Just got a "new" console stereo that I bought from my older bro. Its a 1959 Telefunken that was made in East Germany and I guess these are pretty rare since they came from behind the iron curtain. Its got 8 speakers plus 2 external speakers that kinda shaped like a smaller football and just neater then chit. The shelf below the tuner/amp pulls out and was made for a reel to reel player but he was using it as a little bar area which is what I might do. The other side has a shelf that holds the turntable and then an empty one below that which is probably where I'll put my CD player. Oh and its also got a shortwave radio as well. I'd like to post some pics but can figure it out, little help please.

Telefunken made some top quality stuff, as did Blaupunkt.

About 1970 some of the Japanese firms were importing some really good stuff for sale too, most often Sony.

Among turntables, Fisher (Fischer?) was one f the top American brands.

In 1971 I got a system which I am still using...Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder and deck, Fisher turntable, Alnico A25 speakers, Sony mini-cassette player, Sony stereo amplifier, AM/FM radio, and mixer, and so on. All top quality stuff of its day...not the normal home stuff, but the gear used in city radio stations. It takes a lot of space, but the sound is absolutely superb.

None of my modern CD/DVD/AM-FM gear ever comes or came close, so most of it I have given away to the Sallie Annes and I still get almost all my music through the old stuff.

I've got the opposite now, about thirty reels of the best 70s music, Secretariat's triple crown race calls, George Wallace being shot, Ali fights, my now 41 year-old son learning to talk, etc., and no hardware to play them on.

It's too bad we don't live closer together. My equipment would welcome your tapes as guests so they could party together...and both of us could attend as their "significant others".