Quote Originally Posted by emaidel
As there are several other threads where Melvin Walker posts half-truths about audio, and can't seem to move beyond 1958, let me try to bring my own thread back on topic, which is/was, "Dirty Little Secrets."

Retailers in the heyday of the business (late 70's) carried the lines of electronics they did mostly for the sake of profit margins, and not because they believed that Kenwood (just as an example) was indeed "better" than Pioneer, or that Marantz was better than JVC, and so on. Most dealers couldn't be faulted for choosing "push" lines of electronics, since having a brand other dealers didn't gave them an exclusive, and a chance to make a decent profit, especially when a brand such as Pioneer was so overly distributed and heavily discounted that making money on it was all but impossible.

That was very true about Pioneer, but there was never anything wrong the the product itself. One dealer, Audio Warehouse, based in Ohio, took a very aggressive and highly unethical approach. Audio Warhouse's key electronics line was Kenwood, not necessarily because it was "better" than others, but likely because the owner of Audio Warehouse and the local Kenwood rep were drug-using buddies who likely used their enormous wealth to supply one another with a continuous amount of cocaine.

Apparently, the cocaine use really screwed up the owner of the chain, as he embarked on an anti-Pioneer campaign in which he'd flagrantly advertise a Kenwood unit and make comparisons to a "lesser," and "inferior" Pioneer in his newspaper ads. He'd often advertise a Pioneer piece for a lowball price (he wasn't a Pioneer dealer) and then when someone arrived in one of his stores to buy it, that person received a high pressure effort from the salespeople to push a Kenwood unit instead due to how "lousy," "cheap," and "crummy" the Pioneer unit supposedly was.


The VP of Pioneer, Bernie Halpurn, was one of the most respected people in the industry, who systematically went about collecting evidence against Audio Warehouse to sue them for fraud. Bernie.hired a large amount of individuals to shop Audio Warehouse stores and recorded the lies and distortions the salespeople fed them about Pioneer equipment. Bernie also had a ton of ads to support his cause as well. This went on for a year or so, and then the lawsuit was launched, and it did just as Bernie intended it to: it put Audio Warehouse out of business.

In the end, Pioneer was the winner. Still, throughout this debacle, both the owner of Audio Warehouse and the Kenwood rep made a small fortune, and did so with a total lack of honesty, ethics or even decency. Kenwood made a fine product, and some Kenwood products were indeed better than competing Pioneer units, but the approach Audio Warehouse used was disgraceful.
You are I guess referring to mid range audio gear. Pioneer was a late player on the audio scene. Their audio equipment was fair to middling. You also referred to Marantz , which Marantz before are after it was made in the United States ? If before one would never compare Marantz with JVC ! , JVC and Pioneer was no different from the flood of indifferent middling Japanese audio being sold to an indifferent audio public.

Kenwood did build some decent audio gear , not high end but decent. What is a piece of Kenwood audio gear selling for today ? Pioneer , JVC , and most used mid range Japanese audio equipment can be had for a song.

1958 , a good year ,Gigi won the Academy Award , the most popular book wa Dr. Zhivago , My Fair Lady began it's run on Broadway , The Baltimore Colts defeated the New
York Giants in the first overtime championship game , transistor radios made their first appearance and many Americans moved from the big cities to the suburbs.
I bought my first stereo equipment . A pair of Stephens low boy speakers , Lesa changer ,General Electric cartridge , Pilot preamp, power amp and FM tuner.
Price , on sale for $450.00 !
1958 a good year. Oh yes I was driving a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk.
All this and attending College as a full time student.
No Japanese junk for me , In 1958 there was none !
A counterpoint.