I’ve never owned a reel to reel, but an uncle who’d built his own amp and speakers with Peerless drivers had one and I found it fascinating to watch him threading the tapes etc. His home made system sounded much better than our old ‘all in one’ radiogram thing which played 78s if you flipped a switch on the turntable arm. That was the age where you’d tape coins to the arm to stop it skipping on bass heavy tracks!
Geoff
That hat is great! I have a hat made from Schmidt Scenic cans and a bag made from Olympia cans. The visor is a nice touch. Mine doesn’t have that.
My first good one in the 80s was a Nakamichi CR1 tape deck ( I have a MR1 now), B&O turntable ( which I still have), Proton D540 integrated amp ( still have this too) and RS3000 Infinty speakers.
I also had DIY speakers from Radio Shack. I built satellite speakers with the 4” woofer and their soft dome tweeter. For the subwoofer, it was a 12” in a huuuuge box!
For some eye candy, this is one of my systems I have now.
What model amp ?
I have the TA-2A Nakamichi reciever that I am using as a preamp but alone puts out 50 wpc. Designed by Nelson Pass. The big amp on the bottom is the Nakamichi PA7. Also by Nelson Pass. 225 wpc into 8 ohms. 330 wpc into 4 ohms. It’s a great sounding amp. I prefer my Parasound amps from John Curl.
Ca. 1991, as a middle schooler, I bought my first system. It was a Sony mini-rack with double cassette deck, and separate 5 disk changer and turntable. The volume control was motorized, and moved when you raised the remote volume. Speakers were styled as 3-way, but no idea if that was cosmetic. In any event they were by far the weak link in the chain I was very proud of myself because I got the Circuit City saleswoman down from 499 to 469 and she added a pair of closed JVC headphones (the things one remembers!)
My first “good” stereo was probably KEF Q15s and a JL Audio 15W6 in a 20” x 20” x 10” closed box. That sub is still working, at my parents’ house. Eiectronics were a Marantz AV600 AVP, AudioControl Phase Coupled Activator Series 3 crossover (old school - you had to build a new resistor chip to change the crossover freq!) and bass processor, and Adcom GFA-2535. The disk player was that old Sony 5 disk changer. It was good enough that after I set it up one of my housemates complemented my on my singing voice after playing Barenaked Ladies “What A Good Boy” from their live “Rock Spectacle” CD. Within 2 years I upgraded to KEF RDM Twos (finally sold last month!) and an Adcom GFA 5800 for the sub.
Excuse me asking, but how does a 15” fit on a 20” x 10” face?
Typo - 20 x 20 x 10
