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old, extinct Liverpool Hifi Emporiums

walriley

walriley

Drum nut. Music nut. pix nut
Just going through my hi-fi history on Facebook, and started to think about where i'd bought the gear i'd been through. Some serious blasts from the past! How about these?

Ace Audio (in St John's precinct). Always remember the Revox turntable, Quad 303 amps and KEF 105 daleks in there.

Better Hi Fi (on Cook st). Was a good shop, but the parking was terrible!

Laskys (which used to be Hardman radio on Dale st). The headphone booth there had 'Upside Down' by Diana Ross on repeat play for about 2 years.
Again, terrible parking.

W.A. Brady (Smithdown rd). Weird little shop, that was! looked like a jumble sale on the ground floor. Did get stuff from there though.

Not forgetting the Comet Warehouse on Field Lane, Litherland. Listed loads of hi-fi gear (in particular, all that champers-coloured Marantz gear), but carried bugger-all stock. A trait that their superstores carry on with to this day!

There was one briefly at the top of Bold st, but the name escapes me. 'Musical Notes' or 'Basically Sound' or sommeat?

Have I missed any?
 
walriley said:
Just going through my hi-fi history on Facebook, and started to think about where i'd bought the gear i'd been through. Some serious blasts from the past! How about these?

Ace Audio (in St John's precinct). Always remember the Revox turntable, Quad 303 amps and KEF 105 daleks in there.

Better Hi Fi (on Cook st). Was a good shop, but the parking was terrible!

Laskys (which used to be Hardman radio on Dale st). The headphone booth there had 'Upside Down' by Diana Ross on repeat play for about 2 years.
Again, terrible parking.

W.A. Brady (Smithdown rd). Weird little shop, that was! looked like a jumble sale on the ground floor. Did get stuff from there though.

Not forgetting the Comet Warehouse on Field Lane, Litherland. Listed loads of hi-fi gear (in particular, all that champers-coloured Marantz gear), but carried bugger-all stock. A trait that their superstores carry on with to this day!

There was one briefly at the top of Bold st, but the name escapes me. 'Musical Notes' or 'Basically Sound' or sommeat?

Have I missed any?
Click to expand...

Beaver Radio in Whitechapel, NEMS. Beaver Radio sold Quad stuff, amongst other brands, and also had a records section.
 
Ace Audio used to be on Renshaw street before the move to the precinct.
I bought a PL12D from Ace Audio and later some Mission 770's, a Technics 120/SME and a Goodmans 110 from Hardmans, a Supex 901e from Brady's at a time when the old lady was perched downstairs and they sold cameras. The shop at top of bold st wasn't open long-I got a B200 from them.72/180 from Better hiFi. You left out Beaver radio!
 
I remember all of those bar the Comet (too far out of town for me!)! I bought stuff from Ace Audio (Grado F1+, Ariston RD80), Laskeys (Kef 101), Better Hi-Fi (Naim 62/Hi/140), Bradys (Kans, various carts). I also remember the one at the top of Bold St, though likewise I can't recall the name.
 
Beaver Radio. Of course! How did i miss them? I bought stuff from there as well! Remember the record section well too. Sevenoaks was briefly on Lord st, too IIRC.
 
Let's see. I got Rega 2 plus various carts and Castle Durhams from Bradys.
Hitachi ht-20S turntable from Ace Audio. NAD 3120 and Rotel cassette deck and Sennheiser phones from Beaver radio. Cambridge Audio p70 amp and Marantz CD50SE from Better Hifi. An Aiwa amp from Comet for my birthday, when I was 12, and Pioneer SE4 headphones from Laskys, cos ms ross only did it for me through them!
 
hi tony and all, i used to work at w a bradys in the mid/late 80s it was a fun shop to work in as a saturday lad of 16, the bug started when i bought my a60 traded in for 15 quid i remember, all the boys in the gang had shitty ghetto blasters.
 
I only ever drooled over stuff in those places, as I moved away from Merseyside when I was 19 and never owned a hifi till my mid 20s. I spent ages in Beaver Radio and NEMS agonising over which records to buy though!
 
