June 30, 2023:
I have our ancient Pioneer receiver. The one we chose from a stereo shop in Kearny Mesa, where the sales bro demoed it with "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and the experience was very very 1972. The one my father later mocked, in his typical way, for not having a balance control.
Much of my life, later and later into the small hours, was with that stereo and a pair of no-name headphones I bought with True Value stamps. Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Faces, Grand Funk, Derek & the Dominos, Stones, Bowie, Yes, Steely Dan, CSN, Clapton, Dylan, Queen, Joni Mitchell, Creedence, Elton John, Robin Trower. Later and later till dawn, night after night, reading Pynchon, Burroughs, Joseph Campbell, Flaubert, Proust, the Bible. Headphones on, pages turning. Absorbing.
I have it today in my office, paired with the TOA bookshelf speakers that were my first studio monitors, fed no longer by a turntable but from an old Apple Airport Express with its very handy audio out which lets me stream music all over the house. Where at the moment I'm listening to Melodrama: multiple generations of old and new.