I was thinking the other day about all the audio stores that were around when I was a kid

tonykay

Yes I remember Walt, he had a great love for audio,  at Westlake audio. He modified a Citation preamp for me. Rogersound Labs bought a direct drive turntable from them on Black friday they open up at midnight that day. They also had a division called Upscale audio in that store and thats where Kevin with Upscale Audio today worked if I'm not mistaken. I believe that store on Ventura blvd might have been called 2001 audio and he used to be in torrance old town mall but thats going way back as I remember their were 2 or 3 stores on ventura blvd. Best of Luck 

When I was a kid high end to me was a Sony integrated stereo.   in my town the best selection was at Jewelcor.   There was Glick Audio that sold McIntosh and Yamaha and others but that was way out of my price range.   Radio Shack and Lafayette Radio helped fill the gap.   As a teen there was also the "Groove and Tube" hifi shop.

Taters, the new store is David Michael Audio in Royal Oak.  He does indeed carry a number of high end brands, Magico and Constellation Audio being a couple I have heard, but will probably never afford.  It's a pretty nice store, still a work in progress last time I was there (about 18 months ago).  It is open by appointment only, but there are occasional new product demonstrations which is when I went.  I have yet to buy anything, though he is now the local VPI dealer so I may need to visit him for parts or accessories.  

ji35, I've been in Harry's place many times, including when he was in Birmingham, but the last time was at least eight years ago.  I only live a mile away, but as he has gotten older he has gotten more detached from his love of audio.  Most times when I visited it was just Harry there and the conversation quickly moved from audio to politics, I didn't mind it so much but I would spend a couple of hours there and never get to the point of why I visited.  Our conversations were also frequently interrupted when another customer came in, which is totally understandable, but the "new" guy would get the audio attention I couldn't seem to get.  He also took exception to my buying used equipment off Audiogon, can't blame him for that, but he made me feel unwelcome, even though I had bought quite a few things from him, so I haven't gone back.  Last time I saw him was at the Audiokharma show about five years ago.  The new Magnepan 1.7 were the only speaker he had on display, which coincidentally, were what I really wanted to hear.  No one else was listening so I asked him to play something he had brought.  He played it and then began talking loudly to several other people about 20 feet away.  After a few minutes he said "enough of this crap" and changed the CD without saying anything to me or even acknowledging me.  Guess I knew where I stood with him...

Here in northern Ca. we had a store with a great owner and staff that where very friendly. Would encourage you to take a item home and demo it. Would let you listen to equipment way out of your budget even tho they knew you could not afford it. All ways made you feel welcome, even if you did not purchase any thing. Audio FXs is missed in northern Ca. 

My experience is the exact opposite of pmotz . I live a few hours away. But always plenty of music of various great equipment. Haven't been in about 3 years