How I got started in Hi Fi...

[tinpan]

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[tinpan]

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[tinpan]

This would be July 18, 1961 on my first birthday and that would be my father's Lowther Hegemen Reproducer in the background.

[gasfan]

Was it in Tin Pan Alley?:)

You look very diligent btw, doing your duty.

[Triumph Don]

My first new audio, 1972. EPI 100 speakers, Phillips turntable, Sony integrated amp about 30 WPC, all a tad under $400.

[DavidF]

And a very understanding mother! That's a lot of "HiFi stuff" in the corner of the dining room.

[NickH]

I never understood the lowther craze. I'm not knocking them though since I've never heard them. Just seems a lot to ask from such a tiny driver. Plus there crazy expensive you know.

That quad preamp isn't it? I alway like the cosmetic design of there gear.


Very cool though.

Nick

[svollmer]

My first introduction is when my Dad told us he was buying a stereo. I was excited thinking it would be this big console thing like all my friends' parents had. Then he brought home a Marantz 2220B receiver, a Dual 1228 turntable, and a pair of Marantz 5G speakers. I thought it all looked so "little" but my Dad showed me the benefits of the components.

Through the years we both came to love Hi Fi and got better and better systems. Dad was meticulous with his gear and never got rid of any of it as he moved up to better stuff. He passed last year and it's all at my house now. I'll have to be parting with most of the things soon, but it sure brings back great memories!

[gasfan]

Yea, ours was a console in '65. It came with a 45, Herman's Hermits' 'Mrs. Brown You've...', and 'Henry The Eighth'. I was 7, my sister 8. We wore it out.

[hsosdrum]

My father built our hi-fi system in 1959 or 1960: an Eico integrated amp, an Eico FM tuner (mono—Pop added a separate FM de-multiplexer unit when FM stereo broadcasts began), a Garrard turntable and a pair of 12" Jensen coax speakers. The Eicos were kits (all tubes) that Pop built (the house always seemed to smell of solder), and he also built the speaker cabinets and the equipment cabinet (with a pull-out drawer for the Garrard). From the looks of the cabinets, he must have designed them himself. (He put Formica on the tops of all the cabinets, which made them kid-proof.)

Listening to records on it by Benny Goodman, Spike Jones, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Carl Sandburg (singing American folk songs), Theodore Bikel (singing Jewish folk songs), Elvis Presley, the Mills Brothers, the Firehouse Five plus Two (Dixieland jazz), Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw starting when I was 8, it sounded absolutely great, as it did with all the folk music, middle-eastern music, opera, jazz and pop music that we heard on FM (plus Vin Scully calling 162 Dodger games a year). It sounded even better when I was 12, and started playing Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Beatles records on it, and again when I was 15 and began feeding it records by Cream, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.

I sure wish I had pictures of it. [Edit: I found some!]

The integrated:
69123

The tuner:
69124

The stereo FM demultiplexer:
69125

Couldn't find the Jensens, and I don't remember enough about the Garrard to pinpoint it. BTW, like Seawolf's dad's Sherwood (see below), my father always ran the amp and tuner without their cases, no doubt because of heat build-up.

[gasfan]

My father built our hi-fi system in 1959 or 1960: an Eico integrated amp, an Eico FM tuner (mono—Pop added a separate FM de-multiplexer unit when FM stereo broadcasts began), a Garrard turntable and a pair of 12" Jensen coax speakers. The Eicos were kits (all tubes) that Pop built (the house always seemed to smell of solder), and he also built the speaker cabinets and the equipment cabinet (with a pull-out drawer for the Garrard). From the looks of the cabinets, he must have designed them himself. (He put Formica on the tops of all the cabinets, which made them kid-proof.)

Listening to records on it by Benny Goodman, Spike Jones, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Carl Sandburg (singing American folk songs), Theodore Bikel (singing Jewish folk songs), Elvis Presley, the Mills Brothers, the Firehouse Five plus Two (Dixieland jazz), Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw starting when I was 8, it sounded absolutely great, as it did with all the folk music, middle-eastern music, opera, jazz and pop music that we heard on FM (plus Vin Scully calling 162 Dodger games a year). It sounded even better when I was 12, and started playing Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Beatles records on it, and again when I was 15 and began feeding it records by Cream, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.

I sure wish I had pictures of it.


