McIntosh dealers in 1950-1970
- Thread starter geg167
- Start date
Big names????? They were in a Radio Shack catalog I believe sometime in the 50s but most were local dealers, some who grew into big multi store locations......
The legal document you would sign to become a dealer was very strict and had some very tightly bound restrictions that my lawyer was complementary of when I had him purview it before I signed it. It was very specific....
Meyer Emco in DC, Harveys in NYC, Audio Craft in Cleveland,were some bigger dealers that come to mind.....
I do not believe Lafayette or Allied radio were ever dealers.
I used to get copies of all the various mailers that JRB would print for the dealers throughout the country back in the late 70s and 80s......dealers with more than 3 storefronts were rare as McIntosh dealers but most often the most influential dealer in a given metro area as defined by the US government was a Mac dealer......not the biggest sales volume the most influential.......big difference.
The legal document you would sign to become a dealer was very strict and had some very tightly bound restrictions that my lawyer was complementary of when I had him purview it before I signed it. It was very specific....
Meyer Emco in DC, Harveys in NYC, Audio Craft in Cleveland,were some bigger dealers that come to mind.....
I do not believe Lafayette or Allied radio were ever dealers.
I used to get copies of all the various mailers that JRB would print for the dealers throughout the country back in the late 70s and 80s......dealers with more than 3 storefronts were rare as McIntosh dealers but most often the most influential dealer in a given metro area as defined by the US government was a Mac dealer......not the biggest sales volume the most influential.......big difference.
There was a large chain (5 stores or so) in the Chicago area called Musicraft that was a very prominent McIntosh dealer in the late '60's and 70's. They also had a large selection of other higher-end brands (Marantz, Dynaco, Harmon Kardon etc) and a service department in each store. They also used to have the famous McIntosh Clinics (with free FM radio guides I believe).
The 1966 Allied Radio catalog featured McIntosh products on page 159. Here's a link....
http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/html/1966-250b/h159.html
The 1966 Allied Radio catalog featured McIntosh products on page 159. Here's a link....
http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/html/1966-250b/h159.html
damacman
Resident Psycho
Let's not forget the Texas mafia in the 70s and 80s ...
Contemporary Sounds in OKC
Marvin's Electronics in Fort Worth
Hillcrest Hi Fidelity in Dallas
High Fidelity in Austin
Don's High Fidelity in Amarillo and Lubbock
Bjorns in San Antonio
Home Entertainment in Houston
These guys were like a consortium. Lucas Sales was the sales rep ...
Contemporary Sounds in OKC
Marvin's Electronics in Fort Worth
Hillcrest Hi Fidelity in Dallas
High Fidelity in Austin
Don's High Fidelity in Amarillo and Lubbock
Bjorns in San Antonio
Home Entertainment in Houston
These guys were like a consortium. Lucas Sales was the sales rep ...
Pecar Electronics in Detroit, Mich.
They were established, IIRC, in 1949. When they became a Mac dealer I'm, not certain. They were certainly THE Mac dealer in town when I became aware of them in the mid 70's. On Roger Russell's website, there is mention that Pecar's held the all-time record in Mac clinic attendance back in I believe '72.
Other Detroit area dealers handling Mac in the 70's were Alama's Hi Fi, and Stereoland.
They were established, IIRC, in 1949. When they became a Mac dealer I'm, not certain. They were certainly THE Mac dealer in town when I became aware of them in the mid 70's. On Roger Russell's website, there is mention that Pecar's held the all-time record in Mac clinic attendance back in I believe '72.
Other Detroit area dealers handling Mac in the 70's were Alama's Hi Fi, and Stereoland.
Oregon Typewriter & Recorder - Eugene, Oregon
twiiii
Lunatic Member
Control of distribution and what would be called price fixing was very much the norm back then. Trans shipping and installing equipment in some else's territory without written permission from the factory and the local dealer were big no no's. Selling into Mexico meant no warranty for the owners back then. One of our competitors bought some Mac from a dealer out of town to sell to a friend and when my boss found out the proverbial shit hit the fan all the way to Binghamton and back. Needless to say the dealer back east lost the line when Gordon Gow walked in with his check book and bought all the pieces back. Charlie Lucas was our Rep and he didn't tolerate any Hanky Panky. Charlie or his sons would come in and check our invoices to make sure we weren't giving away accessories or free installations, too. The only way I could get a discount on Mac was to either buy the units for cash directly from the factory or to get pre-approved discount form the rep when I financed a purchase from the store. That also applied to Bozak products, but I think that was more Charles rules than Rudy's.
