Do you miss a particular audio brick-and-mortar store?

[cgutz]

In the 1970's:

Ecologic Ear in Des Moines, IA. Nice equipment and nice people.
Otherwise we had our usual places like StereoTown, TEAM Audio, etc. in Ames, IA

 

[pdm4606]

I really miss Olson Electronics. Their sales program was not necessarily aimed at audio stuff but they sure covered a lot of it. The one I went to was on Western Ave. in Chicago across the street from Allied, my second most favored place. There was another Olson on Milwaukee Ave. near 6 corners.

 

[alteclipsch]

Sound of Music;
Used to get my Mobile Fidelity half speeds there, also got a Concord car stereo and EPI car speaks, a Precept 440 cart and Cannon speakers plus a bunch of small stuff. They handled a variety of products from Advent, AR, JBL, Ohm, Phase Linear, Philips, Technics and much more.
After a tornado damaged the Har Mar shopping center store they had a sale named the "best buy sale" to sell/liquidate merch not damaged by the storm but could not be sold for new. That was successful enough to usher in a new business model which became the "Best Buy" as we know it today and was never the same audio wise until "Magnolia" showed up.
Audio King;
Boy, spent some money there. Alpine car system with ADS speaks, Carver C-4000 pre, m400t cube and dtl-100 cd player plus a Nak Dragon, and again all the small stuff. These guys sold items from ADS, Carver, Nakamichi, Yamaha and others.
Eventually it was acquired by Ultimate Electronics and we know what happened there, thanks Mark!
Schaak Electronics;
Never bought much there other than Nautilus half speed recordings. They did offer a wide variety of audio stuff including dlk speakers and dbx sound processing gear.
Filed for bankruptcy and liquidated inventory at the MN State Fairgrounds. Dick Schaak's kids attempted another start-up, "The Right Stuff" which closed within 6 months of opening
Team Electronics;
Bought way too much stuff there! Got all my CB goodies there, which was way before the whole uuh 10-4 good buddy, oh my yeeeugh cotton-picker, what's your 20, got a copy on me, bullsh!#. I actually applied and received an FCC license to operate...sorry I digress. You could get everything there from big quad receivers by marantz, Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony elcasets, Teac reel to reel and cassette decks from every maker to Altec VOTTs in stock.
Sadly, they turned into an apple retailer exclusively and never recovered.
Sony Sound Centers;
I know they sold Sony equipment but they also had Carver and another couple brands I can't remember.
I didn't pay much attention to this place but like the others they eventually went away.
There are a couple of audio shops still around selling upper tier equipment but nothing like it used to be.
Jeez I miss the mid 70s to mid 80s for audio.

I had forgotten Audio King, they we're good. Sony Sound Centers were OK too, back when the Sony name was tops. Schaak Electronics was huge, they sold some of their own stuff like DLK and the like. Do you remember Midwest Stereo? I think they were a local rip-off.

 

[jcamero]

Madison Wisconsin had "American TV and Appliance" My absolute favorite place for audio. Every year they held a manufacturer's sale, where you could meet regional sales reps, talk gear, and get rock bottom prices on "last year's model". I lived about 1hr and 15min. from there, (in Illinois) and would drive up there just to drool at the gear, but sometimes I'd buy too.

 

[Audioraven]

RSL and Tweeter.

 

[soundboy]

I sure do. I used to love going to Pacific Stereo. As I remember, the stores had listening rooms for three tiers of equipment; cheap, middle of the road, and very expensive. Our local PS let customers hang out as long as they liked as long as you didn't cause trouble, and didn't waste the time of the sales staff. (who I think were on commission.) My buddies and I were musicians, had a band, and lived for music and electronic gadgets. So PS was a gas to go to burn a couple of hours.

Pacific Stereo was a little before my time, but where I resided, I believe a chain called The Good Guys took over from Pacific Stereo. While it also sell computers, car stereos, TVs/VCRs, cell phones, and portable music players, the stereo components that the Good Guys sold excellent stuff. Boston Acoustics, Energy, Mirage, Kenwood, Denon, Yamaha, Polk Audio.....and towards the end, Pioneer Elite, Sony ES, and Parasound. The store that I went to in Dublin, CA had 3 separate listening rooms, one for each price range of components/speakers, and if it was a slow day, one can literally spend hours auditioning different combinations of components/speakers. The Good Guys used to have an outlet store in Hayward, CA. I can still remember they were displaying this big, chunky JVC turntable that had my mind blown.

 

[Schurkey]

it's an audio desert where I live.

Hometown stores = Radio Shack and Team. Team locally sold mass-market stuff. For a very short time, they had an occasional piece of Sony ES (mostly had to be "ordered") There was a "Mister Music Man"; they were primarily records but had some equipment in later years. There was a now-forgotten store crammed into a mall, I picked-up a closeout JVC receiver when they lost their JVC franchise.

