We had 3 sound rooms in the 70's. 5 in the 80's, though two were devoted mostly to Video and later to HT. Every larger video piece had a Sound system. One room was dedicated to built in wall speakers. That left two rooms for loud speakers. you entered in the middle with all sorts of speakers in both rooms and the second had a 3 speaker Klipsch system on the long wall in addition. We had KLH, AR, Jensen, Altec Ev, Bozaks, B&O, Epi, RTR, Beta, Ortofon, Bose, Yamaha, Frazier, Dynaco, a few Quad, a few Tannoy, , Celestion, JBL, and more I can't seem to recall. Every time there was a CES show it seemed we're trying something new. We even had Revox speakers. I liked B&W but at the time we were a Boston and AR dealer. We even sold a few early Snells. Really when it came down to it if you Had AR, B&O, and Boston, you really had the smaller speaker market very well represented, Klipsch were easy to sell as was Bozak, Ev & Altec not so much: though, the Model 6 gave a Cornwall a real challenge. Big speakers were always a mountain to climb for us. But Symphony by Bozak did especially well. A lot of folks bought kits and put them together. We had curtains in the rooms so folks couldn't see what speakers they were auditioning. Bozaks were always the top two or three on the list. Mcintosh speakers caused a real stir when they arrived in the early 70's. When they arrived KLH went away as did some other lines. Those ML-1's were hard to beat. The only hang up was that required EQ. But Bose had one as did EV's so it wasn't all that foreign. When we added M&K, lines like Braun who became ADS went away, too. We only had Yamaha speakers for Yamaha electronics owners.
by 74 or 75 I was totally in professional sound so it was fun to go to the Wed morning consumer sales meetings to see what was new. I can remember the introduction of the Thorens TD 125 and later the Revox and B&O linear turn tables. I started saving my money the next day. I did the same thing. when I first heard a pair of Symphony by Bozak in the 60's. I had only had the Carmels a few months. I had to wait and up grade my electronics before I ordered my Grands. When I first heard CD's I wasn't happy/ But as decks improved and I heard Revox first unit I was smitten. Two of our former employees opened their own shops, and I was allowed to visit and enjoy myself. Thats where I discovered Stax, B&W, Nakamichi, JBL Paragons, newer Citation, SAE, Pickering, Stanton and a Sony Beta max. The first time I went to Wces in Vegas, I discovered Telarc and DBX as I remember. It was a great time to be a music lover. Today if I want to check out a turn table, speaker , Its any where from a 420 to an 800 mile one way trip. But with 80 mph speed limits its not to bad. I don't fly, I always seem to pick up a nasty bug when flying. Thats LA, San Diego, Dallas, Denver, Pheonix, San Antonio or Houston. I detest LA and its smog. We use to travel 6 to 7 month a year so visiting AC & Mac was always on the list when we were up north, and east of the Mississippi. They still remind me of the good old days. But what was even more fun was when Ampex introduced a new Studio recorder. I almost went into shock when I got to play with my first MR- 70- 4. Using that machine with recently developed Scotch low noise tape was a dream come, true. No tape hiss. This was back in the 60's.
