It all started with my parents' stereo, which I obtained a license to operate at the age of 10:
- B&O Beogram 1001 turntable
- Tandberg Sølvsuper 10-71 receiver
- Tandberg Hi-Fi System 12 speakers
I did not have any records of my own, but I was quite content with playing my parents' ones. I remember these:
- Roger Whittaker - The Very Best of Roger Whittaker
- Roger Whittaker - The Last Farewell
- Abba - Arrival
- Demis Roussos - Forever and Ever
- Staatschor des Russischen Liedes - Russische Chorlieder
- Die Belgrader Philharmonie - Georges Enesco: Rumänische Rhapsodie / Antonin Dvorak: Slawische Rhapsodie
- Stein Ingebrigtsen - Bare Stein
- Stein Ingebrigtsen - Stein
- Inger Lise Rypdal - Tider Kommer, Tider Går
- Inger Lise Rypdal & Stein Ingebrigtsen - 830 S (bak Sølvmikrofonen med Inger Lise og Stein)
- Tony Christie - Las Vegas
- José Feliciano - That the Spirit Needs (Of Muse and Man)
- José Feliciano - Angela
- Sveriges Jazzband - Årets LP
- Cornelis Vreesvijk - Cornelis Sjunger Taube
- Cornelis Vreesvijk - Spring mot Ulla - Spring! Cornelis Sjunger Bellman
- Åge Aleksandersen - 7800 Namsos
- The Beatles - 1962-1966 (The Red Album)
- Tom Jones - Close Up
- Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
When I was 12 (in 1979), I managed to convince my dad that we needed a cessette deck. He sent my uncle Morten with me to the stereo shop Bredo in Oslo, where they sold Akai equipment. I wanted (of course) the top-of-the-line GXC-325D, but had to settle for the entry-level CS-34D. They threw in a quality cassette for no additional cost; my first ever cassette thus became an Agfa Superchrom C90+6. Before going home, I brought the deck to my uncle's place, where I dubbed his Abba - Voulez-Vous LP on side A of said cassette. 
I used the Akai to record radio programs and dub LPs, among them the very first two I owned myself:
- Tina Charles - Heart&Soul
- Elvis Presley- Elvis' Golden Records
The arrival of the cassette deck meant only a very few more LPs were bought; cassettes were the medium of choice. We bought cassettes at Narvesen Platebar and from the mail order firm Scandinavian Music Club. Some of the cassettes I got during that period:
- Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery
- Electric Light Orchestra & Olivia Newton John - Xanadu (From the original motion picture soundtrack)
- Kiss - Dynasty
- Kiss - Unmasked
- Nazareth - Greatest Hits
- Abba - Super Trouper
- Village People - Cruisin'
- Anita Skorgan - Ingen Vei Tilbake
- Grethe Kausland - A Taste of...
- Elton John - A Single Man
- Elton John - Victim of Love
- Elton John - 21 at 33
- Elton John - The Fox
- Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown
- Barbra Streisand - Guilty
- Dizzie Tunes - Glad Jul
- Åge Aleksandersen -
- Jahn Teigen - En Dags Pause
- Prima Vera - Brakara
- Nordre Sving - Nordre Sving's Beste
- Gro Anita Schønn - Ta Meg som Jeg Er
- Hans Petter Hansen - Me Må Vera To te' Tango
- Various artists - Disco Fever
- Various artists - VG Kassetten (cover versions of 12 hits plus sketches by Harald Heide Steen Jr.)
- Various artists - VG Presenterer Musikk på Gang Nr. 2
Two years later, during 9th grade (junior high), I persuaded my parents to get me a cassette deck of my own. I acquired a Toshiba Aurex PC-G2 at an electronics store in Hamar (I don't remember it's name). For a while, my stereo system consisted of cassette deck and headphones only.
At the same time, my baby brother Thomas got a Toshiba RT-100S boombox. 
