1st Quad or Surround Piece, and 1st Stereo Piece, What are Yours?

[Quad Linda]

OK, Audiopiles, let's stroll down memory lane. I'm a hardcore Audiopile, 'cause I have piles o' gear. lol!! A two parter here:

1- What was your first piece of audio gear?
2- What was your first piece of Quad or Surround gear?

1- At 6, a 7" Bell & Howell reel-to-reel deck was my first piece. The roots of a 50 year obsession.
2- CR-80-DSS Akai Q8 was my first Quad piece. It resides in my main system to this day.

 

[Quadwreck]

My first quad receiver was a big Sony, I don't recall the model. Probably their top-of-the-line. First Q8 player was a minor brand, played quad but only recorded stereo (two meters, not four). Sometimes I remember the model...not a Channel master or a Craig, but along those lines. First quad reel was a Teac 3340.
Stereo gear? pitiful is all I'll say.

 

[Quad Linda]

Might that Q8 have been a Wollensak, made by 3M?

My first quad receiver was a big Sony, I don't recall the model. Probably their top-of-the-line. First Q8 player was a minor brand, played quad but only recorded stereo (two meters, not four). Sometimes I remember the model...not a Channel master or a Craig, but along those lines. First quad reel was a Teac 3340.
Stereo gear? pitiful is all I'll say.

 

[0tto]

albeit i can't remember models but it was Technics - turntable, amp and cassette deck
paired with Sansui speakers. it was birthday gift.
first quad was Telefunken TRX 3000 and this happen just recently

 

[rustyandi]

My first Stereo was Mono
1st record 78 Dogface Soldier (To Hell and Back)Film
1st Stereo local make two speakers
When I played my old 45s they were scratched I through them away
There were 100s of them that may have been a mistake
1st. Quad QS-1 and two stereo amps
And then it started
The next decoder and the next and then the next and then the next……………..

 

[John Svensson]

First audio - GE "suitcase" stereo turntable with speakers...all de rigor for a 7 year old in 1967.
First personally owned records....Al Hirt "Music To Watch Girls By" and The Beach Boys "Wild Honey".
Family purchases later moved on to Sansui stereo amplifier/tuner with Garrard TT and Advent speakers.
First quad item was a JVC Q8 player, which I still have. John

 

[cutter]

First piece of equipment I bought was a Pioneer Centrex system with newspaper route money. Turntable,cassette and AM/FM and it still works in my parents basement. The first surround piece I bought was an Apex combo player to play sacd/dvd audio. I was soon disappointed and bought a Sony sacd carousel and a JVC dvda carousel. Scott

 

[Quadwreck]

Might that Q8 have been a Wollensak, made by 3M?

Yes, that's what it was.

 

[Frantic]

Great thread!!

My first stereo and "Faux surround" was all wrapped up in one.
It was the Realistic - SA 1000A - it had what at the time was called "Quatravox" which gave you a simulated surround.

Believe it or not, I still have that unit and it still functions. (Just a slight fade in the left channel)

 

[quadsearcher]

First stereo I bought (not family's that I used) was a Lloyds prob. 5wpc w/BSR TT and shoebox speakers ~1975. Upgrade to a Garrard when I got a hand-me-down Heathkit amp and later a Scott. First quad? Marantz 4430 in the early '80's, didn't use it as quad but simulated from stereo, speakers everywhere including bathroom. First true quad, the honorable Akai CR80DSS Q8 which didn't see use until I found a box of Enoch Light tapes at the flea market. That was when I found this forum!
I'm fond of saying I chose my career path mostly because I wanted a better stereo. :banana:

 

[jefe1]

Lets see, first system was one of those fold up suitcase stereo turntable with speakers job. First system I bought on my own was a Kenwood KR 5400 (with 4 channel switch on back for add on) Dual 1225 turntable, wired for cd-4 with cd-4 antiskate adjustment with no name huge 3 way speakers. The speakers are gone, I still use the dual for all quad and the kenwood is boxed up, haven't turned it on in years.
First real quad is a sansui qrx 9001 malrestored by qb and now being fixed right by Jim Showker. Followed by more quad and surround stuff...

 

[Quad Linda]

What was your first modern surround piece? One more question for those who mentioned a first Quad piece. cutter was the only one who mentioned a modern surround piece in his post.

B&K Reference 20 5.1 preamp. In '99, I had my midlife crisis and reentered the audio business, after 10 years away. Besides joining some friends from the old days, I wanted to have fun at work, and acquire some new gear for cheap. I couldn't pass up a $3000 preamp for $750 as B stock (refurbished in some way.) Beginning with a preamp made sense, since it's the heart of a separates system. A Pioneer DV-525 DVD and B&K 2 channel amp quickly followed. A B&K 3 channel amp was next. The Ref 20 was later upgraded for free by B&K to discrete 6-channel inputs. In '05, it was replaced by a B&K Reference 50 preamp, which added 7.1 THX Ultra, Dolby PLII, DTS ES, and has component video connections.

