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"Fallen Flags"- Audio store version

There were a couple more in the Twin Cities other than the ones Electronjohn mentioned.

There was Audio King ("Full Markup Audio King" we called it. You didn't save anything buying there). Those stores were eventually absorbed into the Ultimate Electronics chain until they went belly-up last spring. In a strange bit of irony, the one near my house is now a Savers thrift store.

DelMonico's House of Stereo had a couple of stores, but never really played with the big boys.

There was an odd little outfit in Edina that operated out of an office building off France Avenue. Forget the name, but I bought my first cassette deck there.

And a couple of more little independents that are long gone, save one:

Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor is still going strong, and apparently finally moved away from the University of Minnesota area down to St. Louis Park. Haven't been to his new store yet.
 
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Speaking of long gone audio stores, anyone in Dallas in the '60s and '70s remember Dean Henson? He was the audio sales guy at Crabtree's Electronics down on Ross Ave all through the '60s until about 1974 or so, then he opened his own store near Royal La and I-35 in the mid-'70s. Haven't heard anything about ol' Dean in 20 years. At one time he had 4 EV Patrician 800s in his house for quadraphonic!

deans-audio.jpg
 
Hi,
In the late 70's and early 80's, that was for my first exposure in Hi-Fi
Stereo Warehouse
Greenwich Stereo
Harvey Sound
Lyric Hi-Fi, Which is still around!

Tube
 
PoppaSteve said:
There were a couple more in the Twin Cities other than the ones Electronjohn mentioned.

There was Audio King ("Full Markup Audio King" we called it. You didn't save anything buying there). Those stores were eventually absorbed into the Ultimate Electronics chain until they went belly-up last tpring. In a strange bit of irony, the one near my house is now a Savers thrift store.

DelMonico's House of Stereo had a couple of stores, but never really played with the big boys.

There was an odd little outfit in Edina that operated out of an office building off France Avenue. Forget the name, but I bought my first cassette deck there.

And a couple of more little independents that are long gone, save one:

Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor is still going strong, and apparently finally moved away from the University of Minnesota area down to St. Louis Park. Haven't been to his new store yet.
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Whenever I made the trek to the Twin Cities I'd invariably hit Stereoland on Hennepin in Uptown...always a big selection of used gear to paw over. What was the name of that store on, IIRC, Lyndale near 76th in Richfield? Saw my first pair of Altecs there.
 
in so-cal in the 70s and 80s there was a wealth of audio stores. pacific stereo at lankershim and vineland was closest and where i got my dynaco a25s. later they had recycled stereo where there were literally STACKS of dynaco tube equipment. as i branched out i found woodland stereo, muscic and sound, and sound center. also thee was audio den close to my job at the 405 and roscoe blvd and northridge audio on lindley then on tampa and nordhoff. rogersound and paris audio also came and went .

upscale now exists in kevin deal's home in upland. he was the fireball behind the side store in rogersound out in canoga park on canoga ave. now rogersound is back selling speakers that are way better than what he used to market. worth checking out online.

i have stories about them all, and also the ones i found in LA like jonas miller, bel air camera, and some others that i cant even remember. thankfully we still have a wealth of stores around the basin so in store demos are alive and well here.
 
Grew up in the Danville, Illinois area, so Playback was the place in general, and where I bought my first "real" stereo. Project One and some Pioneer goodies. Playback had 2 stores, one downtown, and one in the Village Mall. Spent a lot of time drooling over the gear. Would occasionally travel over to Champaign, and would spend time at Good Vibes and Glenn Poor's Audio(still around and great guys).

Moved to Indy in 1986, spent a lot of time in CMC stereo, Graham's electronics, and also Hi FI Buys. Good stuff. Miss it all.

Tim
 
I have a bunch of literature and sales receipts from a place named Craig Audio Laboratory in Rochester. (Some early Grado stuff, with KLH thrown into the mix.) I can only imagine what else they sold. From what I've read, the owner, David Craig, was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. His daughter, Tracey, has a show on Ithaca's WITH 90.1FM.

My mom's first stereo was from Naum Brothers, her second from Sears in Greece, NY. Most of the early gear my family has came from either Naum's or Sibley's.

I think Soundworks changed their name to Welcome Home Cinema. I shopped there a few times between 1998-2006.

There is also The Sound Concept on Monroe Ave, which has always been a mystery to me. RocWiki says that the house has been sold, but I haven't seen any activity there in ages. I know for a period it was by appointment only. Supposedly the owners have moved in different directions.
 
electronjohn said:
Whenever I made the trek to the Twin Cities I'd invariably hit Stereoland on Hennepin in Uptown...always a big selection of used gear to paw over.
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Stereoland closed that store; their only store is now in Eden Prairie and I suspect they make more money selling HT to those nice houses out there than they were making in Uptown.

One place I remember was the Sony Sound Centers. There were maybe three of them in the Twin Cities area (maybe elsewhere, I never saw them till I moved to The Cities). Sony everything, of course (including ES) and a smattering of other brands -- I remember B&W and some more higher-end stuff and enough cheap stuff to meet a tight budget. That may have been the store in Richfield (no judgment on whether A-L is high-end :nono:)
 
Sound Center it was. Must've morphed into "Sony Sound Center" a little later on.

