I bought my first real system from Tasso Spanos at Opus One.
He was a classic, old school, intellectual-type, semi-bohemian hi-fi guy who loved the KLH 9 and Marantz tube amps. I remember hearing my first ARC tube amps in his shop; he was one of the first to demonstrate the Dalhquist speaker, and was the Linn dealer in Pittsburgh when direct drive turntables were the rage in the 70's.
I was not an easy place to do serious listening during the day, since the 'trolley' would go by every few minutes (aka a 'streetcar,' a sort of homely version of the cablecars that still exist in San Francisco).
I also remember the Curley Bros- anybody here remember those guys? Mike was a heavyset, wild looking guy with a hatfield type beard- met them (his little brother Denny was his second in command)- they used to run the original Audio Warehouse on Rt__ . (They were not the owners, but it was as if the store was theirs). Tons of used equipment, hi-end on the cheap, left there, had their own little odd shop up in the North Hills with Transcriptors, old Mac tube stuff and early Wm. Johnson amps/pre-amps. Mike was also an avid Ferrari collector back when you could buy them for the price of say, a good preamp today. Haven't seen them in years.
He was a classic, old school, intellectual-type, semi-bohemian hi-fi guy who loved the KLH 9 and Marantz tube amps. I remember hearing my first ARC tube amps in his shop; he was one of the first to demonstrate the Dalhquist speaker, and was the Linn dealer in Pittsburgh when direct drive turntables were the rage in the 70's.
I was not an easy place to do serious listening during the day, since the 'trolley' would go by every few minutes (aka a 'streetcar,' a sort of homely version of the cablecars that still exist in San Francisco).
I also remember the Curley Bros- anybody here remember those guys? Mike was a heavyset, wild looking guy with a hatfield type beard- met them (his little brother Denny was his second in command)- they used to run the original Audio Warehouse on Rt__ . (They were not the owners, but it was as if the store was theirs). Tons of used equipment, hi-end on the cheap, left there, had their own little odd shop up in the North Hills with Transcriptors, old Mac tube stuff and early Wm. Johnson amps/pre-amps. Mike was also an avid Ferrari collector back when you could buy them for the price of say, a good preamp today. Haven't seen them in years.