Back in the late 70's, I was single and living
in an apartment in Newark, NJ.
My neighbors hated me...
I was working shit jobs at funky little newspapers for shit pay, I had a beater car, and I rarely had more than a coupla bucks in my pocket - you know - 'Walkin' around money'.
I had a coupla rooms full of used and third-hand furniture, the obligatory milk crates, shit - there may even been a lava lamp or two around the apt., but the one thing I did have (aside from a really good weed connection) was a kick-ass fuckin' stereo.
...
...
...
All of my jazz at the time (it was a phase, that's all) was on tape. I traded a guy (Sal - wherever you are today, you got a shit deal on this) an ounce of good Mexican for this. I'm sure it was hot but I really didn't give a fuck about trivial little things like that back then. Truthfully, the sound was intense, but it was much more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. The chicks did think it was cool looking on the shelf, so there I was with that...
...
...
I priced them on Ebay - a good pair'll run ya almost a grand, almost double what they cost new.
...
...
Need a great gift idea? The jewelry my wife makes may
be perfect for you. Click on this picture to see this item:
...
Great stereo, I had a Kenwood 9600 160watts per channel, Kenwood turn table, Nakamichi cassette deck
ReplyDeleteand BOSE 901s. This system would shake the whole apartment building back in 1976
I’m runnin’ the TEAC; tape’s gettin’ really hard to find. The rest of the system is only slightly newer, stuff I bought while stationed overseas in the 80’s. The van has an Audiovox under dash 8-track in it that my Sig Other found at a garage sale, still in the original shrinkwrap. I think the player & the van are about the same age; and, yeah, I did yard all the shag carpet out of the van. Kept the 4 nch mirrored ball tho!
ReplyDeleteMemories! We had a similar system back in the 60s and 70s, although our receiver was a Fisher, and we had the next model up Garrard. Congrats on the 901s. They're a real classic, right up there with Quads.
ReplyDeleteI found a shop in Las Vegas, corner of Charleston and Fremont, that is like walking into a high end '70s stereo store
ReplyDeleteI ound a pawnshop way up north onn State street in SLC, that is like walking into a high end '70s stereo store
unfortunately, they have internet connections, they know what that stuff is worth, and they won't budge a buck on price.
Sansui AU 517, Akai GX-270, Akai GX-280, various other '70s toys, still in daily use.
Yeah - Southside and Steve VanZandt.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories about great sounds. Fuck Pink Floyd, though...
ReplyDeleteHad the Pioneer SX 1980 when the 1280 was more than one needed.....270 watts per side, and looked like 3 mile island when you looked down through the grill....took two men and a boy to move it, and you couldn't stay in the room with at 2 on the volume....a friend of mine built me a pair of 901 copies, but with a crossover going to 12" subs built into end tables under the hanging 901s....talk about kick ass....rest of the stuff was pretty typical except for the Dokorder reel to reel....the wife and I were doing some recording in those days and the Dokorder had a built in echo....amazing the strides made in home recording studios over the decades....
ReplyDeleteI had a Pioneer 1010 receiver and Dokorder reel-to-reel in the mid-70s. The built-in echo was a fun toy to play with, particularly when you were doing mono recording with sound-on-sound from one track to the other. Somebody gave me their tape reels, one of which had outtakes from some Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis thing, which had some hilariously profane interactions from the two of them.
ReplyDeleteI had a pair of Bose 901s with the metal pedestals. I also had a pair of Bose 301s that I used as the rear speakers, hooked up through an Audio Pulse time delay unit and a separate stereo amp. Ended up giving the 901s to my dad after I got divorced and moved into a small apartment.