There was another small chain that specialized in markets too small for a TEAM, Schaak, etc. called "Sound Idea". They had 8-10 stores in Minnesota, Iowa & Wisconsin. I did all their radio ads for about 3 years.
 
electronjohn said:
Sound Center it was. Must've morphed into "Sony Sound Center" a little later on.

There was another small chain that specialized in markets too small for a TEAM, Schaak, etc. called "Sound Idea". They had 8-10 stores in Minnesota, Iowa & Wisconsin. I did all their radio ads for about 3 years.
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Forgot about Sound Center. Sony didn't care for it being called "Sony Sound Center" and sued them. They changed the official name, but their advertising logo didn't change much.

I forgot about that little store on Lyndale. I don't recall it being a Sound Center. Wasn't it somebody's first name and then "Stereo"? It was a woman's name as I recall.
 
In Frederick Md:
Colonial Music shop where I worked.
Golden Ear Audio which I was a partner in for a time.

Regards,
Jim
 
I don't know how common this was, but back in the early 80's, Lowe's (yes the home improvement store) had an audio/video section which seems bizarre to me now as their stores were so much smaller back then and not the behemoths they are today.

In the Harrisonburg Lowe's, it was located to the left of the registers when you walked in. It stood out from the rest of the store since it was carpeted and incandescent in ceiling lighting instead of fluorescent lighting as in the rest of the store to give it the "A/V Showroom" look. I do remember they had a full line of Maxell cassettes including LN, UD, UDXLI and UDXLII if that gives any indication to how long ago this was.

Of course we used to have a drug store called Gray/Drug Fair that had an album section, a wide range of tapes of all biases, a tube tester and a place to buy tubes!!! It was like a friggin Radio Shack (except it carried Maxell and TDK tapes) with a pharmacy in it.
 
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Sights and Sounds in Michigan City Indiana You to sell Pioneer and Polk
There was a small place in the only mall in LaPorte that sold used equipment dont remember the name.

How bout fallen record stores...they were audio too!
JR's Music shop was one I was always at.
Blackmore's Records in Merrilville IN
There was a small mom and pops type in Crown Point IN. Been decades since I was there.
 
There was the original Hillcrest High Fidelity in Dallas across the street from S.M.U. that sold both high end audio gear, and records.

The old Melody Shop at Northpark in Dallas early '70s added an audio department to the record store.
 
Mortsnets said:
DB Audio on Shattuck in Berkeley 1979-1999?

The Sounding Board - Berkeley
SF Stereo - 4th Street Berkeley
PUD's - Albany, CA "What good is money if it can't buy music?"
Uncle Ralph's Stereo - Berkeley

Music by Design - Sausalito
Access to Music - Larkspur, then San Rafael

St. Cecilia Sound Gallery - Hayward
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Don't forget about
Honkers, The Sound Company of Berkely (Bezerkeley)
The Audio Chamber (Berkeley) I think Alex Han went back to Hong Kong
Pacific Stereo (Berkeley)
Rycycled Stereo (Berkeley)
Berkeley Custom (Berkeley) Joe Minor's shop
 
As a student at the University of Pittsburgh in the 80s, I liked the fact that there were a bunch of nicer hi-fi shops in the area:

Opus One - This was my favorite; this was a place where even a broke college student was welcome to stop by and listen to stuff. I think at their height they had three or four locations, although I only ever went to the one in Oakland on the Pitt campus. The easygoing approach worked on me since I bought a fair amount of gear there. I bought some Dahlquist and Genesis speakers there along with some Nikko and Kenwood gear. They also carried Spica, Acoustat, B&W, Thorens, Proton, Sony ES, and a bunch of slightly more expensive stuff I can't recall now.

Better Sound Concepts - These guys were the NAD dealers, among other things. I think they also had the Magneplanar line. This store only lasted a few years though and was gone before 1990.

The Listening Post - Probably the largest hi-fi chain in Pittsburgh at its height with several locations. They carried the full line of Nakamichi and Yamaha gear along with a wide range of speakers. I remember them also being a B&O dealer.

World Wide Stereo - They were in the North Hills area and specialized in custom car stereo installations before that was in every Best Buy. They also had the Onkyo and Sherwood lines of two-channel gear, and in the 80s were really pushing the Design Acoustics and Boston Acoustics speakers.
 
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What stores have been in business the longest?

Music Lovers, Berkeley since 1989
Tweak Shop, Santa Rosa since 1984
Deetes Sound Room, Carmichael since 1967
 
I grew up in the Akron, Ohio area and later moved to Cleveland. These are the places I remember from the mid 70's to about the mid 80's:

Olson Electronics (also had a factory outlet/overstock store in the area)
Lafayette Electronics
Radio Shack
Audio Hall (still have the bumper sticker"Get An Earection At Audio Hall")
The Sound Chamber
Wellman and Griffith
Audio Warehouse
Dixie Hi-Fi
Tokyo Shapiro
and I'm sure a few others.

Also the mail order outlet "The Warehouse Sound Company". Great Catalogs!
 
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