Tír Na HiFi

Mention of Tony Wall earlier reminds me of a hi fi shop he had in Grafton St. (Trinity end). That's where I got my very first 'real' hi fi - a used Sansui AU101 integrated amp + Sansui speakers which were later coupled with the Rega III I mentioned before. I still remember the one piece of advice I got from Tony, namely, never to ever switch on the amp with the speakers disconnected.

cybot wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 6:07 pm Mention of Tony Wall earlier reminds me of a hi fi shop he had in Grafton St. (Trinity end). That's where I got my very first 'real' hi fi - a used Sansui AU101 integrated amp + Sansui speakers which were later coupled with the Rega III I mentioned before. I still remember the one piece of advice I got from Tony, namely, never to ever switch on the amp with the speakers disconnected.

Yes! Decent shop that. Switzers had a decent Hifi section in the basement too but when audio video came in they kinda lost their audio direction.

Ivor wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 6:55 pm

cybot wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 6:07 pm Mention of Tony Wall earlier reminds me of a hi fi shop he had in Grafton St. (Trinity end). That's where I got my very first 'real' hi fi - a used Sansui AU101 integrated amp + Sansui speakers which were later coupled with the Rega III I mentioned before. I still remember the one piece of advice I got from Tony, namely, never to ever switch on the amp with the speakers disconnected.

Yes! Decent shop that. Switzers had a decent Hifi section in the basement too but when audio video came in they kinda lost their audio direction.

Yeah I remember good old Switzer's too.....

Two shops that have not been mentioned yet ..

a) Centresound in Lincoln place (opposite the back entrance to Trinity). It had a big sign on the wall outside with a "CS" (big elongated C and small S) looking like a speaker cone.

b) They had another branch in Renelagh in the early 70's ... on the left hand side coming from town.

[I also remember there were lots and lot of Akai open-reel tape recorders. Some strange models including one that also played 8-track tape cartridges].

James

james wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:16 pm Two shops that have not been mentioned yet ..

a) Centresound in Lincoln place (opposite the back entrance to Trinity). It had a big sign on the wall outside with a "CS" (big elongated C and small S) looking like a speaker cone.

I could be wrong but I think a young Noel Cloney worked there.

I remember all those shops. There was one one on Abbey street also for awhile. Heard Mission 7 somethings thought they were incredible out of this world. How innocent I was back then! Got my first hifi in AV imports which just had Pioneer Hifi rack systems in what I remember being a really nice basement on Merrion Square.
Switzers had a range of rack systems which were all the rage back then. It was so exotic when one had a Bush stereo LP player with built in speakers! It played 16/33/45 and 78's.

Also remember I think it was Soundsaround which was very near Easons on O'Connell street. First proper record shop I had come across. Back in those days there was record shops in Crumlin Shopping centre and Tallaght.

Slightly off topic but ..

I remember hearing, with my father who set it up, a really early (experimental) stereo broadcast from Radio Eireann (as it was then) with one channel on the radio and one on the TV .. It was exciting.

This was before FM.

I also remember (much much later) when the Radio Eireann FM radio transmission would switch from stereo to mono (or vice versa). So you would be listening to a Radio Eireann music programme in stereo and it would switch to the News in mono .. (with very audible clicks) ..


James

james wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:20 am Slightly off topic but ..

I remember hearing, with my father who set it up, a really early (experimental) stereo broadcast from Radio Eireann (as it was then) with one channel on the radio and one on the TV .. It was exciting.

This was before FM.

I also remember (much much later) when the Radio Eireann FM radio transmission would switch from stereo to mono (or vice versa). So you would be listening to a Radio Eireann music programme in stereo and it would switch to the News in mono .. (with very audible clicks) ..


James

Lovely story James. Brings back a memory of my father who rigged up a home made valve radio kit on the kitchen table which managed to pick up the St. Patrick's Day parade from America. This would have been around the very early 1940's. I wasn't even born then. Often times I wish I had have been, just to see his face.

Well as you're all old farts and I'm sporting a much more youthful crop of balding grey, I don't remember a lot of the places you're talking about. However, after the disappointment of my first (cheap) CD player in a midi system, I decided towards the end of secondary school that I was going to save up my money and get separates. I bought a What Hifi, went into Harry Moore, and asked about the latest Marantz, Rotel and Arcam models. The sales assistant took me to one side and told me I was in the wrong place, and that I needed to go to Cloney Audio in Blackrock. I got my dad to drive me out one Thursday evening (I was still in my school uniform, much to Joe Lanigan's amusement) and that was it, I was hooked.

I have to say, over the years both Noel and Ivan have been incredibly generous to me, putting up with my incessant tyre-kicking and letting me borrow a bewildering array of stuff, a lot of which we all knew I was never going to buy. If they were depending on me to keep their business afloat they'd now be living in cardboard boxes, but as I've promised to use them to fit out my yacht in Monaco when I get one, I suppose they have to keep me sweet. The generosity was at its most appreciated around 10 years ago when I lost my job and put my system up for sale. Not only did they list my kit for me, they also loaned me other gear to tide me over, saying I couldn't possibly be without a system. Now that's service.

Anyway, here's to my dealer, long may you continue to tempt others.