1965 Seattle Audio Stores Banding Together
This was a great find: a group of Seattle audio stores banding together to promote stereo and component systems. When you chart the existence of each store, it puts the date of this group from 1965-1968. It looks like component audio needed some help in gaining acceptance from the whole family.
“FIDELITY? Faithfulness! A Banker to his Depositors…….a Sailor’s Wife when he’s at Sea……..and in a Stereo System, in reproducing sound exactly as in the ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE!
HIGH FIDELITY? Meaningless! “high” obviously means considerably less than completely faithful and is unacceptable in a Banker, a Wife, or a Stereo System.”
Maybe I should feel weird about being compared to a Stereo System, but in our line of work isn’t that a compliment?
Here are the stores that belonged to Stereo Dealers, Inc.:
Electricraft, Inc. 1408 Sixth Ave
Hamlin’s Audio Workshop 2128 Third Ave
Hess Recorder Co’s Stereo Center 620 SW 152nd
High Fidelity Headquarters 4741 University Way NE
Lafayette Radio Electronics 1210 First Ave
Magnolia Camera & Hi Fi 2231 32nd W
Pacific Electronics Sales 1209 First Ave
Seattle Radio Supply 2117 Second Ave
Seattle Stereo Center 2440 1st Ave S
I would love to hear from you. Do you recognize this brochure? Did you work in one of these stores? Drop me a line! Below is the rest of the brochure.
Just for fun I mapped the Stereo Dealers in this group. Watch for the upcoming Map of Retailers 1948-2000.Thank you to the Roush Collection.
In 1962, when he worked at Boeing and I was just a one-year-old baby, my Dad purchased a system from Seattle Stereo Center, for the then-princely sum of $800: Harman/Kardon TA5000X FM stereo/AM receiver, Garrard Type A/II turntable/changer with Shure M99 phono cartridge (I think that’s the right number), and a custom designed high-quality console cabinet (fruitwood?) with British-made B&K loudspeakers. It was a very, very good sounding audio system and obviously left an enormous impression on me in terms of a lifelong love of recorded music and high-quality home audio.