Tech HiFi

Bartering seems so cool ...

 

Here's the email I received from John Strohbeen, the president of Ohm Speakers and founder of Tech HiFi. Ohm is having a Memorial Day SALE ...

15% Off Everything & Free Freight

One week remaining on our Memorial Day SALE.

Through May 30, 2014, you can get Free Freight and 15% Off Everything on the Ohm website, when you use coupon code MD2014 at check out. (Free Freight is limited to the 48 contiguous states).

Yes, new speakers.

Yes, home theater systems.

Yes, upgrades and service on vintage speakers.

Yes, Outlet Store items.

Yes, EVERYTHING!

Our Summer Shut-Down is June 28 to July 14; so, we hope to get your order shipped before we leave.

Call me if you have any questions.

John Strohbeen, President, 800-783-1553

 

When I was 15, I was not old enough to get a real job yet so I got a job with the Tech Hi Fi in Salem N.H. I would get dropped off at Local stores and put the Tech Hi Fi flyers on car windows. This lasted from around Halloween until after Christmas. I remember going into the back room once and seeing a mirror with cocaine and a straw and razor blade sitting on top of a receiver or amp......I knew what it was and couldn't believe that it was just sitting out like that...lol....crazy 70's & 80's

 

Back at that time, they were perceived as the store for college kids with a cool attitude, while Tweeter etc. (often nearby) was viewed as snobby. It's a shame that both stores are gone.

BTW, given their position in the marketplace, what do people think of the Ohm line, past or present?

 

My first real stereo was purchased at the Tech Hifi in Nashua, NH in 71. A Harman Kardon 330A receiver, BIC turntable and Tech Hifi's store brand (TDC?) speakers. This was the envy of many of my friends back then.

 

I thought the last of Tweeters managed to hang around and did not shut down until a few years ago while Tech Hi Fi went out of biz way back, probably by the early 90's. I have never had the chance to audition any of the Ohms since they were both above my price range and I also did not have the room for them during that period of time when I was also going to grad school ...

 

The only Tech HiFi purchase I made that is still around are the AKG 240's. The headphones still work after 35 years because they were made in Austria ... LOL

 

Tweeter became a public company and had a great run for while, filling in the product space between Best Buy and the high end shops. No one is really catering to that market right now.

 

That market may not exist any more. I don't care for the iPod/iTunes but I am also not willing to spend $100K on an audio system ...

 

I bought a turntable and a couple of cartridges at the store on 8th Street in the Village. They were always helpful even if you weren't rich.

 

If that market did exist, you can bet someone would cater to it.

 

This is the reason there are not many standalone audio brands out there these days. Many brands have been consolidated into different holding companies over the past decade in order to survive on scale ...

 

Very inefficient. Ironic because the designer, Lincoln Walsh, who died before the speakers could be commercially marketed, had previously manufactured a line of tube amplifiers that were low powered even for their day.

 

IIRC, Ohm may not be the only speakers company that uses the radial drivers. I believe a German company is doing the same - perhaps the Lincoln Walsh's patent has expired after over a half century?

 

I think the patent dates to the early seventies so it should be expired.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Walsh

http://www.german-physiks.com/technology/the-ddd-driver.html

The driver used in the German Physiks speakers looks very similar to the Ohm driver ...

 

I am new to the forum. I purchased a vector research tape deck, VCX-600, and Onkyo TX-6000 receiver, and a Technics SLD303 turntable from tech hi fi in 1981 in NYC (I don't know where it was, mid town perhaps). I still have the turntable and reciever and they still work great. I also purchased an old Pioneer SX-1280 receiver from a second hand store for $250.00. One channel seems low, so I need to fix. But otherwise in great shape.

 

Don't know whatever happened to Vector Research.

 

The Tech HiFi in East Brunswick NJ was awesome, I was constantly in there, bought a Nikko Ohm L Technics setup there. The salesman were always cool.

 

Most of us old timers who knew Tech HiFi always have very fond memories of that store ...

 

I know Tech Hifi sold Ohm, Advent, and KLH speakers but am trying to remember what other brands of speakers they carried. Anyone remember or have a catalog where they list the brands? Just wondering.....

 

Infinity was another big brand for them, they also carried Electrovoice Interface

 

I certainly have fond memories of Tech HiFi . My father would drive me to the Stoneham store from Malden before I got my license. I still recall the store had the smell of fine audio components .

Bill

 

We had a Tech HiFi store in Columbus Ohio. I loved shopping there, bought my first system from them in college at OSU. So let's see it was a Technics turntable, Toshiba receiver, Akai cassette deck. Speakers I bought around the corner at The Speaker Company, KEF components in a kit. I think the boxes were already assembled and I just had to put in the drivers and crossover board... bbc monitor type design. Sounded great! All those pieces are long gone except the speakers, I think I still have those. Wish I still had all of them.

Fun times, that was a great store.

I miss my old gear sometimes but mostly I miss the idea of hifi stores... we've lost a lot there.

 

AKG, Kenwood, Pioneer, Crown, Tandberg. Teac, Nikko, Vector Research and Technics. I think it might carry some English speakers as well ...