Building a huge stereo sound system 40 years ago.
Investing thousands of dollars as an audiophile.
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Back in the day, before the digital age of compact discs, mp3s and streaming services, before smartphones and the internet, and before bluetooth and earbuds, there was the monster analog stereo sound system. Let's take a look at how wanna-be audiophiles used to spend their hard-earned money, building the perfect beast.
My very first real stereo sound system was one I purchased in 1979. I was 16 years old. It was the Realistic Modulaire 959.
It came with a pair of shelf speakers that sounded about as basic as things could possibly get for a basement bedroom entertainment system. To me, it was a legitimate stereo system, and that's all that mattered to me. I worked hard to earn the money to pay for it. $200 in 1979 was a lot of money for a teenage kid to earn. I thought of it as an investment. I knew even then, that I wanted to be an audiophile. I wanted to be surrounded by music. I wanted to build my collection of cassettes and listen to my stereo every waking minute of the day.
Then one day, I got a better paying job. I was out of high school, working full time hours, making a lot of money. In 1982, I was 19 years old. I still lived at my parents house, which meant I could save a lot of money to buy a lot of the things I wanted, that I could never afford before. I wanted to build a huge sound system in my bedroom.
Back in those days, buying a powerful receiver/amplifier meant that you really needed to know your stuff when it came to pro audio. I was 19, I didn't really know anything. All I did know was that Radio Shack was only about a mile away from our house, and they had a lot of cool stereos for me to consider. I drove up to the Radio Shack store at least every other week, to price these monster systems. I talked with the guy behind the counter and asked him about some of the stereos. He thought that I was shopping for something like a bookshelf, all-in-one system. I told him I had bigger plans.
He then showed me two of the biggest stereo receiver/amplifiers Realistic ever made. One was the STA-2300. This receiver boasted 120 watts per channel! It had everything, except a price that was in my budget. $600.00 in 1982 is comparable to about $1800.00 today. That was an incredible amount of money to spend on such a powerful receiver. Then he showed me the second most powerful receiver - the STA-2080. It was about a hundred dollars cheaper, but still, a monster receiver. I had some more saving to do.
A couple of months later, I had the $500.00. My old man drove us up to the store to get the new receiver. I was so excited! Then the salesman told me, "Umm, it looks like we don't have that one in stock." He made a call to the other Radio Shack store on the south side of town. They had one left. I told him to tell the guy to hold onto it, that we were on our way to pick it up.
I plunked down the cash and carried this 90 pound box to the station wagon. I opened the box in my bedroom and just stared at it for an eternity. There it was, my brand new 1982 Realistic STA-2080 super powerful AM/FM stereo receiver amplifier. Now what? I need some speakers. I need some monster speakers. Where am I gonna get these monster speakers?
I drove to Madison to the "American" store where they sold a lot of high end audio gear and electronics. I brought along my coworker, Tim. He knew a little about audio and he also knew how to haggle with the sales guy so I could get a good deal on a new pair of speakers. I knew that no matter what I got, they had to be able to handle 160 watts. This meant that they weren't going to be cheap. I had the money and I was ready to spend what I needed to spend to get the best.
After talking with the sales guy or about 20 minutes, Tim and I were able to get a deal on a paid of Pioneer HPM-900 loud speakers for about $700.00. I remember counting out all of that money and being handed a receipt. I brought these huge speakers home and hooked them up. They sounded absolutely incredible - but, I wasn't even close to being done.
I went back up to Radio Shack and purchased a Realistic LAB-395 direct drive turntable for $170.00. A year later I bought a stereo mixer for another $120.00. Then someone told me that I needed to get an equalizer. So, I drove up to Southridge Mall and went to the Playback store and bought an ADC Sound Shaper Ten 10-band equalizer for about $200.00. All of this and about a half dozen cassette decks over forty years, my sound system was complete.
I dumped thousands of dollars into this stereo system. I knew then that it woudl be a lifetime investment. I spent thousands of dollars on vinyl record albums, hundreds of cassettes, headphones and cables and connectors. Mine was the best.
As the years went by, the receiver started to break down. It was antiquated analog electronic technology. I took it to a guy to get serviced. It cost me $90.00 to get it working brand new again. A few years later, it started to go bad again. Tape decks came and went. I was always looking for the next big thing. The one I did keep for many years, needed work down to it too. The turntable still works and it has the original cartridge. Can you imagine that? The same cartridge from 1982, and it still works.
Most men spend a lot of money on their cars. Some spend it on fishing bouts and hunting gear. I bought fast motorcycles and guitars. I also send it on a monster home stereo system that could rival just about anything out there today. Right now, most of that system is sitting in my sisters basement in Wisconsin. I hope to get up there soon to retrieve my old stereo and bring it back home to Florida. Gonna be a long trip, but it will be worth it to get it all hooked up and working once again.