Winnipeg Audio Retailers

[jim campbell]

welcome back to canada ken.were you around during the western sound american hi fi days?

[Ken Pachkowsky]

welcome back to canada ken.were you around during the western sound american hi fi days?

I bought my first pair of JBL's at Western Sound on Portage Avenue. Bob Massey sold me a pair of L26's. I fried the woofers playing "Crime of the Century" with a Dynaco 400 and Pat 3 pre.

You a baby boomer as well?

Ken

[jim campbell]

my first jb's were l 26 decades and i had a pat 3 with a 410 all from advance.i wanted the 36's but i had to compromise to afford the other stuff,a hk linear tracking table,hk 630 receiver,and hk cassette deck.the 26's went to western sound when i upgraded.if you got them from western used in the mid to late 70's they may have been mine.i traded the 26's plus about $800 for what western called 030-3's;l136a's le5-2's and 077's in about 5 cu ft mdf ported boxes.i always wondered who built those as they never were a factory system.total price listed at $1400 and new l 300's were new at $3000.i picked up the le85 horns from i think advance and had the cabs made up by a friend paul emler who had a wood shop on goulet. later when some thief broke into my house he stole the pat 3 which was sitting under the table not patched in and left the ar sp6a which was patched in.the jb's were disconnected and moved to the door but for whatever reason not taken.did you know mcculloch and phil from american?i think around then they were on hargrave and heavily into sae/ tannoy.if memory serves advents were selling pretty good then, thorens tables and hk citation and the ever popular phase linear amps.advance touted the big infinity line sources for i think $3 k or so.ken roseman was the honcho at advances high end room then and brenda was the cute receptionist. i remember them actually sending a tech to the house to cure a minor problem ......no charge.those were the days i guess

[Ken Pachkowsky]

my first jb's were l 26 decades and i had a pat 3 with a 410 all from advance..the 26's went to western sound when i upgraded.if you got them from western used in the mid to late 70's they may have been mine.i traded the 26's plus about $800 for what western called 030-3's;l136a's le5-2's and 077's in about 5 cu ft mdf ported boxes.i always wondered who built those as they never were a factory system..ken roseman was the honcho at advances high end room then and brenda was the cute receptionist.

The cabs were made by Roger Bedards father. Roger was Western Sounds head tech and went on to rep for White Electronics Corp out of Toronto. They distributed Teac and Tascam. His father built all the cabs that Western Sound supplied to customers. He did fine work.

Ken Roseman and Ron Sewicki were buds as was Ted Telesky(he ran the service department at Advance). I bought my Phase Linear 700B's from Advance as well as a Citation 16 for my 4350's.

Funny, I don't remember Brenda and I was a serious skin hound in those days.

At home, Ken had a pair of Magnepan Tympani 3A's that were impressive. I can remember hearing Burton Cummings first solo album for the first time on those.

I could lie and say it seems like yesterday.....but it doesn't:p

Ken

[jim campbell]

if i remember right and i often dont western had a sound room downstairs and the setup i bought was side by side with a set of 030's and after an a-b comparison i took the 3 ways.did you ever see another set like that.brenda worked at advance for around 10 years when the counter was in the middle of the main floor.roseman was at the january sale this year helping out,but i dont think he's in audio any more.sewiki was the guy that they sent to my house,and i ran into brenda last fall working at a discount outlet in st james.now they have macintosh,b/w definitive technology and are far too involved with ht and cell phones,and those annoying rolling boom boxes on wheels for my taste.geez when did i turn into my dad.

[John]

What happened to the Cary line that Advance was pushing for the last few years???

[jim campbell]

there is still some cary stuff around and some moon stuff but i really cant say what direction they are taking.there is some magna stuff andfor a while they had some b+w 800 series but it seems to me that ht and all that other stuff is squeezing out the audiophile stuff.its been some time since i stopped by american and that was a fairly small operation.i think a lot of what they had was used.bill mcculloch is still around but it too is mostly used stuff and you have to stay in the loop to catch the deals as they come up.i dont know if there is enough interest here to support an audiophile kind of place.i would guess that most of us are middle aged guys that the market tends to ignore in favor of mp3 ,i pod and those awful trunk rattling,drum and bass spewing, screaming muffler equipped little 4 cyl hondas that plague the streets.its been a long time since i felt comfortable or even welcome dropping by an audio dealer just to catch up on the latest.time was that i auditioned speakers at home,amplifiers were loaned when mine was in the shop.the last time i had to send my bryston in they wanted $50 for a cardboard box to ship it to toronto for warranty.dead center of the boomers 1952

[Don McRitchie]

American Hi-Fi has a small retail operation in the Exchange district, but they are doing some really high end custom work. It's still run by Dennis Penner as a one man operation. He has the Wilson and Krell franchises and have had one of their installs (Wilson Grand SLAMM's, Krell FPB 600's etc.) profiled in Stereophile's former home theatre magazine. I haven't been in Advance for a long time but was really disappointed with what little high end audio gear they had at my last visit. I used to deal mainly with Ron Sewicki there, back when he lived in the basement of his parent's house with a massive Audio Research/Magneplanar setup and around 5000 lp's. I haven't heard of him for decades. I occasionally drop in on Stefanko and Creative Audio, but they don't have too much that interests me. Stefanko is the only one that has any interest in JBL and he has brought in SVA's and Century Golds in the past. However, I know a number of locals that have had unpleasant experiences dealing with him.

[jim campbell]

who handled the jb traffic back in the late 70's early 80's?i think i saw a summit at advance and i got my decades there but i just dont remember anyone with any kind of inventory.oakwood was the altec guy and the big tascam stuff and if memory serves fostex.i considered fostex horns once after blowing up mine.dennis penner was on hargrave before moving to carlton st and had tannoys.i never did see things like fultons outside of one guys house and never had the presence of mind to ask where they came from.i think a trip down to american is in order just to torture myself.advance has been circuit citified. i got a bunch of mobile fidelity cd's from stefanko.creative audio gets the odd thing of interest.are you familiar with the fultons?

[Ken Pachkowsky]

who handled the jb traffic back in the late 70's early 80's?

The JBL Canadian Distributor at that time was Gould Marketing out of Montreal. Herb Goldstein was the main man at that time.

Ken