What kind of system does the younger audio people have?

I was just wondering what kind of audio system do the younger people of this board have. When I say younger people I mean anyone 18 and under. Well, I'll start it off by naming what my system is.

Mains: Cerwin Vega E-715's

Center: Cerwin Vega E-76C

Surround: Cerwin Vega E-710's

Subwoofer: Aiwa TSW60

Receiver: Onkyo TX-DS595

CD player: Kenwood CD404

Also I would like to know if you are planing to make any upgrades to your system in the near future. For example I want to upgrade my Aiwa sub soon but as for now I have to worry about getting the E-715's.

Thanx for reading,

Chris

..nice set up for your age, I think I had a clock radio...

I think my son runs a couple of old bookcase Bose, very old LARGE box Fishers,
some HK reciever (he bought for about 400)and a JVC VHS, with the playstation for DVD's.

Right now, he's waiting on me to upgrade, because he's spending all his $ on his car & girl!

Your son is lucky, sometimes I wish I had a girl to spend money on. However I think I will wait until next year when I'm 17 before I start dating. By that time I hope to have my home audio setup completed and have truck fixed up really nice, air bags, ground effects, bed cover, spoiler, you know those kind of things.

Oh yes I usually don't include this when I talk about home audio, but since your son has a PS2 then I have to say I have an XBOX for dvd use.

Chris

[This message has been edited by Thenotsonewguy (edited February 09, 2002).]

Don’t worry, your time will come, and the grass is ALWAYS greener on the ‘other side’
When you don’t have a girl, looks like the whole world is ‘couples” …not true.
Right now my son’s desperate to finish his yearlong project car, and the GIRL gets in the way, (and he misses his guy friends…not allowed).
She gets in such a snit about his divided time, I have to laugh and apologize to ‘my’ husband when I ask him if I ever acted like that, (he says I didn’t I bet I did!)
You see, my husband & I started dating at 17, (we’re a rare breed), so we had a lot of hard learning over the years.

America is a pretty weird place, so many movies, books telling you one thing or another, but…I swear you’ll find out 20 years from now; its not how ‘many’ girls, or ‘when’ the girl…….the truth is someday,.its all about the ‘ right’ girl.
(most the men I know, gave up looking and trying so hard, tired of searching. And then, as soon as they gave up,.. no rhyme or reason, …boom here she came)

Your smarter than the average Joe Blow, and your right, buy all your toys first! Cause after you got a girl, your too broke for any of that stuff.

My son would prob like a XBOX but he’s too smart to ask, He knows what I went thru to find the PS2 the first Christ. it came out. I bet its cool.

hi, im 16 and i have an outlaw 1050 reciver, with all monster and audioquest cables, i have a 20" sony trinitron vega for my television, a $230 sony dvd player, sony tape deck, sony single disc player (early 90's) home made hardwood stand, real cherry wood (perffect replica of sanussound stuff).....................................................................ok here is the only bad part, i have a pair of pioneer front's from the 80's or 90's (they don't sound that bad) an advent center, and soundbite rear speakers. yeah i know the speakers really really suck but i will be soon upgrading to monitor audio silver 5i's for front's and still don't know about the other speakers.

If I was you youngguns I would not be to worry about having old speakers. Before I got my Onkyo 595 I was using duel 2channel amps. One was an Onkyo TX-8511 and the other was an old Fisher X-100 integrated tube amp. The Fisher came with a pair of old Magnavox speakers which were at least over 30 years old. But when I hooked up those babies to that Fisher (which is like 40 years old I think) those speakers shook my whole house. At the time I only had a pair of Cerwin Vega E-710's and I could not believe how much more bass those old Magnavox produce while having the same size woofer. But sadly my old X-100 died on me a few months after I got it, no big deal I got it for free from my grandma anyway. I hoped to have it rebuilt one of these days because for being as old as it was it was a very good integrated tube amp. So don't always judge a speaker by how old it is, you might be surprise by how much the new stuff is not that big of an improvement.

Chris

Also I forgot, I would like to know what some of you older people had when ya were young in terms of audio gear.

When I was in my teens, I had a Panasonic shelf system (dual tape deck, digital tuner, turntable) with some Panasonic speakers (little particle-board towers with a single 5" speaker in each) and a Pioneer 6-disc CD changer. Ditched the speakers for generic bookshelf speakers that weren't much better after high school, bought a Pioneer receiver and tape deck after freshman year of college, added a Panasonic S-VHS VCR (still in use) and 19" TV after junior year of college.

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Gonk

I also had a Panasonic shelf system. No turntable, dual cassette, single disk CD player, digital tuner. Particleboard single-way speakers with 4" drivers. I had it from about the time I started high school (birtday gift from parents) until maybe two months ago, when I replaced it with the 1050, soon-to-be 950/770. QUITE an improvement. :-)

I didn't own a TV until after I graduated from college. And that wasn't really a TV, either; I bought a cheap JVC VCR and used it as a tuner for an old 13" computer monitor. Had the whole mess sitting on the kitchen table. That was replaced, also about two months ago, by a 27" Sony Wega. Also, QUITE an improvement.

For game systems, yeah, I had a 2600 when I was real little, which my parents upgraded to an original Nintendo a few years later. That was the last game system I had until I bought a PS2 about two months ago. That was an UNBELIEVABLE improvement.

Once this round of upgrades is finished, and I get the 950/770, I probably won't upgrade again for quite a many years. I'm the kind of guy who likes to do things all at once.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Matthew's remarks brought some fun memories back. I also owned an Atari 2600, and I didn't own another game console until I picked up a Dreamcast back in December for $50. And there was a year or so in college when I didn't have a TV but I did have a pretty nice VCR (didn't record anymore because the record head was shot, and we had to pull the cover off a couple of times and clean the read heads). One of my roommates had a big JVC stereo system (CD changer, tuner, pre-amp, and amp) and a really old TV that had a speaker problem -- if the TV was on, the speaker constantly spewed static. I loaned him my VCR to use as a cable box (with the audio going out to his pre-amp) and he drove a screwdriver through the TV's speaker until it was silent.

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Gonk

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)

Heck Hi4head,

What about the biggest leap forward in music/vidio history. THE REMOTE.

When you were a wee little thing, didn’t the parents ever send you across the room to change the channel, (which sometimes had a pair of pliers attached)?

In 25 yrs, we'll prob. all have a 'nano chip' embedded in our ears and carry our music with us.

A friend of mine said he started out with a 4 head but nowdays he has a 6 1/2 head.

Charlie

What the heck are you guys talking about. 4 head,6 1/2 head? I don't get it?

My username is basically kind of a joke not dealing at all with stereo topics. In about 20 years Thenotsonewguy will better understand.

Hi4head = high forehead (pretty much bald on top)

And Smart Little Lena, yeah, I guess that I used to serve as a remote back when I was a wee little lad.