In the early 70's, I went into buy my first receiver and a Sansui unit they had on sale drew me in. After being overwhelmed by all the different receivers in their demo room, I fell in love with a receiver in their Quadraflex store brand. It had 3 tone controls, bass, treble and mid-range. I already had a Pioneer PL-12D-II turntable I bought from a local store, but I didn't have any speakers. I had to listen to my new receiver through Radio Shack headphones. I was saving my money up for speakers and then PS had Marantz 8" 2-way speakers on sale for maybe $25. each? They were great sounding speakers and when they went on sale again, I bought another pair. When I sold my Quadraflex receiver to a friend, I included 2 speakers. I still have the other pair but they have been in storage for many years. CBS owned Pacific Stereo, kinda their consumer end, but CBS was also well-known for their professional line of equipment under the CBS Laboratories brand. When CBS associated their name with something, it was usually pretty good, like the Quadraflex brand. I believe that I also bought my Superscope CD-302A cassette deck there. It was a deck ahead of it's time and others even used that model to record original recordings to make records with. CBS also bought one of our local professional turntable manufacturers, QRK, in the 70's, but ran it into the ground. They went so far as copying the Russco turntables, also another local turntable manufacturer. Russco lasted for years after that until after the owner and chief engineer, Russ Friend, decided to retire and sold the company. The new owner ran it into the ground and just closed up one day. It may have been the times rather than business practices. CD's were becoming popular and the radio stations still playing records were buying Technics turntables. It was a sad day when our local Pacific Stereo store shut it's doors. A few years later, it was rumored that they were going to re-open and they started work freshening up the old store, but then it all fell through.
I bought a Onkyo 8087 integrated amp and 4017 tuner from them on closeout and used them for many years. I still have the tuner.This was from the shop on 45th Street in Seattle that had been a Peaches in a prior life. While thinking about them I also thought of Warehouse Sound and their catalog. Turns out the founder first venture was Stereo West which they sold to CBS who added it to the Pacific Stereo stores. Mail-Order Stereo
Wow, I forgot all about Quadraflex! Name sounded like an exercise machine. Did we ever find out who made it?
41st Ave., a few doors down from McDonald's. We had a record store right next door and Carlos Santana would regularly come in to our store and hang while his wife shopped at Longs Drug Store. They lived in Aptos.
At different times, I bought my Pioneer PL-12D turntable, a Kenwood amp, Sony reel-to-reel, Yamaha cassette deck at the store on San Antonio Rd., in Mountain View, CA. Otherwise I’d go in there and drool. That store, that building, was considered Ground Zero for Silicon Valley. My late employer, Arnold Beckman, financed William Shockley and his Bell Labs team to come up with practical uses for their transistor there. They eventually split up and started the big semiconductor companies. Sometime after Pacific Stereo went out, there was an historical designation sign out front. Recently, they leveled the block. The sign is gone. So much for history.
Bought my first Stereo there in the mid 70's (actually, my Father bought it for me). Concept 11.0 and Advent Large New Speakers. Listened to FM for many, many hours. Somewhere I got hooked on gear. Started "Hanging Out" at the Pacific Stereo in Stockton and became friends with a couple of the Salesman after awhile. They suggested a part time Stock position during the Christmas rush and I liked it and did well. Took the full time stock position when the current one went to the Sales floor. Eventually I became a Salesman for about 6 months before moving on. Attended Sales conferences in SF. But boy, were those fun times. Learned to play all the games. Spiffs and Trades. Eventually turned it into a Sony TT and Casette Deck. Bought the big Concept Speakers with Heil AMT's (boy was that a mistake). Traded some of that gear to help one of the Salesman get a speedboat (boy was that a weird deal.....), but I ended up with stacked bi-amped Large Advents with Dynaco Pre, and Mono SS's for the bottom and Mark 1IV's for the top. Loved that system which served me well when I went back to College. Sigh. Good times.
My dad bought a Dual turntable from the store in Fresno. I remember going home and hooking it up to our McIntosh C20 pre, and spinning vinyl for hours on end.
