I first purchased a G-something minisystem--similar to that Yorx, but with record player, tape decks, bookshelf speakers, and a CD player--at a church rummage sale when I was a teenager. Hadn't really thought about it before then, but boy was I thrilled to get it. A few months later, I got some "tower" speakers from the same source-8" woofer+tweeter.
A little later, some family friends were getting rid of a Marantz 2252B, and I jumped at it. I remember being afraid I might blow it up if I wired the speakers out of phase... It was dying, so I eventually supplemented it (somehow or other; I can't remember) with my Dad's old Marantz 2220B, which was also dying in a different fashion. I hooked up the minisystem speaker outs (RCAs) to the AUX input.
Somewhere along the line, I got some Fisher speakers (10" woofer, 4" mid, 3" tweeter) from another family friend, then a Technics SA770 receiver which was actually fully functional (the novelty!). I set up the Fishers and the old towers to play at the same time. This in a bedroom the size of a postage stamp.
I bought a 5 disc JVC CD changer as a graduation present to myself after high school. I've still got it--and I still use it!
Somewhere in there, I decided to replace the woofers on the bookshelf speakers (I was still using them in the dorms), and discovered how much better that sounded. When Peter and I started rooming together, we quickly blew the tweeters (probably annoying the hell out of our dorm neighbors), so I replaced those with Radio Shack tweeters, and I replaced the 18 gauge cable I had been splicing together for ages. Wow. That sounded better!
Briefly in there I had a Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 3 setup (and that was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard) but I had to return it so I could get a new computer.
Anyway, I ended up buying the Cambridge Soundworks Subwoofer 1 I'm still using after getting somewhat drunk (and without having a job), and ended up paying back various people (Peter included) for awhile on that one. Bought the Ensemble 1 sub/sat system off of eBay a year or so later.
A few years later (after getting married), I convinced my lovely bride that the Toshiba was pretty much dead. Which is was. So I bought the H/K 525 (I had a pretty good handle on what I was doing by then). Still using the CS speakers and sub.
I had heard Peter's M22s before doing this, so I knew I wanted Axioms at some point, but my wife told me that I had to build her an entertainment center before I bought the speakers. That only took me a year... And here we are!
Note: if you made it all the way through this, you have a much longer attention span than I do...
