I had a variety of mixed-up stuff over the years, most of it along the lines of the particle board speakers with 4" drivers. Now I can't remember how I ended up with most of it, seems like I just inherited it.

Let's see, an old compact-type system with fm-tuner, and the turntable on top. Seems like some of the speakers (from that and just some random ones) floating back and forth between the house and the car. An old guitar amp sometimes in various states of minor disassembly. The driver from that one (along with some other unknown 12") ended up in an unusual box in my old 280z around college time.

After that we first just had a boombox-type CD player, then bought a Sony surround receiver open box at C. City w/a couple of bookshelf speakers. Picked up a slightly larger Inifity pair. Sounded pretty good but been wanting something nice for a while so...

Bought the 1050 and some ICs. Ordering my SVS sub & separate amp in next couple days, got some cables from BetterCables, about to build a North Creek kit, almost done putting a fairly nice amp in my truck. Reminds me I need to find a decent 8" driver for car sub. Oh no, looks like I am hooked now...

As for game systems, long ago I had the Atari 5200 (wanted a 2600 before but had to wait). Was amazed when I saw those cartridges for which I used to save lawn-mowing cash at Everything's a $1.00 store. Gave away the SNES a few years back. Finally bought an X-Box (fun games and my wife even likes some of them).

My first 'system' was a 5 ch Pioneer (circa, '93-ish) with the HTIB speakers it came with. It was OK, I thought, but I knew there was more. It lost the left front channel about 5 days before a big party, so I took it in for service, found out that it was a 5 week turnaround, so I bought an HK something or another. It was a huge improvement and within weeks, I bought new speakers, Infinity Sterling’s, I think. Again, big improvement. I ended up with Infinity Ref 2000's (I think that's the name) within the year and over time upgraded to a Carver amp. The 1050 was the most recent change, over a year ago. I'm not counting things like VCR's etc, as they changed so often, it wasn't even funny.

The TV is a 46" Zenith, which was actually the very first purchase. I got it cheap from a buddy who was buying a 60". I owned it for 3 years before even getting cable and never had an antenna. I basically watched movies and that was it. The TV is around 12-15 years old now and is still kicking, although a little less spectacularly. Maybe next year will come the widescreen set. . .

S.

I started with:

David Hafler DH-110 (kit preamp)
David Hafler DH-120 (assembled amp)
Set of handmade speakers
Philips 4x14 CD player

That was WAY before 5.1, etc. when stereo was king of the hill.

As my speaker building habit progressed I acquired a Carver M1.5t Amp for 'testing' (as in 'but Mom, I'm testing them!') that played a lot louder than the DH120.

The Carver is the only amp I've ever been around that can literally slam a big woofer to its physical limit of excursion. The manual warns about tearing the voice coils loose, but I've never done that.


Charlie

I had a Panasonic boombox w/ removable speakers and a tape deck that I bought back in early 1991. I made sure I bought one w/ an aux. input on the back as I intended to couple it w/ a portable CD player. About nine months later, I finally added a Sony Car Discman to use w/ it (after I had already bought a couple dozen CD's). I needed something portable and modular as I was in the Navy at the time and moved around a lot. I also had a nice set of headphones for when I was on the boat w/ my CD player.

Eventually used that boombox for my "home stereo" coupled with a bargain 5-disc carousel Kenwood player I picked up at one of those tent clearance sales. Still use the Kenwood now w/ my 1050. What happened to my boombox? Well, after I got my 1050, the trusty old Panasonic and Sony Car Discman are now my stereo on my desk at work. Still going...

The first “system” I remember was a Realistic combo unit, turntable on top, tape deck in the front and a built in tuner. I think I stole that from Mom and Dad when they upgraded. I added a cheap CD player to that in ’89 or ’90. I then bought a huge MTX truck box with 15” woofers from a guy who was hurting for cash. Apparently the old Realistic didn’t like the 2 ohm load because the amp died soon after hooking up the speakers. I then bought an RCA integrated amp that I found for cheap (no remote). I basically used that system with a few CD player changes in-between up until about a year and a half ago. Then I was in sears buying some tools and saw a Sony receiver on sale, which started a new hobby, now 4 receivers and 3 sets of speakers latter I’m a member of the Outlaw family.

By the way the only game system I’ve ever had was Pong!! I played it on a 5” B/W TV that I got for Christmas one year. After about fifteen years that little TV still works it’s great for the garage.

Does the Pong system still work too? My Aunt & Uncle had one (Montgomery Ward?), had a bunch of little levers to switch between different games. Used to love going over there and getting to play that.

I'm not sure what ever happened to the pong game, this one was made by Atari and pong was the only game on it.

Not to date myself to much, but I started out with a Casio all-in-one unit. It had AM/FM stereo, a turntable on top and best of all a 8-track player. The unit is still working in my parent's basement. Just recently I listened to ELP Brain Salad Surgery 8-track and the sound was just awful. Thank goodness for technology.

Did you have to use a matchbook to make the 8 track work right?

Wow, talk about memories. I didn't know if anyone remembered good old 8-track tapes. (My wife teaches college and some of her students had never even seen a turntable or vinyl before hearing music in her office, let alone knowing about 8-tracks.)

Back to first real systems when we were younger. Back in the 70's when I was in high school and my first couple of years of college (of which there were many), I occasionally would hook my brother's 8-track up to my incredible old Kenwood receiver. I still sometimes use the old Technics turntable that I had back then. I also had a Technics cassette deck and my speakers were Avid Model 60's.

After all these years, I finally refoamed my Model 60's woofers a couple of months ago and the speakers still sound pretty good. My youngest daugther now uses them in her first "real" system.

I look at the listing of equipment that Chris (Thenotsonewguy), Smart Little Lena's son, and youngguns has and just smile. How I would have loved to have had really good equipment when I was younger. Fortunately, I could always go home and listen to my Dad's stuff since he always kept some leading edge stuff around back when he was in his 30's and 40's.

And powered subwoofers --- we'd never even heard of something like that back in the old days. Heck, I remember when we got our first color television.

I guess one of my questions is this:
You younger Outlaws, since you've got such nice gear now, what kind of systems will you have 25 years from now?

also Chris (with a Hi4head and not-so-new)