Stereo Discounters

[specialone53]

I worked for Stereo Discounters back in 1976.
Started at the Springfield Del county store, then transferred to the Cherry Hill NJ store.
I remember helping to set up the brand new Advent projection tv, and the Luxman "servo-face" displays.
We sold the Alpine line of car stuff too.
It was an ok job, and a decent store at the time, but naturally I moved on.

 

[1tumbleweed]

I don't know exactly why but I'm thinking maybe I know you? Are you the guy with whom I compared my early University 312 (horn) speakers to your late University 312 (dome tweeter) speakers?

That's me. One of these days I've gotta dig those Universitys out of my daughter's house and dispose of them. Regretfully I don't have a place for those beasties.

And, while we're talking old Baltimore stereo stores, I bought those Universitys from a place on 25th Street near Howard; a tiny little place in a converted row house. I also bought my first new "changer" from them - a Garrard RC88.

I bought my Dynakit PAS-2 (later converted to a 3) and the matching amp from a place on Reisterstown Road - Sirkis Music.

Both of those places were basically one-man operations, and both owners would sit and talk "hi fi" as long as you wanted - even with a geeky high school kid.

I remember Gordon Miller - another nice guy, a musician IIRC. I spent a lot of time at Baynesville Electronics - a really neat parts store right near there (and, I think, still there.)

Some more: High Fidelity House, in Roland Park on Deepdene Rd. - first place I ever heard Quad speakers; Stansbury Stereo, later bought out (and destroyed) by Tweeter; Wholesale Radio downtown (Lexington St.?), American Radio Parts, also downtown; Kann-Ellert Electronics, on TV Hill, next to WBAL...I''m sure I'll think of some more...

Happy trails,
Larry B.

 

[Ohighway]

I don't know exactly why but I'm thinking maybe I know you? Are you the guy with whom I compared my early University 312 (horn) speakers to your late University 312 (dome tweeter) speakers?

That's me. One of these days I've gotta dig those Universitys out of my daughter's house and dispose of them. Regretfully I don't have a place for those beasties.

And, while we're talking old Baltimore stereo stores, I bought those Universitys from a place on 25th Street near Howard; a tiny little place in a converted row house. I also bought my first new "changer" from them - a Garrard RC88.

I bought my Dynakit PAS-2 (later converted to a 3) and the matching amp from a place on Reisterstown Road - Sirkis Music.

Both of those places were basically one-man operations, and both owners would sit and talk "hi fi" as long as you wanted - even with a geeky high school kid.

I spent a lot of time at Baynesville Electronics - a really neat parts store right near there (and, I think, still there.)

Happy trails,
Larry B.

Well hello again Larry. Good to see you here.

IIRC, you had four of those Universitys didn't you? I believe you gave me a drawing or some instructions on how to construct those cabinets.

Those low key audio stores you mentioned reminded me of a place I frequented in the Dayton, OH area. ERM sound on either Valley st. or Springfield st. Can't remember which. Just some old hippies who sold nice gear. Had a huge album collection in the store, you could sit and listen all day if you wanted.

Yep, Baynesville is still around.

 

[Torin Krell]

Used to go to their annual "show and sale" at the Timonium (MD) fairgrounds every year, mostly in the early to mid '80s. Bought our first VHS HiFi Stereo VCR there ca. 1986; still have it; still works (we use it [ii]heavily[/i] as an audio player/recorder at Christmastime).

StereoD by mhardy6647, on Flickr

I bought my first component turntable from Stereo Discounters. That Technics D1 is still working maintenance free perfectly today - on loan to a friend.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yep, I remember their store in Falls Church. IIRC, they were the original company behind Acutex,



Correct, it was Elkridge, but Baltimore post office. Aylesbury Road was their original warehouse (where I started working on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Madness. After they outgrew that warehouse they moved to Elkridge - a warehouse way bigger than the Timonium one, in between Baltimore and Laurel.

They originally had a tie-in with Custom HiFi in DC, but something didn't pan out...Stereo Discounters decided to go it alone, and Custom HiFi became...Circuit City!

Happy trails,
Larry B.

Didn't Dixie HiFi become Circuit City? They definitely got acquired by Circuit City.

 

[twiiii]

At one time we had 8 stores in town during the 70's and 80's. 4 on the main drags, 2 on the Freeway and two with in a block of the Mexican border. The only thing you could not find in town were paneled speakers. We sold a few KLH 9's but they were never stock items being special order only. No large infinities, no MArtin Logan, no Magnepan, no Mcintosh XR 290's, etc etc. Other wise if you could think of it someone in town had it or could get it for you in a couple of days.

