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old, extinct Liverpool Hifi Emporiums

Colin L said:
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.
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Is The Music room still going up 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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What year did Smiffy rd close?
 
DougBradyHiFi said:
Hi Wal. No offence taken. Sorry if you thought I was upset, on the contrary the Liverpool shop was organised chaos, but had a 'hi-fi club' atmosphere. Mrs.B would often scare customers and reps alike with her matter of fact approach, even Roy Gandy, head of Rega, was ordered out of the shop once and told to eat his banana outside ! No one was immune. Back then we were selling more Linn Sondeks and Rega's than all the other U.K. dealers put together, amazing times. That's why I know so much about this equipment, setting up all those LP12's, etc. A real treat to get paid for doing something you are passionate about. Those were the days.
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I remember doing some Oracle setups for Doug, as I got very good at it, having owned several versions.
 
I had a summer "job" in Brady's (Smithdown) for a couple of years in the late 80s, and indeed also spent a little time in Covent Garden helping at weekends. I learnt a lot from there (in terms of hifi, more importantly music, and how to listen to people - helping them get what they wanted rather than what was simply the latest craze) that I've taken with me ever since. Great people across all the shops as they were then (four locations), and I've no doubt the same ethos exists now. I've been grateful to Doug for the opportunity he gave a local scouse lad back then, and for what I gained from my experience with the team - great to know it wasn't just me that felt it was a truly different and great place to be. Just to say though, my knees and lower back have still not recovered from shifting 'bariks and AR44s up and down those blasted stairs!!

Al
 
Joolzdee said:
Cook Street wasn't it? Just off Castle Street.
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I bought my first ‘proper’ ‘speakers from Better HIFI - Mordaunt Short MS 3.30. I still have them some 35 years later! Also bought a Yamaha tape deck (kx530? Maybe) — I couldn’t afford the high end stuff I’d drool over in there — but they treated me as if I was spending thousands.
George Henry Lee (aka John Lewis) used to have some decent quality gear in their Audio department back in the day too.
I bought a few things from Beaver Radio (that became Beaver Hifi). They’d have some very good deals on occasion.
There was a hifi (audio- visual) shop out near Crosby whose name escapes me. I bought my first CD player there in 87/88? A Pioneer PD6100. I wish I could remember what that place was called. It took 3 buses to get there after reading their price list in a newspaper advert. Ha! Pre-internet eh?
 
vinylslug said:
I bought my first ‘proper’ ‘speakers from Better HIFI - Mordaunt Short MS 3.30. I still have them some 35 years later! Also bought a Yamaha tape deck (kx530? Maybe) — I couldn’t afford the high end stuff I’d drool over in there — but they treated me as if I was spending thousands.
George Henry Lee (aka John Lewis) used to have some decent quality gear in their Audio department back in the day too.
I bought a few things from Beaver Radio (that became Beaver Hifi). They’d have some very good deals on occasion.
There was a hifi (audio- visual) shop out near Crosby whose name escapes me. I bought my first CD player there in 87/88? A Pioneer PD6100. I wish I could remember what that place was called. It took 3 buses to get there after reading their price list in a newspaper advert. Ha! Pre-internet eh?
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I bought a Rega Planar 3 from Better Hi Fi but quite soon after traded it in against my first LP12. My Grandma passed away and left me some money. Not sure how pleased she'd have been if she knew I'd spent a fair chunk of it on a turntable!!
Was the shop in Crosby P&A Audio? They were there until a couple of years ago and then closed down. They had a branch in Birkdale Village too around 1987/90. That closed and they took over Southport Hifi Centre (and are still trading).
 
Tony L said:
Yes, you are right. I knew it was around there somewhere! Was there a little second hand camera shop on Brunswick St? I think I was getting confused with that.
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There may well have been a camera shop there. I recall several in Liverpool in those days. At least 3 on Bold St alone.
 
I used to walk past P+A Audio on my way to and from getting the train to Merchant Taylors School and I have a feeling that they had a GyroDec spinning in the window back in the early 80's which led to my Gyro obsession! I bought a new old stock Ariston RD110SL from their Birkdale store around 1991/2 which I still have and my daughter now uses. Does anybody remember the hi-fi shows organised by P&A Audio in Crosby in the mid 1980's? I still remember going a couple of times and hearing Phil Collins No Jacket Required via Mission CD player and that big Mission power amp which had their logo carved into it being played into Celestion SL600's. It sounded amazing and I couldn't believe the level of bass coming out of those small Celestions (they were hideously inefficient though!). I also recall hearing the Bose 901 at the show too and was very impressed by their incredible sense of scale. Those were my very first hi-fi shows as a 14-15 year old and the whole experience was the introduction to a whole new world... I had been avidly buying hi-fi mags since around 1981 (aged 12!) but I hadn't really heard any of the kit people were writing about until those shows. Here I am 40 years later and I still go to every show with the same enthusiasm as that wide eyed 15 year old schoolboy did!! The odd thing is that having been sort of 'in' the industry as a reviewer for the past twenty odd years (on and off), I have come to realise that the greatest pity is that I never actually worked full time in hi-fi. I should have got into one of the manufacturers as a sales guy or something but I never did. Everytime I meet hi-fi people or am at an industry show or factory tour I just realise they are 'my tribe' and it's the thing I care about most passionately in the world. The thrill of great audio has just never gone away at all. I've just received a nice pre/power amp combination in from Chord to review and I'm still excited, still hungry to hear them, still geeking out over the cool internal lighting... It kind of reminds me of that famous speech by Steve Jobs to Graduates where he says "Stay hungry, stay foolish". In short choose a job that gets you up in the morning and inspires you, so few of us ever do.

