Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum The Audiophile

[mitchco]

 

[gmgraves]

57 minutes ago, mitchco said:

 

 

 

Well, it was like that in 1959. Hi-Fi was the second biggest "boffin" hobby after photography, and believe me, the guy with the darkroom in his basement or attic was every bit as much of an anorak as the most rabid audiophile! Of course, equipment was more affordable then. A pair of Dynaco MKIII mono-block power amps (60 Watts) would cost you less than $200, an AR XA turntable would set you back $59 when it first came out then it went to $69 and stayed there for most of the '60's. A Macintosh 275 Stereo amp was $349 and that was more or less the Rolls-Royce of stereo gear and Marantz equipment was right up there, but one could get excellent sound (for the era) much cheaper. I had two very good sounding Knight (from Allied Radio, in Chicago) 18-Watt mono amplifiers for $40 each in kit form. The 12-inch woofers I had were $30 each and the tweeters from Lafayette Radio were $10 each and my dad built the bass reflex cabinets for the speakers (his hobby was woodworking). I was the envy of all my peers who thought I was the luckiest guy they knew to have such a fine system...