We had, Mcintosh, Marantz, B&O, Tandberg, AR, KLH, Bozak, UREI, langevin, Western Electric, ericson, Webster, Prof and consumer Ampex, Crown, Revox, Ferrograph, Maxell, Sony, Mortonics, Altec, , Thorens, Garrard, Technics, Yamaha off and on, Beta, Altec Klipsch, EV, JBL,Pioneer and finally took on Nakamichi and dropped Pioneer and EV and so many more. There must have been another couple a dozen I have forgotten. We also sold pre-recorded tapes, CB's, car stereo's, Alpine and Nakamichi, mostly with a little Sony and Mcintosh over the years. I worked in the professional and engineering department most of the time so it was only on Wed morning when I had to attend sales meetings that I was formally introduced to consumer products. M&K, B&K, Mitsubishi, proton, projection TV's, VCR's, cameras etc. Then there were all the Microphones and different phono cartridges I didn't list. Wireless mics, mixers, mixer amplifiers and processors. Just on and on. But there are only three Hifi stores left in town. One by the border and two on the main drags. Others have come and gone. Best Buy has always been a joke. Being far away from the oceans and the gulf of Mexico shipping has always been a problem for us. IT forces the prices up and discourages deals.

 

[hemiram]

W

Didn't Dixie HiFi become Circuit City? They definitely got acquired by Circuit City.

Yeah, Dixie was part of the Ward's company "empire". Wards bought my family's appliance store chain about '69 or so. I got some sort of special pricing, even cheaper than Dixie was normally, like another 5% off, sometimes 10% on some items. My dad and his brothers got Wards stock and Wards assumed all debt, etc. We still owned the building the main store was in. The Wards family had like 20 mom and pop appliance store chains, mostly in the midwestern and eastern states. I believe it was the "idiot" son in law who came up with the Circuit City concept of making all the chains into on big one. At first, the idea was voted down, but then some people switched sides and forced the old man to retire. Soon after CC was born. Sadly, partially due to the whole "Divix", and later HD-DVD fiascos, CC went down. After we got that stock, it just did nothing, but of course, after my dad died, my mom finally decided to dump it, and take the money to buy a couple of houses, one for me to live in, I made the mortgage, taxes, and insurance, and another to rent originally, but she got offered way more than it cost before we even were started to get it ready for someone to move into, so off it went. About 2 years later, CC came to life, and the stock took off. Too late for my mom and my aunt, but my uncle, who was cheap as hell, ended up sitting on over a million bucks of CC stock. He sold it just before the Divix nonsense started, so he did well. Mom ended up ok, making almost 100% profit on both her house and the one I lived in 5 years after buying them. But if she had held on to that stock, she would have had at least 1.5 million. My dad was the king of passing up chances to hit it big. He was offered, and turned down, franchises for McDonald's, KFC, BK, and lastly Wendy's. "How many hamburgers can they sell?" was his thinking. We used to pass by all those places along with the other fast food joints, and say it over and over again. He also famously turned down a deal for beachfront Miami, FL property for $10 a foot by 150 feet. His buddy, who was a money magnet, begged him to bite on at least one of the above deals, and even offered to repay him at minimum 2 times what he paid regardless of what it was worth, but dad said no. They died about a year apart, and my dad left my mom comfortable, the buddy left his wife LOADED. Most of it went to charity when she died.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Someone said "Circuit City" around Baltimore and I remember that place! I grew up in Columbia, MD and I can still recall when my mom took me there to buy me a stereo as a HS graduation gift (and at the rate I was going, it wasn't a sure thing!). I picked out a JVC receiver and JVC turntable with a set of Mirage bookshelf speakers. The JVC stuff was sold off decades ago, though I was using those Mirage speakers up until only like 5 years ago. I had replaced both the woofers and tweeters in that those things (I didn't know about reforming speakers, or I might have done that). I wasn't able to source what proabaly would have been ideal drivers for that thing and they never souneded quite right to me after replacing those parts. Living with them for a number of years like that, finally, only 5 years ago, I replaced them with Elac B6 2 speakers, which were enough of an impovement to spark an upgrade crusade that's still happening to this day (I just bought an Oppo disc drive!)... though after swapping a few things in and out, I feel like I may be, at least for the time being, nearing the end of my jouney with it.

Circut City was really THE place to go... and I remember all of those ad inserts they had in the Washington Post with all of that expensive, cool looking gear. I think about that when I look at my Marantz 2270, which I got used decades after my time in MD, but it's the kind of thing that I certainly would have coveted from those Circut City ads, back in the 80s (actually the 2270 was probably already out of production at that point). I'm trying to think of where that place was... probably somewhere on route 40?

 

[egellings]

Olson Electronics in Milwaukee, WI on 5th & Michigan St. used to sell mid to a bit better than mid-fi speakers, amplifiers & the like, and even had their own brand name of audio components. They also sold electronic parts and vacuum tubes as well. They are long gone now.

 

[hemiram]

Olson had a store inside a store called Wonder World in Vegas in the late '70's to early 80's (When I moved back to Ohio). It was the place for refurbed car stereos and CBs. I had several mobile CBs from there, basic jobs, nothing fancy until the last one, bought in late '81, a Pac 8092. First mobile SSB radio I ever had. It helped make the drive back a lot more enjoyable, and even helped pass the time when we got stuck in Pierre, SD for a week due to an amazingly bad storm. Of course, I had it tuned up before we left Vegas. The whine it had coming out of it from all the off frequency AM carriers about had my mother pulling her hair out.