime of being normal and doing normal things…
I started to come-round from it all around the same time my dad died, and had the presence of mind to rescue his Denon UD-M30 shoebox-sized all-in-one from the skip my brother had thrown all of my old man’s worldly goods into.
I foolishly then asked the denizens of the late-unlamented Hifi Choice forum my first ever forum-question about what speakers I should use with the Denon, and equally foolishly took the advice proferred to buy some much-discounted Castle Richmond 3s - which were some of the most mid-fi things imaginable, but kinda purty…
I should have stopped there, but tragically, didn’t. And here I am.
4 Likes
About 1988/89 so 17 or 18 years old. Was at upper 6th and had worked several part time jobs to pull together and spend what my idiot parents thought was an obscene amount of money on -
Mission Cyrus 781
Some integrated amp I can’t recall but replaced in early 90s with a Cyrus 2
Rega P3 (hateful piece of shit I never liked)
Yamaha K330 cassette deck
Philips Bitstream CDP (can’t remember which one)
Little did I know how big a rabbit hole I had looked into, but that set up lasted through my 20s as I was skint with a house and family to pay for.
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Kenwood KA3020 amplifier.
Sherwood CD player
JPW Gold mini monitors
79 strand quickly replaced by Cable Talk 3 (much better bass)
Tandy RCA cables.
An Ariston belt drive DJ turntable a bit later.
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during O levels and A levels in the mid 80s I somehow slowly scraped together money to slowly put together my first system to replace the family music centre
Marantz 3 head cassette deck in gold - Richer Sounds
Rotel RA820BX amp - Richer Sounds I think
Revolver TT - Doug Brady I think
Castle Durham speakers - Music Room
That was the system I took to Uni, and during 3rd year got one of the PQ / HiFi Answers Edison A12 EL84 power amps and the rest as they say was a decent into madness
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Circa 1980: I had to save up and buy them individually.
Technics SLD2 TT
Technics SU V5 Amp
Technics RSM - 245X Cassette deck
Omar Monitor Speakers.
X.
Certainly not proper, but my first self-bought attempt after working between school and Uni:
Garrard SP25mk2 with Decca Deram ceramic in a home-made plinth also housing:
Sinclair Project 60 preamp, active filter and Z30 power amp modules with (cue even more laughter):
Sinclair Q16 speakers
(all bought through the lab with “trade” discount)
Took that lot to Uni in Oct '70 where Henrik down the corridor had Pioneer PL12 + MM cart, some amp and Wharfedale Denton speaks. I quickly realised that I had some way to go,…
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Aged 15 - Goldring GL69/2 Amstrad 8000mk111 and Solarvox speakers
Kenwood KD-12R turntable
Aiwa ADF400 cassette deck
Kenwood DP5020 CD player
Yamaha AX400 amplifier
Kenwood GE5020 graphic equalizer
Goodmans Magnum K speakers
Put together during my A-levels
All I really remember is my mum shouting up the stairs to “turn the bass down!”
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Arcam Alpha 7 integrated amp
NAD 533 all in one turntable
B&W DM601 speakers
All from Sevenoaks hifi in Bedford in 1994/5 (?)
Simpler (& cheaper 
) times
Early 80s
Systemdek with fr64s dynavector cart
A&rA60 and T21
Arc 101 speakers
Nakamichi bx2
Stupidly sold it all for pennies.
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early 80s
Rega Planar 3
Creek 4040 s2
Sansui 1330 cassette deck (essential to make cassettes for the car)
Wharfedale Diamonds
Hand downs from my Dad:
Dual 1229 turntable with a Tandy Shure cart.
Realistic STA-450 receiver.
Toshiba PC-4360 cassette deck.
Rather bizarrely I can’t remember the loudspeakers, I think they were 3 way somethings from a Binatone stack system bought off a mates Dad.
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First bits involved some second hand stuff from the late lamented Penketh Electronics (an Akai digital tuner, an Aiwa tape deck with lever controls and some Akai speakers of indeterminate age) where I don’t remember the details, but beyond that
Pioneer PL220D with an Ortofon 510
Luxman D322 CD player
Sony STS-311 tuner
Aiwa AD450 tape deck
Technics SU-V303 amp
Mission 731 speakers
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