End of an era in Canberra, Australia

[Graham849]

Some background from 2021: https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/343978-duratone-canberra/


Now this, Marie Cull announcing the end July 27, https://duratone.com.au/ :

After serving the Audiophiles and Music Lovers of Canberra and surrounding areas for over half a century, we have decided that it is time to close our doors. We wish to thank all our loyal customers who have supported us over the past several decades. I often meet people who tell me that they have bought their equipment from Duratone, as did their parents before them.

It was my fathers' passion for music and high quality Hi-Fi systems which unintentionally led to the opening of Duratone. He was always showing off his latest equipment to his friends and work colleagues at the ANU where he was a lecturer. They started asking him to source equipment for them, and they told their friends who told their friends, and it came to the point that my parents had to find premises and open a shop. My father used to travel to Europe to source the very best equipment, and on one occasion I was lucky enough to travel with him. For me the highlight of the trip was staying with the legendary A. J. van den Hul and his lovely wife. They gave us the most wonderful guided tour of Holland!

I have clear childhood memories of sitting and discussing the differences in sound quality with my father while he tried out different combinations of speakers, amplifiers, turntables and cartridges and cables. I remember on one occasion I was enjoying listening to Brahms' violin concerto on a record, and he came in and started pulling the system apart to try a different cartridge, because the "sound wasn't quite right". Initially I protested that I just wanted to listen to the music, but once he had finished, I had to concede that the sound was much better, and then we both sat and enjoyed listening to the music.​

 

[Graham849]

my favourite comment from the memories posted at stereonet:

Someone would want something with the open-ness of an electrostatic but with more balls. We would take them upstairs to the Dahlquists. We would put on almost always Dire Straits Telegraph Rd and then industrial disease. The prospective customer would go crazy for them because the speakers created a wonderfully open 3d sound and the Motorola piezo had lots of bite. The customer would ask for a cheaper price. I would ask Faye if they could have a discount. Faye would say "no discount" like the Seinfeld Soup Nazi. I would tell the customer. The customer would say "these speakers are ten years old" why would I pay full retail for these speakers? There would be lots of back and forth but Faye would say they are new speakers and they are not to be discounted they are to be sold at full retail. We would lose the sale.

The shop was full of gear that was old but new and was hard to impossible to sell because some of it was 20 years old but was still being sold at the new price.

Frustrating but fun and. part of the Fawlty Towers style experience of working there.

 

[rank]

It's always sad when a stereo or video store closes, the same when brands go bankrupt. They are purveyors of culture, music, films, documentaries. Like sellers of records and DVDs.
Previously in each city there were at least 5 or 6 stores for each specialty, now there are only branches in a much smaller number. Which also shows us the collapse of purchasing power over the past 50 years.

 

[Mikig]

It's always sad when a stereo or video store closes, the same when brands go bankrupt. They are purveyors of culture, music, films, documentaries. Like sellers of records and DVDs.
Previously in each city there were at least 5 or 6 stores for each specialty, now there are only branches in a much smaller number. Which also shows us the collapse of purchasing power over the past 50 years.

I totally agree! Even here, little by little, the shops, run by those legendary characters who made the history of hi-fi, are slowly disappearing, leaving the way to e-shops and mini hi-fi supermarkets, places that have everything, that can afford super offers, that deal in truckloads of goods but that don't have the only thing that matters to me: soul...