As pointed out, the majority of McIntosh retailers were small, owner-operated type businesses. Few real "mega players" in today's sense of the word. Those that were the most successful were usually selected to host the McIntosh Amplifier Clinics. Many such dealers are cited in the Dave O"Brien's The McIntosh Amplifier Clinics which is available through Audio Classics.
It's an enjoyable read of McIntosh strategy during what is arguably the "golden age" of high fidelity.
http://www.audioclassics.com/detail?detail=CLINIC-STORY&nav=cat
It's an enjoyable read of McIntosh strategy during what is arguably the "golden age" of high fidelity.
http://www.audioclassics.com/detail?detail=CLINIC-STORY&nav=cat
Last edited:
damacman
Resident Psycho
I believe this is a lot of the why and how the Texas Mafia got their name twiiii. I never knew Charles, but I did know Sam and our paths crossed often in my travels. Consummate gentleman. I briefly worked for the rep firm that got McIntosh after Lucas Sales before working for Rabitt at New Age Marketing.
MusiCraft and Allied Radio in Chicago, David Dean Smith in New Haven, CT and Del Padre in Pittsfield, MA in the 60's. I visited all of them between 65 and 70. In the Chicago area there was also Toad Hall in Hyde Park and the predecessor to Musicraft, Schwartz Bros. on the south side of Chicago. I couldn't afford anything from an audio dealer at that point in time in early high school. I bought parts at Allied and looked at the Mcintosh and Marantz stuff in the listening rooms while waiting for my orders were being filled.
twiiii
Lunatic Member
There were two Lucas Brothers as I remember. Sam was one but I don't remember the other. Maybe Steve. They split the territory as I remember one West of Dallas the other east. Even after Charles retired he always accompanied Davie when performing Mac clinics. Davie always tried to make El Paso his last stop so he could load up his cases with cheaper booze from Juarez and Coors Banquet beer, which he couldn't get back east in the 60's and 70's. Later on in the 80's it might be a special brandy etc that was very expensive in the US and maybe 1/2 price in Juarez. Tom Jr who also did Mac clinics and joined Davie for larger turnouts was my God brother. Those were the good old days before gangs and drugs made Juarez a dangerous place for anglos and wealthy Hispanics. At. the height of the drug wars we had over 40,000 rich folks buying homes and condos in El Paso to escape the brutal violence. Of course everyone with money banked over here. When I first came to El Paso the Old Peso was 8 to one. with the New Peso being devalued 1000 times the difference from the 60's to today is close to 2300 times devaluation. I was working on the New Basilica in Mexico City when the first large 10 to one devaluation took place. People then understood why. the Church had to pay for the sound system with Dollars.
twiiii
Lunatic Member
When Clarion bought Mac they tried to change the distribution system and we, the dealers, all rebelled in Texas Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Then finally when Mac was sold to the Denon Marantz conglomerate we dropped the line because of their screw ups and demanding concessions from the factory. As Davie mentions in his publication it took many years to restore the sales numbers because of the moves. Mac made in the Charles Lucas district. We had quite a few orders for the MC 275 and C-22 reissue, but canceled our contracts and the sales went to Hudsons in Albuquerque and the dealer in Phoenix. The Mexican customers went to San Antonio. After that is when I started dealing with Frank and Steve at Audio Classics personally. We had been working together as dealers before then. What was neat about Charlie Lucas was he stocked everything Mac Made. If we needed a 275 or 2105 or a MC 3500 or 2300 we would give him a call and it was on the bus that evening and we had it by 8:00 o'clock in the morning. When we needed 18 2205's for a disco they had gone out of production, but we got 18 with consecutive serial numbers of the 2255 out of the first batch. When we blew up. 22 ML_1Cs in a disco in Acapulco because the black caps in the crossovers couldn't handle the voltage from the 2300's that had Urei limiters to keep them from clipping. We got all new caps and load resistors along with the necessary drivers over night. at no charge. When two of the 2300's needed driver boards for the Basilica they came from Dallas Overnight by air directly to Mexico City along with out put transistors and bias resistors.. We never got the service from anyone else as we did from Charlie and his sons and Mcintosh. Altec was close with speaker products, but electronic parts they were just as miserable as some of the foreign producers. Bozak was as good as Mac, but that was because of Charlie. Shure bros had a plant in Juarez and we were always sneaking over there for microphone and other parts. When I needed an injection pump for my ISC 330 Cummins engine it came from Juarez. We all remember the good times we shared with Juarez Mexico. Its a shame those times have gone away with the influence of the drug gangs. and interference of the US and Mexican governments. It didn't matter if you had brown eyes or blue we were all treated the same. Mexico City was great! People in Hotels, guys who drove cabs, sales staff at retail out lets all spoke English, they gave great service and got great tips. You haven't lived unless you have gone to SF or NY till you have visited Mexico City. And you could do it at prices people from the central part of the country here in the US could afford. Italian suits that cost $1000..00 in the US in the 70's could be found on Mexico City for $330.00. Fancy meals that cost $100.00 per plate in SF were less than $30,00 and the service was better. Acapulco was a delight during the Christmas and New Years tourist season, when folks were freezing to death in the north and the prices were fractions of what it cost in Miami. I know I have been there and done that. Its a shame most of the opportunities are all gone. It was a special time.