 

[ar surround]

My first stereo pieces were a BSR MacDonald turntable with Shure cartridge and a Dyanaco ST-80Q 40-watts per channel integrated amp with built in Dynaquad. Shortly thereafter I go my first real speakers - Acoustic Research AR-5's. Some time later after upgrading the turntable to a Dual, I added AR-7 speakers for rears to take advantage of the Dynaquad feature. So I guess the Dyanaco amp constitutes both my first stereo and quad purchase!

 

[leevitalone1]

My 1st attempt was a marantz with quad, can't remember the model, but it was like 65 watts stereo. Bought it, came home, went out to Sracuse to buy my speakers, came home and it was gone. Door kicked in, the worst part was I knew who took it, (I'll shorten it) ended up giving him a thrashing, and the cops got PO'd at me. To this very day, I swear the cops knew who also, but never acted because I was a hippie vetran, and they hated me. I went to school with 1/3 of the PD, and they were all my friends once and they all turned on me after I refused to be a cop too.
Ended up with another marantz but it was stereo, I loved it!!

 

[dr8track]

1. First piece of audio gear was one of those children's record players. I played those colored vinyl 45's with Disney songs and that type of thing.
2. First venture into quad was a Toyo Quadio quadraphonice 8 track car player. A couple years later when I was spending more time in my house than in my car I had a friend who was in the service buy me a Pioneer QX949 Quad receiver. I still have the Pioneer, but use it less these days now that I've switched over to a modern receiver with multi channel inputs.

 

[dumbchemist]

My first stereo was a 2 channel receiver that i got in about 1965. I played 8 track tapes through it. Back then, a local FM station played FM stereo between 12:00 and 1:00 PM once a day.

My first quad equipment was a Lafayette Quadnaural amp, model LA-424 which I bought in 1971. I still have it and it still works fine. It was designed to be used with a main amp to give you the back 2 audio channels for quad. It can take discrete 4 channel or it can synthesize the back 2 channels using a builtin composer

 

[Quad Linda]

Welcome to QQ, dumbchemist If you knew about Lafayette, you weren't so dumb.

 

[dumbchemist]

Welcome to QQ, dumbchemist If you knew about Lafayette, you weren't so dumb.

Thanks for the welcome. Back in 1971, there was a store in Syracuse, NY that sold LaFayette equipment. I can't remember if it was a Lafayette or Radio Shack store. Anyways, at that time, Quadrophonic stereo was being hyped so I bought the LA-424 amp to go with my 2 channel stereo. I never got a 4 channel source so I never was able to use the LA-424 as a 4 channel amp/director/whatever(?).

I just got from e-bay a Lafayette SQ-L decoder and have been experimenting using my SQ records. It does what it is supposed to do in that it creates the 4 channels from the SQ LP's. What is nice is that both the SQ-L and the LA-424 have the same external appearance (chrome bottom front stripe and faux wood grain on the top and sides) so that the 2 complement each other.

 

[timbre4]

We had a Reader's Digest stereo amp/record player from 1965. When I was 12 (1970), my father bought an Electrophonic console stereo with a stereo 8 track player as an outboard component add-on as well as a pair of bookshelf speakers. About the same time I discovered that the RD record player had a TUNER input (what's this?). Literally putting 2 & 2 together I tried the 8 track deck in the tuner input and the 8 track player disappeared from the living room.

In the Fall of 1971, the local music store glassed off a portion of the store for Fisher quad demonstrations with Quad 8 (before Q8 labelling) and I was hooked. For weeks I played with the RD record player and it's speakers for the "front" and something else as the "rear" amp with the bookshelf speakers now also swiped from the living room. Playing with the Bass & Treble tone controls, I was "upmixing" the stereo 8 tracks and records trying to have different information coming from all sides. But I knew I had to have the real thing.

Shortly after turning 14 in 1972, I did get the Panasonic RE7750 receiver, RS 845US Q8 deck and the matching quad joystick on the 15 foot cord. The very first Q8 tapes I got were Switched On Bach + Best Of The Guess Who. Total Bliss and lots of hiss! Not the tapes, that Panasonic was a noisy amp with a snowstorm. But when the sound was happening it mattered not! Always wanted Marantz or Harman Kardon gear, I did manage to acquire a used HK 8+ cartridge deck that was used throughout 1974-1975. Got my license in 1974 and secured the Lear Jet Q8 player (pictued elsewhere).

Then the quad dream started to unravel. I'd seen King Crimson and wanted to take up the bass. So I traded the Panasonic quad for my first bass amp in 1975. Fewer quad releases were coming out. Transmission in Mustang went out, my father took it back and I got a Mazda RX2 and cassettes were the way to go with a Pioneer KP500 eventually. Getting the urge once more, I did put a deposit on a Rotel quad receiver in early 1976 but went back and cancelled it.

Then in 1998, I accidentally put some of my own multi track reel music into 4 channels of a CSW gaming system and my head exploded all over again!

PS - Lafayette was always cool

 

[Quad Linda]

I had a KP-500 on a slide mount, alternating with my Pioneer QP-444 Q8 deck. The KP-500 had no auto reverse, and the ff & rewind buttons didn't lock. But it did kick ASS, especially with metal tape. I chucked it and upgraded to a Concord with a dbx II module. dbx II and metal tape brought kicking ass to a whole 'nother level.

cassettes were the way to go with a Pioneer KP500 eventually.