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old, extinct Liverpool Hifi Emporiums

Earlier in the thread you mentioned Comet's warehouse on Field Lane, Litherland. I started working in Bootle in 1985 & never went in the shop but recall the building. I mentioned it to a few of my colleagues the other day, all born & bred in the North Liverpool area & they thought I was talking a load of rubbish.

Don't know if you've seen the Springwell Road / Monfa Road area lately, known as the Klondyke estate, due for demolition, mostly unoccupied properties now. I bought an LP12 of a guy who lived in a small flat on Springwell Road, he had an LP12 / Akito / K9 - Naim Nait 2 - Royd A7 loudspeakers.
 
I took photies of the Klondyke just months before they started to flatten it. (They're all on Flickr under 'walriley.') I lived at the top end of Springwell, the other side of Harris drive. Were the flats next to the Presbyterian church, or further up on the opposite side opposite Mount avenue?
 
Not the section where the chip shop was, the other side of the pedestrian zone area, probably opposite Mount Avenue.

Great photos by the way! St Wilfrids school, I take it from the dates on your photos your well aware those buildings will soon be no more as well. Amalgamating with St George of England.
 
Ta for that!
I found out that they were making plans to demolish St Wilfrids on the Bootle History website so legged down to snap it one weekend. So much of the area is changing it's getting hard to keep up.
 
gef said:
I don't remember the Woolton Village shop, but I've purchased something at each of the other shops mentioned.
Brady's was just great when it was in Smithdown Road. I never had enough money to buy what I wanted (needed!) - but I remember buying various cartridges. headphones and two A & R A60's over the years.
The only thing that I bought there that I still have is a pair of Foundation Fred 2 stands which are still doing great service beneath a pair of ATC SCM 11's (thanks Lefty - they're sounding great).
Beaver Radio - I bought an Armstrong Tuner, an early Sony Minidisc deck, a Target rack (which i still use) and loads of records (if I had any money left from visiting Rumbelows basement next door).
Better HiFi - wasn't there long, but I did buy an NVA AP30 integrated amp - which I have only recently retired after 25 years of stirling service! I remember the advert in the Echo for their closing down sale (bailiff's job I believe) - but no real bargains - all overpriced.
P & A Audio - Denon 3 head cassette deck, pair of Wharfedale 505.2 speakers (which I still have).
I used to work in Hardman Radio on Dale Street and sold popular items of the day - Acoustic Research speakers (AR 4X, AR6, LST's), Pioneer PL12D turntables as wel as more esoteric direct drive TT's, Revox and Technics Reel to Reels and some of the first Cassette Decks to be produced. I remember that a favourite trick to impress - was to play some loud music
through some early Monitor Audio speakers produced (MA 3's maybe?) and light a match in front of the port on the front baffle - which would then be blown out by the tremendous 'chuff' of wind. (I have only ever used sealed box speakers since then).
I bought loads of gear from the shop - too many items to list (you'll be glad to hear).

Sorry for rambling - just brought back so many memories.
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I remember Doug very well, what a character. I bought MANY items from there in Smithdown Rd, and then in Warrington when they moved their high end stuff there.
 
walriley said:
Andrew, please don't take my comments out of context. They aren't for one minute intended as a criticism! The..errrr...'relaxed' nature of the Smithdown road shop was actually quite charming, and i bought quite a few components on different occasions from there without any cause for complaint. I have visited the Warrington shop a while back, and it is exactly as you described. It was just the amusingly idiosyncratic nature of the Liverpool branch that i was remarking upon, and that it was a shame it had to close.
Regards
Wal
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I remember Dougs Mum serving in Smithdown Rd, she always reminded me of Samanthas Aunt Clara in the TV series Bewitched!
 
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?
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Ace Audio was good - I bought my IMF Studio Monitoers there, and when I was demoeing them, I heard something that changed my life - Joni Mitchell's album Blue was playing on them, which I went straight to Beaver Radio to buy it. I've bought every one of her albums since.
 
DougBradyHiFi said:
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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I am one of that customer base, and I regularly borrowed VERY expensive equipment from Doug, sometimes for Months on end! He had a lovely old Rover 3500S P6.
 
captain said:
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.
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W.A.Brady in Smithdown Rd was like a Hi-Fi club. People used to regularly meet there for group demos, it was a great place to buy good equipment.
 
strummer said:
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.
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I remember buying my 1st 'proper' TT off Doug, a Garrard 401. Doug tried to convince me to the LP12, which was £15 more expensive (which was a LOT to me then) than the Garrard (chassis version), at £56!!
 
nitrous said:
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 :(
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Beaver Radio - just hearing that name takes me back 50 yrs!
 
walriley said:
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!
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Yes they did!!
 
Spiderous said:
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.
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My last purchase from Doug was an Audio Research SP8 MkII, which was about £800 I seem to remember - very expensive in those days.
 
cooky1257 said:
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!
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I remember that place having wall to wall speakers.
 
Tony L said:
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.
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I never knew about the Better Hi-Fi place - weird.
 
strummer said:
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.
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Why the ** within Naim?
 
walriley said:
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?
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Yeah, someone here said it was.
 
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