Audio Stores in the 70's

[ConradH]

Don't know if it's true, but Rochester, NY was said to have more hi-fi shops per capita than anyplace in the country. We had Paul Heath Audio, JB Sound, Sound Chamber, Craig Audio Lab, Bob Hyatt's and various others. Heath was very high end and had the plasma speakers. JB catered to pro sound as well as home. Sound Chamber had good prices on decent stuff. I got my Genesis there and traded in my Advents. Bob Hyatt offered some crazy good deals, but was considered a bit shady. Craig Audio Lab is where the McIntosh amplifer clinics were held- they measured my scratch built SWTP Tiger. Near RIT was DLK electronics who had all the major brands. It was run by David Lloyd Kennig who passed away some years ago. His son ran/runs The Speaker Place that now caters mostly to car audio, but sells lots of raw drivers and such. I bought a lot of Peerless drivers there back when I was building speakers. I think everybody's gone now except The Speaker Place, though we now have The Analog Shop in Victor, NY that deals in high end and Renaissance Audio in Henrietta that specializes in turntables and quality vintage systems, with some new as well. Marchand is also local for crossovers and such and I think Belles is still around here somewhere.

edit- Back in "the day" the huge Kodak bonuses drove a lot of expensive hi-fi, new car and other sales around here.

 

[jancumps]

Wish I visited this one in the 70s:

 

[TomInTacoma]

Let's see, in the Tacoma/Seattle area there was The Stereo Shoppe, Speakerlab, The Speaker Factory, The Jafco Audio store on South Tacoma Way, and probably a few others. In Oregon there was Shogren's.

And we we have... Best Buy? :sigh:

 

[frank111]

My buddies & I frequented Lafeyette Electronics and Team Electronics every other Saturday(in the mid 70's); auditioned Pioneer,Tandberg(drooled over their recievers), Nakamichi, Hartley, Marantz, & wish i could get my hands on a pair of GaleGS401's- still remember them. As well as Radio Shack to listen to the Mach 1's.

 

[just dave]

Gills Custom House was the place outside of Chicago.You'd ring to get in then they would buzz you in after they looked you over.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Wish I visited this one in the 70s:

I dig the full Cleveland.

 

[frommerstop]

My buddies & I frequented Lafeyette Electronics and Team Electronics every other Saturday(in the mid 70's); auditioned Pioneer,Tandberg(drooled over their recievers), Nakamichi, Hartley, Marantz, & wish i could get my hands on a pair of GaleGS401's- still remember them. As well as Radio Shack to listen to the Mach 1's.

Do you remember the little tower with a Heil AMT driver that Lafayette used to make? They were really nice, I remember they got a rave review in High Fidelity. I listened to them quite a bit when they were out, and almost sprung for a pair, but Ohm Walsh 2s won out. IMO they were better sounding than any of the ESS stuff. Man, I'd LOVE to find a pair of those!
Unfortunately the only remnants of Lafayette around here, is a little electronics store called "Electronic Connection". The owner was the general manager for Lafayette around here back in the day, and they still sell some of the old components left over... complete with the old "Lafayette" stickers still on the bags!

 

[barkerd]

Any Ontario Canucks here ? Grew up in K-W.. We had Wesseling advanced audio. Still remember George and his brother (name escapes me ). We had Schneider stereo on king street. Natural Sound up in Waterloo ( only one still around ). We also had a ton of small time speaker builders : Larry DeVeau, Paul Barton, Delta , Marsland , Cambridge speakers. Good old days for sure.

 

[puppet]

I used to very good prices on EV components at DJs and so in the 70s I was often using EV in my DIY speaker projects.

The belt line is what we called the railroad that runs north and south between Crawford and Cicero. That's what we West Siders called it. That's where old Mayor Daley wanted to put his crosstown expressway and another EL line. Too bad it was never built, the EL line at least.

You weren't too far from me then ... grew up on 46th Western. ... you had the best bakery around on Kedzie (Strauss ... yum)

I remember that proposal of his. I know some people around Midway didn't want it. The "old one" was the sharpest cookie. His block was the cleanest street in the city. .. I mean "eat off the street" clean. Guy lived simple and never "flashed".

 

[puppet]

Do you remember the little tower with a Heil AMT driver that Lafayette used to make? They were really nice, I remember they got a rave review in High Fidelity. I listened to them quite a bit when they were out, and almost sprung for a pair, but Ohm Walsh 2s won out. IMO they were better sounding than any of the ESS stuff. Man, I'd LOVE to find a pair of those!
Unfortunately the only remnants of Lafayette around here, is a little electronics store called "Electronic Connection". The owner was the general manager for Lafayette around here back in the day, and they still sell some of the old components left over... complete with the old "Lafayette" stickers still on the bags!

Back in the day Audiomart in KC was really doing things with the heil driver ... or at least trying to. They had lined up Cetec Gauss to custom fab a 15"woofer to mate with the heil ... awesome driver. Still some floating around. I bought a few heils from them that they had "procured" out of a warehouse in CA. Still have all this paperwork here someplace.

