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Whatever Happened To SAE?

I remember in the seventies walking into a Cal Stereo store in the LA area and seeing the SAE equipment. I was a college student back then and owned a reciever. The SAE stuff with it's black metal and white graphics looked sooo imposing and impressive. Amp, preamp, tuner and EQ all in one stack....man, if I could ever own something like that one day! By the time I could afford decent equipment, SAE has been long gone.

Was their stuff any good?

What happened to them?

thanks.......mitch
128x128mitch4t
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
Cal Stereo, I remember that place? I forgot where it was located though.
narrod
1,064 posts
 
The went bankrupt more than twenty years ago.
tafka_steve
115 posts
 
Yup, the Bongiorno-designed, Mk IIICM was a nice amplifier (before the black stuff).

Didn't they become ATI?
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drubin
3,275 posts
 
I bought my real first system at Cal Hi-Fi in 1968. I made poor choices for the most part.
jafox
1,466 posts
 
Oh yes, the Cal Stereo days. Tom Campbell and the constant commercials on KMET and KLOS. The cool rock days. What about Pacific Stereo, University Stereo, Federated Group, Music+, Licorice Pizza, The Wherehouse, etc? What we all wanted back then we would demote to using today as a door stop. Man oh man how things have changed.

Oh yes, and SAE made a cool parametric equalizer that I owned for a short while. It was fun to play with and alter the sound but even on my midfi setup at the time, it was clear that it did more harm than good. So I sold it through the old "recycler". Does that even exist any more?

John
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