1968- 1972: Early 60's tube-type, All-in-one Concord model 555 stereo tape recorder. My old man showed it to me when I was a wee lad. I bugged him for years to give it to me, on my tenth birthday 1968, she was all mine.
1972-74: Lafayette (Pioneer rebranded) Integrated amplifier 25-30 watts/chan.
1974-76 Lafayette (Pioneer rebranded) Receiver 45 watts/chan
1976: McIntosh MC300 monoblock amps with separate power supplies. 300 watts each! I could barely lift them as separate units. House burns down soon after :-(
1976-1994: Pioneer SX- Reciever 55 watss/chan direct-coupled output. (no output decoupling capacitor, you had to occasionally rebalance the output stage) I bought it Tech Hi-Fi as a year-old Demo, they used it to demonstrate their speakers. Demo units are usually the last thing I buy, but they doubled the warranty and dared me to try and break it. They where right, this unit is bullet proof, I don't know how innocent speakers went to an early grave because of this bad boy. The low frequency range could make woofers hit their stops at both ends. It's still around, still working, doing garage duty.
1994-2009: Apt-1 (Tom Holman) pre-amp/Luxman MB3045 Monoblock tube amps. My first foray into really nice equipment, made me wonder why I didn't take the plunge sooner. The Apt eventually developed noisy switch problems I could never quite keep clean. I think they were just plain worn-out.
2009- present McIntosh MA6600 solid state 200 watts/chan.: The receiver I always knew I would own eventually. Interestingly it isn't quite as good as a match to the Klipsch Cornwalls as I had hoped. Fortunately I kept the Luxman monoblocks, and use the MAC front-end. Perhaps I'll trade the CW3's for B & W 804, 805, 806? which I hear are a better match for the MAC.
1972-74: Lafayette (Pioneer rebranded) Integrated amplifier 25-30 watts/chan.
1974-76 Lafayette (Pioneer rebranded) Receiver 45 watts/chan
1976: McIntosh MC300 monoblock amps with separate power supplies. 300 watts each! I could barely lift them as separate units. House burns down soon after :-(
1976-1994: Pioneer SX- Reciever 55 watss/chan direct-coupled output. (no output decoupling capacitor, you had to occasionally rebalance the output stage) I bought it Tech Hi-Fi as a year-old Demo, they used it to demonstrate their speakers. Demo units are usually the last thing I buy, but they doubled the warranty and dared me to try and break it. They where right, this unit is bullet proof, I don't know how innocent speakers went to an early grave because of this bad boy. The low frequency range could make woofers hit their stops at both ends. It's still around, still working, doing garage duty.
1994-2009: Apt-1 (Tom Holman) pre-amp/Luxman MB3045 Monoblock tube amps. My first foray into really nice equipment, made me wonder why I didn't take the plunge sooner. The Apt eventually developed noisy switch problems I could never quite keep clean. I think they were just plain worn-out.
2009- present McIntosh MA6600 solid state 200 watts/chan.: The receiver I always knew I would own eventually. Interestingly it isn't quite as good as a match to the Klipsch Cornwalls as I had hoped. Fortunately I kept the Luxman monoblocks, and use the MAC front-end. Perhaps I'll trade the CW3's for B & W 804, 805, 806? which I hear are a better match for the MAC.