Last edited:
damacman
Resident Psycho
Yes. Shortly after McIntosh fired Lucas Sales and discussed factory direct sales was when I worked for Audio Video Marketing, of which the other division (sheesh, I forget the name) was hired as the McIntosh rep as a result of this. The Texas Mafia excelled at collective bargaining!
A few years later, I was working for New Age Marketing and Clarion let go of their direct sales force to hire us. Dave Black was managing Clarion US and at that time also McIntosh. Weird times for certain.
twiiii
Lunatic Member
Listen up sold Mac off and on as I remember. I know they do now, but there was a time just before CD's came along where Gordon Gow and the head whiz at Listen up didn't get along at all preferring to agree to dis agree, I went in Listen-up one time with Carol when they were demoing the big Apogee with Threshold Amps and a Sony CD player. CDP-101 I believe, it had to be the worst sound I ever heard, we left after 15 seconds of pure abnoxious assault on our ears, and told them so. I asked them where the Mac stuff was that had been there for the previous visit. They said they sold it and chose not to replace it. I told them to send me a post card when they did other wise we were not coming back, I haven't been in the store in Denver since. The store isn't bad in Albuquerque, but their selection of Mac is very poor. With one HT system and one stereo system with SF speakers. What a disappointment. SF's are almost as bad as Macs current speakers. Wheres an XRT 28 or XR290 when you need one? I guess speaker manufacturers have decided everyone who has money is partially deaf and they need to over emphasize the high frequencies. Mac, SK, B&W, and now Klipsch. It really prevents me from wanting to up grade. Thats not to say there aren't some smooth sounding speakers. But do I want to part with $50+ grand for a pair of speakers? Not at my age. I remember when a great pair of the best speakers sold for less than $3000.00. With inflation I can understand maybe $30,000, but $50, to 200,000. Have people gone crazy on the East and West Coasts?
Yes, Howard Sound was a Mc Dealer on Broadway around 8th. I bought my Kenwood KA 6000 there and took it to a Mc clinic also at Howard Sound. I was still in high school, I think. The Mc clinic guy was not very impressed with my Kenwood (of which I was very proud) and declared that it was oscillating. I had no idea what that meant nor did I correlate that to all the dead tweeters. So I ignored his comment. (Wish I'd paid more attention.) I loved hanging out a Howard Sound checking out the JBL Paragons driven by MC3500 and all kinds of other goodies. Bought a lot of stuff there.
I also used to hang out at Empire Audio Exchange (further north on Broadway), but I don't recall seeing McIntosh in there. They did have a lot of cool stuff and the owner was big on pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes as an alternative to records. He sold a lot of tape there - or at least had a large selection for sale there.
Into the '70s, those guys disappeared and Listen Up appeared. I bought my B&O 5700s speakers at Listen Up in like 1972 or '73. They have been a Mc dealer for years (I assume they still are).
I think audio exchange (maybe it was stereo exchange?)
They used to be in Soho on broadway. (Manhattan)
I think they recently moved by Union Square
(Stereo Exchange)
No they opened in '84. Seems like yesterday (35 years ago
)
Not far enough back for the OP statement.
They used to be in Soho on broadway. (Manhattan)
I think they recently moved by Union Square
(Stereo Exchange)
No they opened in '84. Seems like yesterday (35 years ago
) Not far enough back for the OP statement.
Last edited:
