Man, you guys are young! Have any of you snuck through your mother's and two grandmothers' houses stealing every sewing needle you could find, just so your two pound arm could have something other than a cactus needle. I was doing this at age seven, so I could play the old mono tubed record player given to me by my grandfather. At least it was powered-didn't have to crank it up. Had grandpa's old classical 78s and my dad's old big band 78s (he actually loaded and unloaded commercial jukeboxes and got to keep the used 78s). Dad's old Philco was really nice for good mono FM.
Then at age 15 rode my bike two miles carrying a full sized accordion which I traded (unbenownst to my family) for RCA's first stereo record player - second speaker in the lid, ceramic flip needle. Grounded for a long time, but the music sure sounded a lot better.
Used Sears and Penneys all in ones until I got out of college - just about the advent of solid state times. Then in graduate school went to an all Dynaco system with a Garrard. It's been uphill ever since with hardware and software. Still buying vinyl (7-9000), RTR tapes, CDs (yuck), and SACDs --- make cassettes and OTR tapes. No interest in HT or surround sound. Semi-retired and finally get to listen a lot, including FM stereo.
I really get upset with the youngsters who are interested in CONVENIENT music -- analog is "just too much bother".
Then at age 15 rode my bike two miles carrying a full sized accordion which I traded (unbenownst to my family) for RCA's first stereo record player - second speaker in the lid, ceramic flip needle. Grounded for a long time, but the music sure sounded a lot better.
Used Sears and Penneys all in ones until I got out of college - just about the advent of solid state times. Then in graduate school went to an all Dynaco system with a Garrard. It's been uphill ever since with hardware and software. Still buying vinyl (7-9000), RTR tapes, CDs (yuck), and SACDs --- make cassettes and OTR tapes. No interest in HT or surround sound. Semi-retired and finally get to listen a lot, including FM stereo.
I really get upset with the youngsters who are interested in CONVENIENT music -- analog is "just too much bother".