He was not really that interested in listening to music at the time, so
it ended up being used by me most of the time. I bought a pair of
Sennheiser HD-420 SL headphones so I could listen to music on the go without
bothering anyone else (My old closed-back headphones were too heavy for that purpose, plus the Toshiba did not drive them very well).Sometime during 1982 I bought a single Coral Flat 8-II fullrange speaker unit, and built a bass reflex enclosure for it. Amplification was provided by a 10W DIY amplifier from Jostykit. Now I could share my music with friends and family, but still in mono only.
For my 16th birthday - in January 1983 - I got a Nad 3020A, bought at the store Hamar Bok&Musikk (retailers of stereo equipment, christian books and christian music). Through a trade with my best friend Bård, I swapped something (cannot remember what) for a pair of Seas 6" fullrange units in DIY enclosures, and finally had my own proper stereo system!
During the spring of 1984 I bought a Sony Walkman WM-6, making my stereo-on-the-go setup a bit more versatile.In June 1984, I got my first proper Hi-Fi speakers: A three-way system produced for the electronics chain Expert, possibly by the Danish speaker manufacturer Jamo (mine had black veneer).
These speakers were equipped with a rather interesting woofer - the SLE-22W from Fostex - which did not have the edge suspension ring found on almost all speaker units. At the perimeter of the woofer cone there is a styrofoam ring of approx 1" height, suspended in free air inside the black flange (actually a short pipe) like a piston inside a cylinder.
Soon thereafter I bought a second hand Denon DP-21F automatic turntable, also at Hamar Bok&Musikk.
At Hamar Bok&Musikk they actually let me borrow an Ortofon OM-10 pickup, so I could bring it home and compare it to an AKG P10ED I borrowed at another store (Arne Hansen).
The AKG (mine had the blue stylus assembly) was the better performer in my turntable by a clear margin, so the Ortofon was returned and I went to Arne Hansen to pay for the AKG. I ended up also buying an Audio Technica AT-618 Disc Stabilizer to completed the package.
Now, in the possession of both a turntable and a cassette deck, my cassette recording career took off. I recorded lots of C-90 cassettes with a full album on each side, and I recorded radio programs using my brother's boombox as the source. My favourite radio shows were "Mens Kvelden er Ung" with Lars Erik Forberg and "Radio Radio" with Steinar Fjeld - these were the best source for new pop music at the time.
My next acquisition - autumn 1985 - was another boombox; my best friend Bård traded his Panasonic RX-5030 for something which I do not remember. This was a considerable step up from the Toshiba RT-100S, and it also meant that my brother could have the Toshiba for himself.
I only had the pleasure of owning the Panasonic for a few months before it got stolen in February 1986.
In April 1986 I started my compulsory military service, which implied a year without any equipment changes. When I was discharged a year later, I spent a large chunk of the service remuneration on a Yamaha NS-2W active subwoofer.
Soon thereafter I bought a new boom box - the excellent Philips D-8554.
In August 1987 I bought another Yamaha NS-W2, bringing the total to 2.
Next up was a major system upgrade;
- Thorens TD-320 turntable
- Ortofon MC20 Super pickup
- Nad 3300 amplifier
Previously, I had not paid much attention to cables. Now I invested in some decent ones:
- Monster Cable Powerline 3 2x3m speaker cables
- Monster Cable Interlink 400 2x1m interconnect
When the Nad amplifier broke down for the second time in less than a month, I returned it and upgraded to a Denon PMA 920, and at the same time bought a Denon DR-M30HX cassette deck to replace the Toshiba.
I loved the cassette deck from the first moment, but I also regretted I had not bought the top-of-the-line model instead. Two days later I brought the DR-M30HX to the store, parted with it plus some cash, and brought home the Denon DR-M44HX.
I have always regarded this to be one of my best investments ever.
During the following years, I recorded countless mix tapes on this
brilliant machine. My heavy metal ballad collections were notorious :-) I was dead serious about cassette recording; I refused to use anything but top quality cassettes, and I was meticulous about both calibration and the recording itself. My undisputed favorite cassette: The Denon HD8.
- to be continued ...