Same here. All ethnic Hungarian 'til around '69. My first record was a Stones 45 with Honkey Tonk Women and Can't always get... However my two older sisters led the way:)

[SEAWOLF97]

I got started in 62' or 3' with my Dad's system (Granada Hills, Cal.) Loved making comp tapes from the record collection. (his, not mine ...lots of TJB)

Sys was a Sherwood tube receiver (white case, but that was rarely on as it ran HOT) , a Dual 1015 TT , a Uher 7in reel deck (with "Magic Eye" meters) and some maybe Jensen speakers. For being a Doctor , now I'd think that he could do better (he bought used cars/audio all his life - (must be his German heritage ?).

Anyway, it was great for a 12/13 y.o. to learn on. I far surpassed him when access to the PX was available in 68-72. DREAMED about L-100's in the early 70's.

Now, I don't even know anyone (besides LHF members) that have even comparable (let alone better) than the 3 main systems around my home :) My son has my surplus L-100's and is at the top among his friends too.

[Wagner]

Loved making comp tapes from the record collection. (his, not mine ...lots of TJB)

Sys was a Sherwood tube receiver (white case, but that was rarely on as it ran HOT)
So when did that horn can't stand kick in? :)

Hard to beat that era Sherwoods when they're working right, even with a lot of today's "high-end" (high priced) spread, tubes or solid state.............

Remember the model by chance?

Not a bad place to start........or finish :yes:

[Don C]

You guys were pretty lucky. My dad thought that Montgomery Wards was a good place to get a stereo. The cheapest "Airline" system was good enough.

[SEAWOLF97]

Hard to beat that era Sherwoods when they're working right, even with a lot of today's "high-end" (high priced) spread, tubes or solid state.............

Remember the model by chance?


guess it was white face, not case (rarely saw the case) . The very first pic google pulled up was it. :)

http://vintageelectronics.betamaxcollectors.com/sherwoodstereoreceivermodels-8000iv.html

[Wagner]

guess it was white face, not case (rarely saw the case) . The very first pic google pulled up was it. :)

http://vintageelectronics.betamaxcollectors.com/sherwoodstereoreceivermodels-8000iv.html

That was a beautiful model, excellent tuner and a separates quality amp...............copper chassis

Last all tube from Sherwood, made in Chicago

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sherwood_s_8000s800_mark_iv.html

Sherwoods answer to the Fisher 500-C; I've heard a few that sounded better than the Fisher (they're all different now after all these years and various levels of "restoration") More difficult to work on than a Fisher (less room) but the payoff is good

I'd be happy with either; I think the Fishers are better looking but the Sherwoods had more and better features (like phase reverse)

I'm always on the lookout; the last of the U.S.A. built solid state Sherwoods are nice too and stayed that way even after moving production to Japan. I think the "7000" series were/are GREAT

My first "real" receiver was a lower in the line up solid state Sherwood and as far as I know, after a stint at Kings Point it may very well still be out here in Kalifornia, playing music, to this day (long story short; I loaned it to my prick younger brother while he was at the academy and then he loaned it to a Kalifornia fellow cadet and dope smoking buddy after graduation................never saw it again ) I did briefly own a higher up Jap built "7xxx" model I scored at a thrift back in the early 2000s, sold it, shouldn't have (was getting long in the tooth, needed a re-cap)

There used to be a site devoted entirely to Sherwood (like the H.H. Scott site) but I can't find it now. The silver faced Pioneer site has been gone a while too

Damn shame, Sherwood was an excellent builder; koreans own the name now I think

[SEAWOLF97]

That was a beautiful model, excellent tuner and a separates quality amp...............copper chassis

Last all tube from Sherwood, made in Chicago

2nd part of the story, then I'll try to stop.

The Sherwood ran HOT. Dad even had a small fan plugged into the accessory socket to try for cooling. It regularly consumed tubes.
We also had a big Hoffman walnut cabinet-ed mono, B&W tube TV. It was even worse on killing tubes.

So, being eldest son, I was appointed tube re-placer. When stereo or TV acted up , I pulled all the tubes, wrapped them in napkins or socks ..packed them in a bag and rode the bike down to the drug store. They had a standup tube tester. I'd test them all, figure out the offender , open cab door and find the replacement on the shelf , buy it and come home to reinstall all. Repeat every couple of months.

Knew nothing about voltages, was lucky .. I guess.

Watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and all the coverage of Kennedy assignation on that TV.

[jpw]

Not being fortunate enough to live in California or NY, I grew up in an isolated small farm town in Iowa so there was no chance for exposure to good early audio components.

My first memory of being drawn to cool equipment was the early 1960's. My dad had a Voice of Music reel to reel tape recorder that he had connected to a big console stereo which also had a turntable. I'm sure it would sound terrible today but at the time it made Andy Williams sound a lot better than on TV.