I could drive 170 miles and see Adcom. I don't even remember the name of the store, but it might have simply been a Team store in a larger city from the one I lived in. Bought a cassette deck from them. And there was a Schaak, but again it was mostly downmarket stuff suitable for the ass-end of nowhere location they were in. They advertised the same cassette deck I'd just bought from Team at a substantially-lower price about two weeks later. Went back and got the price-match guarantee from Team.

I could drive 500 miles for Polk and Harman-Kardon, some B&O, Proton, and other brands I can't even remember. That was a "Pacific Stereo", but it wasn't THE "Pacific Stereo". No idea how they didn't get sued for infringing on the trade name.

I could drive 650+ miles, and see Audio King, which had some Krell, but the KAV- line, not the "real" Krell. I suppose they had other interesting stuff. At the time I was there, I was amplifier-focused and didn't pay much attention to anything else. I had a near-magical experience in Audio Perfection--which is STILL in business--listening (nearfield) to Magnepan MG-3.3 speakers driven by...I have no idea. Bryston, maybe. Imaging like I've never heard. Reach-out-and-touch the "performers". Real bass. Real treble. Fabulous midrange. Mind-blowing. Wifey thought it was "ehhh". We got up, wandered around the store, sat back in front of the Maggies, except she sat where I sat, and I sat where she had been sitting. She now thought they were exceptional! I thought it was...ehhhh.

Not surprisingly, I bought most of my current system via mail-order, eBay, or when I happened to be two thousand miles from where I live. God bless the Internet.

 

[Chris Durant]

I miss them a lot, All we have now here is Best Buy, ( yuck ) and Frys, getting worse by the year.

I miss Stereo Discounters, and Wall to Wall Sound, I also used to work for 20 years of my life at the old gold Lafayette Radio, that was a great place in the day.

Now its all online, nothing local worth going to anymore. Its a shame some rich billion air cant see the need for a Stereo Store, just speakers, turntables, receivers and amps, accessories, records even. Seems like it could make money if run correctly. Open like 50 at one time in the bigger suburbs, Flaps/Chris

 

[a10warthog]

Below is a link to a TV commercial for a store I remember well. It, and the owner's commercials, became a cult favorite in the Bay Area.
The store was famous for giving away bikes with a purchase. The bikes are now somewhat valuable. The store is long gone. As I understand there is a dollar store there now. They don't give away bikes.

 

[loudnoises]

Several around here are missed........Tweeter, Etc......Tech HiFi......the Cambridge Soundworks stores.......Cuomos in Salem, NH..........and most especially, Radio Shack the way it was in its glory days.

There was one in the mall of NH i used to spend hours in when i was a kid. I remember drooling over the new sunfire amp and a Nak dragon, countless other things. was my ONLY taste of hifi till i moved to boston at 18.
Can't remember the name.

Oh and Used Sound in Davis sq. Bob was great, always had cool things on the shelves and would buy back used gear at good rates. Still have pieces from him.

 

[audiojones]

I really miss our local Lafayette store. It's been gone for many years now but IMO it was always better than Radio Schlock (which I also now miss) because they sold name brand gear as well as their own stuff (like RS used to) and they had a great parts inventory. Wall to Wall Sound and Tech HiFi were pretty decent chain stores that I kinda wish were still around, but my favorite was House of HiFi on Olden Avenue in Trenton NJ. That was a very nice local shop with higher end stuff (they were an authorized McIntosh sales and service center) but the owner Ed Pyontek was a really great guy who would always take the time to help you out no matter what you needed. That's what I really miss, decent people like Ed who really cared about their customers and knew what they were talking about.

 

[hugo454]

Crazy Eddie

 

[elcoholic]

Pacific Stereo was a little before my time, but where I resided, I believe a chain called The Good Guys took over from Pacific Stereo. While it also sell computers, car stereos, TVs/VCRs, cell phones, and portable music players, the stereo components that the Good Guys sold excellent stuff. Boston Acoustics, Energy, Mirage, Kenwood, Denon, Yamaha, Polk Audio.....and towards the end, Pioneer Elite, Sony ES, and Parasound. The store that I went to in Dublin, CA had 3 separate listening rooms, one for each price range of components/speakers, and if it was a slow day, one can literally spend hours auditioning different combinations of components/speakers. The Good Guys used to have an outlet store in Hayward, CA. I can still remember they were displaying this big, chunky JVC turntable that had my mind blown.

Good Guys and CompUSA were owned by the same parent. Both pretty good in their respective markets. I bought plenty of stuff from both of them.

 

[ggregg]

I was lucky enough to work for Audio King for a while in the eighties. Great store.

