Remembering Pacific Stereo

[abby normal]

i remember buying a BSR cassette deck from them, it was the first "logic controlled" deck i had. it made decent copies of whatever i recorded on it, esp. if i used the included Dbx NR. i enjoyed visiting the place and missed it when they went belly-up.

 

[gene_stl]

The only times I was in the St. Louis Pacific Stereo (in the suburb of Crestwood MO iirc) was when I went with my (late)stereo buddy. He was a complete genius at getting newspapers early and buying whatever desireable stuff was on offer when grandpa the stereophile died. He also recognized early that when store managers have orphan pieces of gear , stuff without boxes, returns, items to be discontinued etc, they will give you very good deals , to "blow them out".
He was one of those great people that was ALWAYS , CONSTANTLY acquiring all manner of gear for other people. So he had a relationship with the PS manager (as well as many other st. louis store managers) to the point that if I wanted to buy something I sometimes would have him get it for me.

He later moved to New York City and worked at J&R Music World where he was much loved.

 

[atrocity]

I had a Kenwood KX-1030. 3 head w/test tone generator. My main cassette deck for 5 years. Made great tapes, no tension issues, thankfully. I bought it from Pacific Stereo when I worked there.

Yeah, at that point I'd been using a 3-head reel deck for years, so anything less was simply not going to happen. It was enormously satisfying to be able to hear the actual recording while you were making it!

And yeah, adjusting the bias for the exact tape you were using at the time was fantastic. I even had one--just one!--FerriChrome tape, though some jerk "borrowed" it from me and disappeared. I don't remember ever seeing another deck that could record on that stuff and it quickly disappeared from the market.

But I think I got about year out of it before it started acting up. I finally took it to a competent shop who make it perfect again, but it didn't take long before the old problem came back. I finally replaced it with an Aiwa AD-S40, which is still working to this day, though it did have to take a trip to the shop for a new belt a few years ago. Fortunately, that shop never said a thing about the absurdly profane title I'd written on the cassette that was stuck in it. The musical version of taking a video deck to a shop with porn stuck in it?

 

[Quad Linda]

That porn thing happened. Some guys had a few beers and left one in the Betamax from after the previous night's closing. Next morning, Mom at service dept. window hears "look, Mommy." Yup, you guessed it! Fortunately, we never heard any more of it. Whew!

 

[atrocity]

That porn thing happened. Some guys had a few beers and left one in the Betamax from after the previous night's closing. Next morning, Mom at service dept. window hears "look, Mommy." Yup, you guessed it! Fortunately, we never heard any more of it. Whew!

A former projectionist friend has some stories about film...we males really are clueless pigs sometimes.

By the way, in senility news, I wrote "video deck" because at the time I posted I could not remember "VCR".

 

[gene_stl]

We ARE pigs! I worked at a chain in St. Louis similar and before Pacific Stereo (CMC Custom Music Corporation which was originally Craig Car Stereo installation. It was a monster in its day in St. Louis) The big dogs and cool kids liked to entice attractive young saleswimmens into the stock room and misbehave in varying degrees there. Of course people got caught and interrupted. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so gross. And, I suspect some of the guys might have "programmed the interruption" to raise their alpha male status.

My misspent youdt. circa 1976-77