There was discussion of turntables in another thread and I mentioned that I was going to search for a photo of the rack I built in High School. Well, here's the photo. It was taken in my apartment just after H.S. graduation, so this would have been 1982:



To explain exactly WHY I was cool, I have some evidence. Here are thirteen steps on how to be a COOL A/V guy, and not an A/V Geek:



1- Yes, this was 1982, 25 years ago. Yes, I was only a year out of high school. And yet, what was this in the bottom of the rack? A Rat Shack meter! Even THEN, I knew!

Evidence:

2- My Pioneer turntable/Shure V17 combo

3- An Equalizer…necessary because my speakers sucked! Notice that "really-close-to-flat" setting!

4- Technics cassette deck: Necessary for mix / " best of " tapes for the car

5- Kenwood KT-815 Tuner. This Beast was fantastic, though just a bit deep for the space!

6- Technics SU-8055 integrated amp. Fluorescent meters, Baby!

7- I swear I don't even remember what brand these speakers were. They were 4-way with a 15" woofer….something akin to the old Radio Shack Mach II. The highs sucked, so I added a RS piezo supertweeter on top.

8- Shag Carpeting! (Not green or Orange, though!)

9- Two front-panel-mounted switches. One for the….

10- Light over the turntable, and one for the

11- Top-Mounted muffin fan

12- Home made speaker stands

13- Record storage. Hendrix through Jazz and Classical.

There. How to be cool/impress chicks in 13 steps. Fun trip down memory lane!

what's up with the box on top of that huge 20" tv?

Radio Shack FM Booster!

You totally photoshopped that RS SPL meter. Admit it.

I'll admit it - you were cooler than me then. But in 1983 I got HK separates.

I think I still have the BSR EQ (WITH display!) in the garage somewhere.

Thats a pretty nice vintage system. Im impressed how clean and tidy everything is too!

But oh, that shag carpeting. Who ever dreamed that stuff up.

Was this one of the EQ's with a real-time analyzer that was popular at the time?

I'm not familiar with BSR but Audiosource was "big" into those around that time, too...

Mark, I bet you could probably only replace the old speakers for some Axioms, keep the rest of the stuff and still impress most anybody today ... if we only knew back then.

Nice!

Dude, I would have pegged that at '78, not '82. Complete with moustache & long Journey hair. And either a Chevy Vandura with mural, or a Z28 Camaro.

And Tom's right - you were the "cool" kid.

That's totally rad, Mark! What really completes the system, though, are the metal corner protectors on the front corners of the rack.

Hey, it's Shawn! Hey Shawn!

Nice catch, Peter.

Yes, Mark, it was the one with the spectrum analyzer.

Hard to believe the size of that Kenwood tuner. It looks like it has cooling fins.

I'm betting there is a Discwasher down in the cubby, too.

That's a great photo, Mark!

very cool. Where is the TV remote with the wire attached?

You would have been REALLY cool with a MX-1 remote control!