I'm sure this has been asked before, and I know this will "date" some of you - SORRY! I was 11 years old and begging for a "stereo" system for my 12th birthday. Raking through the discount store ads,
my mom and dad overwhlem me with a Soundesign system w/ turntable, cassette, 8-track and all - it even came w/ headphones!
Boy, I was in heaven - especially since one of my frineds gave me
Hotel California and Boston as my first albums (even though I had many more my brother handed down to me - original Beatles and Stones, etc... that I didn't know how to appreciate at the time) While boasting about my new "system" at baseball practice, a kid w/ an Onkyo t-shirt on laughs. "What is an Onkyo anyway?" I ask. In less than a month, I've taken every penny I've earned from yard work, car washes, etc... and purchased my first REAL system - spent about $750 on a Yamaha amp & preamp, Pioneer tuner, Sony turntable and picked up some Advent speakers at a "yard sale" for $50. For the life of me, I can't remember the speaker model, but they were about 9 years old and sounded and looked like they had never been used.
I still have that Soundesign system tucked away in a storage closet - and pull it out every now and again and stick in some old 8-track just for the fun of it (EVERYTHING still works!) And I still have that Onkyo t-shirt I paid the kid $5 for off his back!