I don't know what most of my dad's gear was, but it was what I had to use when i was a kid. I used his TT, Technics tape deck and a nice old Panasonic stereo receiver with some unknown hulking 70s floorstanders. I loved that Panny receiver so much I picked up one like it at a yard sale later on. Though I still have my vinyl, I have not had a TT since then. Considering adding a Pro-ject Debut this year.
My first stereo rig was a bunch of stuff cobbled together. A cheap Sony AVR that I picked up used dirt cheap from the Cambridge Soundworks outlet, my dad's old floorstanders that I rebuilt with some really nice bass drivers I picked up from a guy who was building his own speakers at the time, a Sony ES 5 disc changer.
Eventually added a 1st gen DVD player in 98; a Panasonic A300U for movies, but it was a solid audio player at the time too. It only did DD no DTS back then. That was one well built player at the time and sounded great with music (web sourced image).
Eventually got rid of most of that stuff and the stereo rig became just a Marantz SR4000 with a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors with the A300.