 

[darkblue94]

The coolest by far was the original University Stereo in Long Beach, CA. Actually it was their second location, the first being the founder’s garage. It was very apropos for its time which was the early 70’s when AOR FM was brand new, just barely becoming a thing for the emerging counter culture. There were just 2 low power AOR stations in LA - the Donahue’s KPPC broadcasting from the basement of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church (Birthplace of Dr. Demento) and KNAC in Long Beach where Jim Ladd got started. Well before we Angelinos had the big boomers like KMET and KLOS to listen to. What little advertising there was, was just ad copy read by the DJ for local head shops like B&M Toy’s, University Stereo and ACT Electronics. University Stereo was an unmarked old house on Pacific Coast Highway that lay in the shadows of the Signal Hill oil fields. The windows were blacked out and door was locked. You knocked on the front door and the little peep hole door opened while you stood inspection. If you looked cool (non-narc) enough they let you in. Once inside you browsed and auditioned systems setup in the various rooms of the old house complete with black light posters and long hairs enjoying doobies while shopping. A singular experience with zero sales pressure to say the least.

A few years later when I had some money to spend there were a few high-end boutique shops in my area where I got my first taste for the good stuff. Paris Electronics in Tustin carried Tannoy, Well-Tempered, Braun, Tandberg … Stereo Haven in Huntington Beach carried Audio Research, G.A.S., Dayton Wright, Linn, Beveridge, Dahquist, B&O, Nakamichi, NAD and the then new to the US market Yamaha line. Stereo Haven was cool, no ‘attitude’ so I bought my first system there.

I'm pretty sure that 'Stereo Haven' was where I bought a pair of Boston Acoustics A150 II's in 1987. The high end stuff was towards the back of the store, wasn't it?

 

[hrballenger]

AudioWorld

 

[soundboy]

Below is a link to a TV commercial for a store I remember well. It, and the owner's commercials, became a cult favorite in the Bay Area.
The store was famous for giving away bikes with a purchase. The bikes are now somewhat valuable. The store is long gone. As I understand there is a dollar store there now. They don't give away bikes.

LOL I remember their ads on the radio.

 

[soundboy]

There used to be an audio store in Berkeley, CA called dB Audio. They had this airy listening room facing the street. I remember listening to a pair of NHT 1.3 bookshelf speakers that was finished in a wood veneer instead of NHT's trademark piano glossy black finish. The more expensive components were in another listening room towards the back.

There was also a San Francisco electronic store near the Castro District, on Market Street, across the street from a Tower Records store, to which I forget the name of. I remember that this store was a Sony ES dealer, and twice a year, it would put a tiny ad in the San Francisco Chronicle about its weekend warehouse sale. There would be people lining up early in the morning at the front door, waiting to get at the bargains.

 

[a_retent]

Speaking of CBs...remember CW McCall? "Convoy" and "Black Bear Road" are two of his I remember from the CB days. Good memories.

Wolf Creek Pass, yep got the album.
CW McCall I believe was Chip Davis's (Mannheim Steamroller) alter ego.

I had forgotten Audio King, they we're good. Sony Sound Centers were OK too, back when the Sony name was tops. Schaak Electronics was huge, they sold some of their own stuff like DLK and the like. Do you remember Midwest Stereo? I think they were a local rip-off.

You know...Midwest stereo rings a bell but never been there. I worked at Market Speaker for a time which became Midwest Speaker and they are still doing business, fixing speakers of all kinds and selling parts.
Speaking of which, I forgot about them, they sold JBL, Wharfdale, MB Quart, Russound, audiocontrol, S.A.E., dynaudio, morel and the short lived NEC Renaissance stuff. They had a guy (Tim) that worked in the reconing dept. that basically was given free reign in the store to build a car stereo system in his personal vehicle for the purpose of entering/winning the Audio King car stereo wars and usually placed in the top 2. For kicks we'd go to Best Buy's car stereo dept and grab their so called expert and have him come out to the car to assess the problem with our car stereo...as soon as the volume went up the look on their face was priceless!
Remember, this was back in the mid 80s when car stereo was just emerging to what we know today. This car was the ugliest damned thing but it had a sound system that would rock an entire drive-in. Tim left Midwest and went on to work for JBL automotive div.

Jeez, you guys got me digging up all that forgotten mis-spent youth now.

 

[elcoholic]

I'm pretty sure that 'Stereo Haven' was where I bought a pair of Boston Acoustics A150 II's in 1987. The high end stuff was towards the back of the store, wasn't it?

Yes the good stuff was towards the back. It was small. I'm not sure if they were still there in '87. Was it across the street from Goldenwest College? I remember the owner took on a partner and it changed to Havens and Hardesty and they got a bigger space on Bolsa Chica.