A long time ago in a galaxy.... actually my father while not an audio buff always had a decent setup, I remember the large reel to reel tape player which he recorded what seemed like 8 hours of music on each tape. Then he had a basic Technics receiver which he would play on one half of one on the volume setting. And then while I was in high school got my own mini seperate component Pioneer system which was actually sounded good and looked even better which I took to college.

After a few years in college circa 1985 a new roomate had a high end system with seperate amps placed on the floor next to each speaker. He had ESS two ways not sure of the model a $900 Denon turntable we always teased him about because it was so expensive and he was so anal about it, he also had a seperate dbx sound processor anyway a great system for college parties etc... Another college friend had yamaha seperates B&O turntable and the very large Maggies which look like room partions in the small living room anyway I was hooked after listening to these systems.

My method for buying my system while still in college was to go the best high end stores and buy there cheapest stuff and even some used items. I ended up with a Luxman integrated amp (couldn't quite get into seperates yet) a B&O turntable (very cool) a luxman cassette deck where the hole front panel recesses as soon as you turn it on (even cooler than the B&O turntable) and then finally a Bozack satellite speaker setup with subwoofer remember subs were very uncommon in the mid 80's. It took me two summers of work but this was a great set up but was also a compact system for all the moving you do in college. I still have all the components although only the luxman integrated amp is hooked up and still use weekly.

My first purchase after college 1987 while in an apartment was a 20" Mit tv and a sony 5 disk cd player. I still use the Mit tv in the bedroom daily it is almost 20 years old but even more amazing the Sony CD player is still going strong in my rec room. Is this where that saying they don't build them like they used to comes from?

So now I was in my first house and had what back then in 1989 was a home theater with a hifi NEC vcr and a 27" Mit TV. Playing Pink FLoyd The Wall with 12 people over one day nobody had heard home theather that good or maybe it was something else that added to the experience that day however this was still with all my old college components and I was still very satisfied as the pro logic at the time didn't really seem all that great and laserdiscs were sooo expensive and I couldn't rent them so my system stayed as it was for many years. I only purchased about 5 vhs movie tapes as I didn't think they were worth buying.

Now into a new house duel income no kids it was time to upgrade in 1994, so I went with parasound seperates with the biggest amp they made and the big paradigm studio monitors speakers. was I compensating for something? This was still a 2 channel setup and movies still sounded great even without surround sound. Parts of my old college setup where now in the bedroom and I started my electronics graveyard of components that I loved but alas would not use again. this included the old bozack speakers, the lux cassette deck etc...

Well finally in 2000 I got a dvd player center channel and processor and a Marantz 60inch TV and added my parasound preamp to the electronic graveyard in the office. I also added DISH was is great.

And finally just this year I downsized the large studio monitors with bookshelf speakers and got a nice wall unit for all the equipment and got a new dvd player that will play all my discs I record on the computer jpeg's etc.. and to simplify my system I added my parasound cd player to yes the electronic graveyard. also added my first DISH reciever to the graveyard as I upgraded to their digital recorder.

So this is my mature adult setup and my only other upgrade I plan on for a long time will be a HD TV, but I imagine we have all said that before.

What makes this post fun it that it is great to reminise about your early days with stereo. I still have all my old receipts even though there is no point in keeping them except for the memories.