Another trip down memory lane. Back in 1977 Pacific Stereo ran ads in the Los Angeles area newspapers every weekend. I remember buying a Sony receiver with 125 watts that weighed more than a boat anchor, along with a Dual turntable and a Teac reel to reel tape deck. I can't remember the brand of floor standing Speakers I got that day, but I remember, the trunk and backseat of the car were loaded with stereo equipment.
My first memory of Pacific Stereo was going to the SF store on Market & Van Ness for a quad broadcast of Grateful Dead Winterland show in October of 1970. There were only about 10 of us gathered around a small tv watching a B&W simulcast of the show. The most memorable aspect was it was the night Janis died and they were interviewing Jerry backstage about that. It hadn’t been confirmed yet so it was pretty unsettling.
Was the record store the Wherehouse? That survived a lot longer than Pacific Stereo. I was too young for stereo shopping in those days but I bought a lot of baseball cards at a store in that strip. There was another chain of record stores called the Record Factory but I mainly remember the location on Pacific Ave. This is the first I’ve heard about Carlos Santana living in the area other than him attending Santa Cruz High.
Thanks to my Mom, my first stereo was purchased from PS on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley back in the early 70's. It consisted of a Harmon Kardon 330 receiver / BSR turntable / Speakers (cannot recall brand name).
I shopped at Pacific Stereo in San Bernardino, mid-1970s. The local University Stereo and Shelly's Audio gave them lots of competition. I spread my money across all three and I told them. The sales guys enjoyed all my questions and visits. Yes, I carried my Pacific Stereo ads into University Stereo, and vice-versa.
Hijacking my own thread now, but AMT-1's were the first speakers I ever heard outside a store environment that absolutely blew me away. Haven't heard another pair in 40 some years. Wonder if they'd still sound good?
When I was in the process of purchasing the Yamaha CD player I mentioned up thread, I'll never forget the sales guy trying to upsell me on a more expensive model (I forget the brand, but it was a couple hundred more than the Yamaha) and illustrating by turning it over while a disc was playing that it could play CDs while upside down. I was a sarcastic teenager then and said something like 'well, if I ever have the need to play CDs upside down I'll come back and get it' and a few customers around us broke out laughing. The sales guy was not happy at my comment.
Pacific Stereo made the Quadraflex speakers themselves locally in the East Bay. We used to get blemished units at very low prices as employees. All my siblings (and parents) got great deals on 'em. My parents still have their Quadraflex speakers. The never play them and they look mint.
I didn't know he went to SC High! I'll tell a funny Carlos/Pacific Stereo story when I get chance. I think it was The Record Factory. Used to buy my Dead tickets there. I was friends with the manager Joey, whose girlfriend Lisa was my boss at PS for a time.
I managed several of the Record Factory Stores in San Francisco. Wokrd for them from 74 to 78. We would get discounts at Pacific Stereo and their employees got discounts with us. Their stereo was our store player. Forgot what it was. Carlos Santana actually lived in Marin (San Rafael) after he left SF.
He had a house in Aptos. He regularly would come into our Capitola store (reeking of herb) while his wife ran errands in our plaza. He said he “liked to come in and talk to his “two New York buddies.” My best friend Tom was from Mamaroneck and I was from Southern CT. I bought a ton of records at Record Factory. Loved that store. I think it was Ticketron that they had in the store.
My Saturday hangout after getting my dl was Pacific Stereo in Whittier. Ended up with SAE pre/power, Kenwood KD500, Infinity Black Widow, Grace F9e, Teac A650 and JBL L166s. Bought my first MoFi recordings there and got turned on to a lot of good music. Great memories...
I used to buy cases of Maxell tapes on Church/Sherman, Evanston IL store, headphones, 10 band EQ, miscellaneous stuff! Still can see the glass case [in my head!] the day i stepped and Abbey Road on CD?!? (japanese import) was available... A great group of employees, fun times!
I came to Dallas in 1975 with a Sony STR 7055 receiver, a Dual 1229Q turntable, and some cr@ppy speakers in tow. Within a month our apartment was broken into and all the gear stolen. I shopped Pacific and can't complain at all about my experience. Ended up buying some big ol honkin (literally) Sansui 4 ways. Not their fault. Also bought the same receiver and a Dual 1249 turntable. All in all I liked the salesmen and never felt terribly pressured which probably means they were just doing a great job of pressuring me
