My recollections from the past--
1) When I was young, in the 1950's and early 1960's we had Allied Radio in Chicago which carried everything electronic--WW2 surplus, tubes, variable capacitors, Knight kits, which were largely shortwave, etc. It was huge and the center of the local radio universe. They had a big catalog at the store and by mail.
2) Heathkit was mail order only out of Benton Harbor, MI. They made kits with the most wonderful instructions. Their products were mostly amateur radio, but they also make home stereo and television kits. I bought a telephone ringer that played classical music. The company was advertised in magazines and had a catalog. It was a company that really did it all right.
3) The biggest boost to stereo and hi-fi in the U.S. was the Vietnam war. Huge numbers of men returned with Japanese stereo receivers, speakers, tape decks, etc. purchased from PACEX in Tokyo or NEX I think in Okinawa, and of course right from the local war zone PX.
4) In the late 1960's and 1970's there were many stereo shops throughout the U.S. Pacific Stereo stays in my mind. These were easily accessible in strip centers and shopping malls, quiet, subdued lighting and filled with racks of beautiful stereos radiating yellow, green, and blue light from the tuning scales...It was quite a sensory experience just to go inside the shop. There were a few very high end stereo shops with product names I did not recognize and very high prices. Then these all disappeared in the late 1980-1990's...
5) Retail prices were only low in the PACEX/NEX catalogs These vintage receivers, etc. referenced in #4 were expensive, but there was a range of prices. The kits considerable less so.
6) There were quite a few magazines as I recall, but I never was too interested.
7) Headphone did not seem to be a prominent hi-fi item in the above decades. They were primarily used for communications. Or maybe I was just not interested.
I do own a beautiful Pioneer stereo headphone with its own 8x10x8 inch silk lined box from PACEX. The phones look like 2 snowballs connected by a wire strap with leather over the strap and the earmuff insulators are leather too. They are 8 ohms impedance.
8) My own experience of the internet is to become aware of so many products, but it is too easy to access products and very easy to buy.
F