Captain, i might have got the Durhams off you! Auditioned 'em on a Saturday against some others and liked them, but really wanted to walk off with the Linn Axis used to a/b them all! I remember a young lad doing the demo. I would have bloody loved to have worked in a shop like that!
 
captain said:
hi tony and all, i used to work at w a bradys in the mid/late 80s it was a fun shop to work in as a saturday lad of 16, the bug started when i bought my a60 traded in for 15 quid i remember, all the boys in the gang had shitty ghetto blasters.
Click to expand...

Ah memories of bradys,i bought my A60 there too:).
Also remember taking my Rega 3 in which had started going backwards.The deck was disapeared into the back to return 5 minutes later with a new motor fitted...and for NOWT:D

Ian.
 
Bought my first hi-fi age 16 from the Comet Field lane store. I lived just up the road in Sonning Ave. Rotel TT, Akai Receiver and a pair of Solavox speakers. These lasted many a party... the Solavox are still in the attic of Mum and Dad's place though I dont think I'll be using them again :)

After UNi it was a move to Scotland and Bob Ritchie's den of iniquity.
 
Yeah, i know Sonning ave. Went out with a girl from there. I was from Springwell rd meself, so dad had to drive me there to get my amp. Solavox, haven't heard of that make in years! Wasn't that a Comet in-house brand?
 
Walriley - yes Solavox were Comet's own brand - I owned a pair for about a month in early 1979, soon part exchanged elsewhere for a pair of AR18's !
 
A friend of mine once said "I was in town today, checking out beaver". He said this in front of his girlfriend, which I thought was quite brave of him - until he pointed out that he managed the Liverpool Richer Sounds shop, and was doing a covert price comparison to make sure he didn't fall foul of their "If you can find it cheaper....." price promise.

I bought my first "hi-fi" separate from Beaver, a Fisher DD turntable (awful) which I played through a Sharp ghetto blaster, and before that remember being really angry with my mum for not advancing me several weeks pocket money so I could buy Kraftwerk's Man Machine from there. As a kid I used to like going in there and trying all the different headphones on.

I later bought Mission 70MKII's, a Rotel turntable, and a QED amp (can't remember the model, but it was green), all from WA Brady. What I rember most about that shop is they used to leave very expensive cartridges just lying around on mantlepieces inbetween demos.
 
Another past customer of Brady and Beaver Radio - when i first started work i used to spend every lunchtime in there! Drooling....
Happy days :)
 
Brady's was mad like that. Appeared quite ramshackle when you first walked in, with almost a youth club ambience, but it had a big rep for quality gear and i never had reason to fault them over the stuff i purchased there. The 'expensive carts lying around' i remember well. It's a wonder none of them got nicked - or did they?
And yes, the name Beaver Radio was perfect for adolescent humour!
 
I remember all those shops.

Bought Dual 505 in Beaver (no sniggering at the back). Nikko tuner in Laskys or whatever it was called before that. Cartridges and target turntable stand from Brady's Smithdown. Bought too much from Better Hi Fi, really missed them when the went :(
 
bradys was ramshackle, there was never any push to sell this or that, just really whatever made the customer happy, the thing i think back now, that was real benefit was it was just a house with dem rooms that were previously bedrooms so most customers were happy when they got home as there kit often sounded better than our demo rooms. better hifi always had a better set up. best thing i remember about it all were custmers records for listening. in the days before internet your peers were never the best choice for spending on vinyl. violent femmes hallowed ground blew me away, i didnt want the customer to leave he got a demo of everything i could find.
 
Bought my 1st ever kit paid with my own money from Beaver. A Sony boom box.

Bought my 1st seperates from Better. N**m unfortunately. The purchase was protracted & it was clear they were on stop from suppliers. Went a few weeks later & they were gone.
 
Hi. Andrew from Doug Brady Hi-Fi in Warrington. Although W.A.Brady & Son in Liverpool has gone - along with the other outlets - the staff at our Warrington shop used to work at W.A. Liverpool. Doug has now retired ( he turned 70 last year ) and our shop is run by enthusiasts Jon, Stephen, Dan and Andrew. We are passionate about music and sell some of the worlds very best hi-fi equipment. Whilst Brady's was a bit ramshackle in previous years, our Warrington shop has recently been refurbished and is now very modern, clean and tidy, in keeping with the high standards that our customers and suppliers expect. We have a fairly laid back approach to selling, we only sell things we like and have a customer base dating back to the late 70's, we still get people upgrading their 30 year old systems ! Most customers become more like friends over the years, that is how it's always been for our business and will remain so.
 
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