It was The Place for gear back in the day. I bought my first real stuff there: AR-XA turntable, a Dynaco STA-120 (kit), and a pair of Infinity 1001 speakers. Set me back a whopping $400 something. I even had to finance part of it! Let's hear your stories...
I worked there from 1983 until about 1986, when they went bankrupt. I was assistant manager of the Monterey and Capitola California Stores. I have some stories. I'll spread them out. I first became a customer buying boxes of Maxell, TDK and Sony cassettes for my Grateful Dead dubs. When I needed a new deck, I let a salesman talk me into paying full price, about $500, as I did't yet know about haggling. He did throw in a few cases of tapes and a demagnetizer. I worshiped that Concept ELC cassette deck, making thousands of great sounding dubs and off-the-radio recordings of live shows. Concept was our "house" brand. I think it was Sansui built. The way I got my job was to pester the manger to hire me, as I hung out there a lot while waiting tables at the Chart House. When a sales position opened up, the manager called my bluff and I took the job. Made a lot of money, lotsa spiffs (not spliffs!) and won some great gear from sales promotions. I still use my Dual 721 as my main table, which I bought through Pacific Stereo's employee purchase program. I still have my Pacific Stereo "Audio Consultant" name tag, like Ron Johnson in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. We loved playing this part of the movie: And have that little Pacific Stereo sign on? Come on, Stace.
I purchased my first stereo system in 1977 from Pacific Stereo in Fresno, CA. It consisted of: Pioneer PL 300 turntable (I think the cartridge was a Pickering, but I'm not certain) Kenwood KR 2600 receiver Bose 301 speakers I paid $500 for this setup.
One of the sales promotions I really got behind was for the first three-way Advent speakers, the Advent 6003. To get a free pair, you had to sell 12 pair. I did that in less than a month, and was eligible for only one free pair. So I sold 2 dozen more before the promo ended, and put them in then names of my manager and his assistant manager at the time, getting them free pairs. I later traded the 6003's in for a pair of Celestion Ditton 250's and a Phone Mate answering machine. Pacific Stereo was good like that to employees!
I used to ride my bike there as a kid to drool over all of the gear that I could not afford. Eventually around 1981 or so I had finally saved-up enough money to buy my first Reel to Reel tape deck: a Sony TC-399. I really loved that machine.
Bought my first VCR there. Sony SL-5200 Beta Hi-Fi. I used it also as a alternative to a reel-to-reel recorder. I used to sell them to restaurants for their music systems!
I bought a Microacoustics 2002e cartridge there. Don't remember buying much else there, but I sure loved to look. My Pacific Stereo was on the main street between Florissant and Ferguson, Missouri. You know - the street where all the rioting was. That neighborhood was beautiful 40 years ago - now it's a burned out wreck.
Circa 1971 I got a Spectrasonic receiver, large Advents, and a Benjamin Miracord there. The Miracord got damaged, and I got a TD150 with an M91ed from Victor D’Esperance in Claremont. That was a great little system for many years.
c. 1975, San Diego, off of Sports Arena Blvd. I was in high school at the time. I got my first real stereo receiver there - a Sansui 6060 (pretty sure - or was that DOW?). Most other times, it was more like the beginning of Christmas Story where the kids would press their faces up against the glass of the Christmas toy display...wistfully wanting stuff they couldn't afford.
I bought a lot of stuff at Pacific Stereo, including a Dual 701 turntable in the mid 1970s. They were my go-to place for accessories and blank tape, although most of my college hi-fi came from one of their competitors, Cal Stereo. Anybody remember their Quadraflex electronics? It was another one of Pacific Stereo's house brands. Maybe @Jerry can tell us who made it (and keep up the stories, Jer! ) Quadraflex, at least in the 1970s, looked like it was made by Matshusita (aka Panasonic) but I have never known for sure. I'm not surprised that their Concept house brand was made by Tandy. Tandy was huger than huge back then. Thanks for that link, @MLutthans. Here's a wonderful article from the archives of the New York Times. It was written in 1986 and initially covers the closing and liquidation of Pacific Stereo. But once you get past the first few paragraphs, it is a lengthy account of the company's history, starting in the 1960s. Their story is a microcosm of the consumer electronics industry in general from the '60s through the '80s.
I got my first real stereo from the same store in 1979. A Marantz receiver, Marantz cassette deck, Technics turntable, a big pair of Cerwin Vegas. I put Money down and had monthly payments. I even went to the Black Angus across from the Sports Arena for a steak dinner afterwards. I still have the Marantz stuff to this day.
I know that store. It was on Rosecrans. I used to go in there and mostly just look and listen. They were pretty cool about it. Good times...
Great article, thanks! Reminded me of the last months of the company. We knew something was amiss when our big vendors stopped shipping. And we started getting brands like Suny, Penosonic and Sherwin Vega.
Pacific Stereo was the first place I saw a Bose 901 demo room. The Bose demo room had a door that you had to pass muster to get through, that is be a qualified buyer instead of a poor college student, but maybe I bribed the guard with a joint. Somehow I got in. In any case, there were a pair of Bose 901s set up to a T. They were hooked up to a four track Teac reel-to-reel as the source. Phase Linear was the power. Music and narration were on two of the tracks of the reel-to-reel. The other two tracks had cues that ran the demo. All the salesman had to do was press Play. Spotlights turned on and off, or sometimes they just dimmed. There was a slide projector that did the equivalent of Powerpoint before there was Powerpoint. Playing very loud, the 901s totally rocked the house. It was awesome although in general I didn't like Bose 901s. It didn't matter. After that demo, I just wanted to buy a pair. Instead, I ended up buying a pair of ESS AMT-1 Towers at Cal Stereo. No light show but their highs sounded better and the Heil tweeter still shot music all around the room. Unfortunately, because I passed on the Bose 901s, a certain part of my body would remain an inch shorter than it could be. At least that's what the Pacific Stereo salesman implied.
Like the Bose and the JBL L 100s back then, they sounded fabulous and did rock the joint. Of course now most audiophiles can’t stand them for the most part. They still make me smile
Purchased a 2nd generation Sony CD player and it died in two weeks. When we took it back to the store they had gone out of business earlier that same day. The player was repaired and it only took 4 months. While the Sony was being repaired we bought at Denon and when the Sony was returned we sold it to a Cousin. That old Sony player lasted for years and I have never knowingly purchased Sony products since.
Concept was an in-house attempt to offer an upscale quality product (as compared to the Reference and Quadraflex brands.) I still have my Concept 3.0 Receiver. It's been working perfectly for 40 years. I worked in the HQ in 1977-78 while it was still part of CBS. I met my lovely wife there and we have lived happily ever after. Pacific Stereo was very good to me.
Were you working in Emeryville? I used to go there for meetings. The west coast version of Jersey City.
I bought a pair of ESS AMT-1's from Cal Hi-Fi. I also bought a set of ESS AMT-4s (which I still have), and later a set of ESS AMT-3s. I still have dreams where I walk into my living room and see the 1's and 3's sitting there. I get all excited and then I wake up. Today, working ESS speakers are very rare.
Yup. Emeryville. I was a manager in the Accounting Department. I always found the sales and merchandising activities to be much more interesting than the accounting. I left and went to The Good Guys!
Got my first real gear there in Sacramento 1983 - JVC receiver and cassette deck and don't remember the speakers. Probably JVC as well.
