What was your first system, & did you like it?

Ekistler,

I do remember Heathkit. I built a pair of walkie-talkies when I was about 10.

My first personal system consisted of a Nakamichi TA1A receiver, a Sony second generation portable discman, a Luxman turntable, some speakers from a old Canadian company ESM (?), and Kimber cheapy cables throughout. Like Rar1, I was 13.

I thought this system was very good at the time. I really didn't have anything to compare with though. And, I bought everything brand new.

My first "system" was a white and green Zenith all-in-one record player. I loved listening for hours to Hans Christian Anderson stories. It was confiscated by my Mother, however, when I learned that my finger could alter space/time by speeding-up/slowing-down the turntable revolutions (a promising recording engineer nipped in the bud!).

Technics TT w/ Pickering cartridge
Harmon Kardon receiver
JBL L 100 spkrs.

I still listen to rock music and to this day my present system still can't "rock" like this simple system.
Loud, electronic-sounding, booming bass with a lot of slam and an in-your-face sound-but boy could it play Led Zeppelin and Earth, Wind & Fire.
I wasn't listening for soundstage, high end bloom, transparency etc.-I simply enjoyed the music.
Mmmmmm...

-Lafayette Radio Integrated Amp
-Lafayette Radio Cassette Deck w/ outboard Dolby unit
-Used pair of Fisher bookshelf speakers from a camera shop's used equipment section.
-JVC TT with an Audio-Technica cart

It was OK but it didn't last long cause I was hooked. My freshman year of college (I was away from home), I hit the Tech Hi-Fi (anyone remember them?):

-Sansui AU6500 Integrated amp (still have that bad boy)
-Klipsch Heresy Speakers in unfinished birch
-Thorens TD160 Turntable
-Some huge, thick (or so I thought at the time)speaker cable
-A bunch of CTI jazz LP's engineered by Rudy Van Gelder.

That setup was satisfying in spades for many years until I was out of school and making some money.