 

[nexus]

Do you remember the little tower with a Heil AMT driver that Lafayette used to make? They were really nice, I remember they got a rave review in High Fidelity. I listened to them quite a bit when they were out, and almost sprung for a pair, but Ohm Walsh 2s won out. IMO they were better sounding than any of the ESS stuff. Man, I'd LOVE to find a pair of those!
Unfortunately the only remnants of Lafayette around here, is a little electronics store called "Electronic Connection". The owner was the general manager for Lafayette around here back in the day, and they still sell some of the old components left over... complete with the old "Lafayette" stickers still on the bags!

don't waste your time over the Criterion 2005 abortion that i detail my experience with here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=261869&page=2

it was never really a true ESS. lafayette had some decent equipment though and i really miss that store and those times but i will never miss that "corona field/power ring" heil wanna-be. should have just bought a pair of speakerlabs S7!:thmbsp:

 

[ehoove]

In Frederick, Maryland I went to Golden Ear Audio of which I was part owner, We carried Yamaha, H/K, Technics Pro, AR, just a few among many makes. Like most 50/50 partnerships, we parted company over differing business models and the shop went out of business shortly thereafter. :^(
Regards,
Jim

 

[frommerstop]

don't waste your time over the Criterion 2005 abortion that i detail my experience with here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=261869&page=2

it was never really a true ESS. lafayette had some decent equipment though and i really miss that store and those times but i will never miss that "corona field/power ring" heil wanna-be. should have just bought a pair of speakerlabs S7!:thmbsp:

Wow, that's good to know. I remember them pretty fondly, but that was just listening in the little Lafayette listening room with generic records played on whatever receiver they had set up at the time. I ended up with Ohm Walsh 2s from Tech HiFi instead - they had a pretty good listening room, and tended to put more thought into source & amplification.

...still, I'd love to come across a pair at Goodwill!

 

[59volvo]

Don't know if it's true, but Rochester, NY was said to have more hi-fi shops per capita than anyplace in the country. We had Paul Heath Audio, JB Sound, Sound Chamber, Craig Audio Lab, Bob Hyatt's and various others. Heath was very high end and had the plasma speakers. JB catered to pro sound as well as home. Sound Chamber had good prices on decent stuff. I got my Genesis there and traded in my Advents. Bob Hyatt offered some crazy good deals, but was considered a bit shady. Craig Audio Lab is where the McIntosh amplifer clinics were held- they measured my scratch built SWTP Tiger. Near RIT was DLK electronics who had all the major brands. It was run by David Lloyd Kennig who passed away some years ago. His son ran/runs The Speaker Place that now caters mostly to car audio, but sells lots of raw drivers and such. I bought a lot of Peerless drivers there back when I was building speakers. I think everybody's gone now except The Speaker Place, though we now have The Analog Shop in Victor, NY that deals in high end and Renaissance Audio in Henrietta that specializes in turntables and quality vintage systems, with some new as well. Marchand is also local for crossovers and such and I think Belles is still around here somewhere.

edit- Back in "the day" the huge Kodak bonuses drove a lot of expensive hi-fi, new car and other sales around here.

Is there anything left of Kodak in Rochester these days? How has Kodak's demise impacted rochester - have other companies filled the gap?

 

[JohnVF]

In Chicago we had Victor's (Quad, Decca, Fulton, Transcriptors, Audio Research, Paoli), MusicCraft (AR, JBL, Sansui, Altec, ESS, Marantz, Dynaco, Jensen) Paul Heath (Maggies, IMF, Levinson, Acoustat, Dahlquist, Audio Research) Hi-Fi Hutch (Klipsch, JBL, Crown, Mac, KLH, GAS, Dynaco), Gill's Custom House (EV, Altec, Janszen, Crown, Mac, Gale, RTR) and others. And of course Playbacks and Pacific Stereos. There was a place around 55th and the Belt Line that sold McIntosh and Bozak, I forget the name. And that Martroy guy at 63rd and Kedzie who has a pile of old JBL compression drivers and lenses about 5' tall; it's like the elephant's graveyard for JBLs.

Stickman mentioned appliance stores; Polk Brothers was a huge appliance place that sold lots of hi-fi gear. And of course every Chicago old timer remembers those Polk Brothers Santa Clauses that were all over the city.

I went to that Martroy Electronics place a few months ago. Wow, what a mess. The only thing exciting was the pile of compression drivers...the stash of beat up vintage gear with dust an inch thick on it for double ebay prices was a bit of a eye-brow raiser.

 

[JohnVF]

I dig the full Cleveland.

I rocked The Full Cleveland a few years ago and had no idea I was doing so.

 

[Mrv8q]

it was a feast here in LA.... the pacific stereo on lankershim and vineland was where i bought my dynaco a25s and eventually their used department called recycled stereo had MOUNDS of used dynaco tubed equipment.

now there are more than several stores around the southland marketing our manna from heaven.

LONG LIVE HIGH END AUDIO!

I worked on that block in the Valley; North end of the block, Pacific Stereo, then University Stereo, then La Cana restaurant, a barrel shaped place, still there and still vacant, then our store, Custom HiFi, then a good camera store on the corner, John Fine Camera.
Other SoCal places: Ahead Stereo on Melrose, Leo's Stereo, for Nikko gear and car stereo; Henry Radio, even the May Company department store sold Marantz gear.
Finally, Now Sound Stereo, where a friend bought a Marantz 2325, Dual 701 w/ Shure V15, and 4 CJD tower speakers; I will never forget that system, the key that unlocked hi-fi and music for me..
Federated Group on Olympic was heaven to me from 1973 to 1980...

now there are more than several stores around the southland marketing our manna from heaven.

pray tell, where?

 

[JimPA]

It is quite unfortunate that the audio stores that introduced me to a higher quality of listening are no more.

I was an exciteable teenager in that moment of time.
I was quite engaged in making so many first time aquisitions.
I was an audiophile virgin but no more..

 

[ab0ez]

And we we have... Best Buy? :sigh:

Ugh....you're all too correct Sir!

 

[JimPA]

Maybe they didn't see the thread or feel like making a post.
Some people still can't remember the 70's that were there.