Someone had mentioned Christopher Hansen on a thread I read the other day
Does anyone know whatever happened to him? I haven't heard a word about him in years. For those not familiar with him he was the king of high-end audio retail in the Los Angeles area in the 80's and early 90's.
There was a Christopher Hansen 2 on Wilshire as well. Were these 2 places related? Got a pair of Martin Logan Aerius i there before ML got really big. Staff was nice and helpful.
Old thread but that store ended up costing me bazillions of dollars over the last 30 years, During the early 90's I would travel to the LA area on business, and visited that store each time I could. The 2nd (and last) time I visited I wandered into the rear of the store and was blown away by my fist true home theater experience. Sony 1271 CRT projector; Frox Processor; Snell THX speakers. I was bitten - went home (Atlanta) and replicated that room - and it hasn't stopped !!
I didn't know, until I read the above, what happened to that business.
I worked at Christopher Hansen Ltd. from 1993 until its closure in 1994 when I left to go work for Mark Levinson at Cello.
The famous Christopher Hansen Ltd. was located on Robertson Boulevard in the design section of West Hollywood. It was a crowded store with all of the best, high end gear.
In the early 1990s, Chris got investors from Indonesia to help him convert the old Rolls Royce building (the new one was and is across the street) into what was one of the most fancy audio and home theater salons ever. It quickly went out of business. Audiophiles wanted that messy, cluttered look as it was more approachable.
Chris went on to a successful business in the custom installation world including owning part of Simply Home Entertainment up until last year.
I am not sure any one retail store sold more of the highest of high end products that CH. I was one of the top Wilson sales people in the world while I was there and that was in a recession. We were also hard hit by the 1994 "Northridge Earthquake" which Chris, his then wife and myself were in Scottsdale for. We come home to one hell of a mess. 9-inch CRT projectors launched off their mounts, THIEL CS5 speakers broken into pieces. It was ugly.
Yes taters, I would be interested in learning about Christopher Hansen's whereabouts? I can remember his ads in older Stereophile & TAS rags. I started subscribing in 1993.
Taters, Lyric was always fine with me. They would always let me take gear home to try out. And to boot they would always give me a nice little discount off list! That was over ten years ago when I lived in that area.
I remember going in Christopher Hansen's and the first thing out of the salesman's mouth was are you buying today. He never asked me what kind of equipment I had or what type of room I had.
Being in sales most of my life I learned it was Important to try to find out what the customers needs were and work towards that goal.
Taters, I have never been to Sound By Singer, though I have seen Andy strutting around CES (if you've seen him, you know what I mean ;-), but went to Lyric in '83 when I lived in Flushing, Queens. I was already an ARC/Magneplanar owner, and was interested in seeing if Lyric had anything I might like even more. You know---whatta ya got? The guy at the door as much as asked me what I was there to buy. No browsing, purchases only! Hey, I understand a low tolerance for lookiloos and tire kickers, but if they don't feel obligated to demo any products, how do they justify making their forty points? Christopher Hansen Ltd. was the same kind of operation.
Dweller, the Hanson in Dayton, OH is spelled differently. As for Christopher Hansen, I did as geoffkait suggested, did a Google search and without digging too deep appears he is doing high end home theater installs for the rich and famous, i.e., those who overpay. Apparently Taters didn't even do that much, otherwise he should have updated his own post if he did....
I had forgotten about Christopher Hansen Ltd.. Located in Westwood, it was as high end as you could find on the West Coast, sort of our Lyric. The front of the shop was imposing, with a massive carved-wood front door in the middle of a huge ivy-covered brick wall. A little too snooty for my liking, with plenty of attitude. For platinum card customers only.
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