Fading Into Oblivion

There's currently only a few still remaining but there was once a time when every decent sized city or town had several stores where you could shop for components to make up your dream stereo system. Speakers, turntables, receivers, tape decks, etc ..... And all manner of add ons that would better your sound quality and light up like a Christmas tree. And a dozen or more major brands with their lines of equipment. There were periods of fashion where silver was the preferred color. Black had its time as well. People would browse up and down the aisles like it was a record store, oooohhhhhhing and ahhhhhhing especially at the speakers, where size used to matter. Each visit was an adventure. These stores were popular hang out spots in the 1970's and 80's.

Many years ago, I purchased a graphic equalizer. I never really learned how to properly use it and never knew the proper verbiage. It had 16-20 different sliding knobs/levers where you could manipulate and play with the audio. All I knew was to experiment from the central setting of each slider ...... up, down, down, up ..... find a spot you enjoyed and leave it alone for a song or a day or a week, then experiment some more.

People would share and discuss the wattage of their receivers/amplifiers. I never got into that. I always had a little volume to spare if suddenly called for by changing situations ..... you know, in case your parents left home for awhile or you noticed that the neighbors were away. I recall once putting on the Eagles song,  The King of Hollywood, with its biting guitar riff and sleazy vocals and having both floors of the house shaking. It wasn't heavy metal or punk or even approaching such but it was rock!! And getting lost in the big sound!! Kids these days with all their headphone and ear bud wearing ways, never experience that. Unless they have some damned good, extremely caring, music loving parents or a old weird uncle like me.

Everything always looked so pretty on the store shelves. How does one choose? I used to think that if I ever were to get rich, I'd build a home with six or seven listening rooms and equip each with a different sound system. Instead of collecting classic cars, I'd collect stereo equipment.