Ah Radioshack

We didn't have a Radio Shack in our town in the '50s. But we did have a Lafayette store. That's were I got all my goodies. I even have some of them now.

Al

Lafayette - that brings back memories: I was the bench tech (radio, TV, CB) and TV service call guy on weekends at the Lafayette store in Memphis when I was in college.

John

"Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business"

Don't forget Olson Electronics.

I was looking at the 1956 Radio Shack catalog. You could actually build or repair a radio from the items listed. Fancy that. Every time I (rarely) visit a Shack, I wonder why I wasted the time - again - though a few weeks back they were the only place I could find a UHF / VHF splitter to use a a combiner between 2 TV antennas.

G=B2

We had both here but the Shack store was closer to ride my bicycle to.

I own a pair of the Mach One speakers. Couldn't believe the sound when I first heard them at a buddy's house back when they first hit the market. I blew the 15 out of one and replaced it with a generic that was not so loosely suspended and it changed the bass response dramatically at lower levels. So I ended up replacing the other 15 with the same type and both were balanced. Adjusting the EQ gain at around 40 hz made up the difference.

I hope you're joking.

You're the perfect bose customer, but can't afford it yet. Take 10 dollars worth of drivers, put it in a box that rings like a bass drum at 60hz, and you're happier than a pig in shit. Slap on a $1900 price tag and you're in nirvana.

I never made a systematic study of Radio Shack speakers. But I heard a few modestly priced that were quite good.

I haven't. The large driver speakers are boomy as hell and almost as resonent as bose and the smaller driver speakers can barely handle higher volume levels than speakers on a tv set.

I'm talking 20 years ago.

So am I. They're basically 1950's design bass reflex speakers. They were barely passable as speakers in the 70's and an absolute joke by the 80's.

I don't think they sell speakers any more.

On 8/1/2009 9:42 PM snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com spake thus:

And don't forget Allied Electronics (later bought by Tandy/Radio Shack).

I remember being asked to repair one of a Tandy (Realistic) pair of bookshelf speakers. Looked quite good on the outside. Bass/midrange was a very ordinary 'replacement' type paper cone driver and cabinet had no acoustic treatment at all. No connector either - just a flying lead exiting from an unsealed hole in the back.

Very interesting. Thanks for the link.