My first glimpse of a true component system was at the local teen center where kids still in high school could hang out. I think it was a Garrard turntable and either a Kenwood or Sansui receiver but I don't remember the speakers. I had no knowledge of any of the name brands at that time. It played loud enough to dance to though. I remember listening to Hey Jude over it in real time and being very excited about the experience.

Next stop was college where nearly everybody either had or wanted to buy a component stereo. I lasted two years and change in school and decided I wanted to work in the environment I loved best which was listening to music and helping people buy good equipment. It turned into my life's work................

[DavidF]

Not being fortunate enough to live in California or NY, I grew up in an isolated small farm town in Iowa so there was no chance for exposure to good early audio components.

My first memory of being drawn to cool equipment was the early 1960's. My dad had a Voice of Music reel to reel tape recorder that he had connected to a big console stereo which also had a turntable. I'm sure it would sound terrible today but at the time it made Andy Williams sound a lot better than on TV.

My first glimpse of a true component system was at the local teen center where kids still in high school could hang out. I think it was a Garrard turntable and either a Kenwood or Sansui receiver but I don't remember the speakers. I had no knowledge of any of the name brands at that time. It played loud enough to dance to though. I remember listening to Hey Jude over it in real time and being very excited about the experience.

Next stop was college where nearly everybody either had or wanted to buy a component stereo. I lasted two years and change in school and decided I wanted to work in the environment I loved best which was listening to music and helping people buy good equipment. It turned into my life's work................

Deja vu, all over again.

My father worked as a company rep for Voice of Music for a short while in the early sixties. He had the tape recorder shown below (sucker weighs about 35 lbs), a VM turntable and some amplification in the house. So we had some relatively fine tunes in the house including the Andy Williams Christmas Album- a family favorite. We later had a tube Knight integrated. Lot's of tubes in the house. I also recall trips to the drug store right after a stop in the neighboring barber shop (hair cut and trim EVERY Saturday morning).

Like Seawolf I remember the big tube tester with a storage compartment below. It was at the end of some counter near the front of the drug store. We would have any assortment of tubes to test for the one culprit. Although it was fun at the time, it did make me think that tubes were inferior in my later years and I unloaded the Knight amp that was passed down to me. Replaced by a shiny brand new Kenwood K7100 circa 1977 (still have the Kenwood, but not the Knight!!). Could have cared less about the ole Knight and its 9 (?) tubes when that Kenwood was plopped on the shelf. Funny that a month ago a Van Alstine Ultravalve tube amp arrived at my doorstep! Go figure.

To complete the story my Dad had recorded my two sisters and I over a period of several years. He asked questions and we answered in what ever state of mind we were in at the time. So we have some treasures to pass down that only family could enjoy. Strange to hear my older sister who picked up a strong southern drawl in her youth. You won't hear a trace of it now after 40 years in California. She was a little Chatty Cathy at the time and that has not changed after all these years.

69168

[SEAWOLF97]

Sys was a Sherwood tube receiver (white case, but that was rarely on as it ran HOT) , a Dual 1015 TT , a Uher 7in reel deck (with "Magic Eye" meters) and some maybe Jensen speakers. .

After seeing DavidF's pic of the R2R , thot I'd go google surfing and see if a pic of the big Uher was available. It was a PORTABLE, w/clamshell case and a handle.

yup. that sucker is prolly still spinning reels somewhere :)


Strange to hear my older sister who picked up a strong southern drawl in her youth. You won't hear a trace of it now after 40 years in California. She was a little Chatty Cathy at the time and that has not changed after all these years.


funny to hear about accents.

When I went into boot camp , they pulled me out of training on a med hold (BP). When I re-entered training it was with 59 guys from Alabama. I quickly developed a strong southern accent that disappeared when boot camp was over.

Where ever I was on the other side of the world, people immediately spotted my California accent (didn't even know there was such a thang) .. even up here in Oregon, now, they still claim that I have it (haven't lived in Cal. since '72)

[jpw]

DavidF,

That VOM reel to reel photo sure looks familiar! Also I noticed another point of commonality in Andy Williams.........

[srm51555]

I always love reading other peoples audio journey's, thanks.

[speakerdave]

My first record (after Teddy Bear's Picnic, that is) may have been Duane Eddy Have Twang Will Travel, or something, and the next may have been a Roulette box set of Count Basie I found in the discount bin in some store. It was unwrapped, and someone had pinched the booklet. I had found a local FM station that programmed jazz for late evenings a few days a week and was a jazz devotee, being as discreet as possible. My father did not approve. The Twang is long gone, still have the Basie.