As for the other Liverpool stores I have fond memories of hearing my first Linn Kan's at Better Hi-Fi. There was a guy who worked there who always reminded me of David Bowman from 2001 a Space Odyssey lol!! (I'm presuming it wasn't really him ;-) Nice people though and they treated me as a young guy with no money with real respect and enthusiasm. My memory of the store was that it was located in very flash premises - kind of like an old bank or something, but that may just be my mind playing tricks! I do remember drooling and dreaming about all the Naim olive in there though!

My first hi-fi component ever was my original series Mordaunt Short MS30 loudspeakers which I bought aged just 16 from George Henry Lee (wonderful store) and I had them in my bedroom coupled up to Dad's Technics system downstairs via a huge run of 5amp mains cable! I couldn't afford proper speaker cable back then so rang Mordaunt Short for advice. It was 23rd December and unbelievably Mr Short answered and very kindly listened to this awe struck schoolboy wanting cable advice and it was he who suggested the mains stuff. It worked very well actually!

My fondest memories however are for Hi-Fi Systems in Poulton Road, Southport. The store was not far from KGV Sixth Form college where I was doing A levels and so many lunchtimes and free periods were spent listening to whatever incredible Naim/Linn Isobarik or similar system they had in the demo room with a cup of tea! The place was run by two brothers (Andy and Chris?) who were ex engineers and were living the dream running a hi-fi shop. So friendly, so good natured and I used to beg them for a Saturday job but alas it never came to pass. I bought a few Linn records from them. More importantly I bought my Naim Nait there and they kept it for me while I saved up the rest of the money from a bar job. When they were closing down which I think was probably just after I finished university in 1991 they actually phoned me and said cryptically "We have something for you here". I went in and they gave me some Linn K20 cable which was incredibly nice of them because I was still using my 5 amp mains wire. I still have the K20 and it's now wired into my Kan's in my daughter's bedroom! I actually did a study on setting up a hi-fi shop as part of my business studies degree module and I'm pretty sure Chris and Andy contributed information to that!

I think I only made it to WA Brady once as it was hard to get to without a car but I have memories of going in and listening to headphones in Beaver radio. I remember really loving some Quart MB series cans but they were way out of my price range.

It's good to see a few of these stores have survived and continue to prosper. Retail presence is important - it's where 15 year old boys (and girls) get inspired and it's where dreams happen and aspirations and plans are laid. Those aspirations may take decades to achieve but getting there in the end is even more memorable after years of longing. That's one of the pleasures of growing up I suppose, that something that was way out of reach like a Sondek suddenly becomes achievable secondhand in middle age.

Birdseed
 
I remember going to a P&A Audio event at the Blundellsands Hotel.

Hi-fi Systems was a wonderful flat earth shop. Great guys, from South Wales if I remember? I bought my old Rega Planar 3 from there after going inside to enquire about a CD player.
 
You're right
Nigel said:
I remember going to a P&A Audio event at the Blundellsands Hotel.

Hi-fi Systems was a wonderful flat earth shop. Great guys, from South Wales if I remember? I bought my old Rega Planar 3 from there after going inside to enquire about a CD player.
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They were from Wales you are right - I always wonder what happened to them?? What did they do next??? Anybody know?? It was a wonderful flat earth shop just as you say - probably my favourite hi-fi dealer ever!
 
Spiderous said:
P&A closed a couple of years back now; the building is up for rent / sale.
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Indeed. Just when I was wanting to listen to a big Yamaha integrated too.
I didn't know that there were so many here with a Liverpool connection. I have lived in the city for ten years, Mancunian by birth and all the way through my teens.
 
Bought my first Linn-Naim systems from Brady's in Smithdown Rd - it sure was fun back then. Remember playing with Gale 401s and 135s when they first appeared. I started with LP12/Grace/Supex, then 12s/Snaps/bolt case 250. Moved to LP12/early slim pillar Ittok/Asak, 32.5/Hi/250 and Bricks (oh dear…). I still have a mint original mofi DSOTM I bought there. I was a tad younger then…
 
I bought a Denon DRM-07 cassette deck from Better Hi-Fi in 87, which I used with active Diamonds from George Henry Lee. Then a year or two later bought a Rotel RA820A and some Royd A7s from them, then a pair of Rega Ela 1.25, the best vintage, from them in 94 (still my main speaker). Didn't have any issues with Better, thought they were decent. Repaired my Denon free of charge too. I used to walk past P&A Audio every day in the early 80s on my way to school.
 
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