I come to you at 62 years old having spent 25 of those years selling good audio and the other 37 years buying it back! Trained as a purist by Terry Crabbe of Sound Hounds in Victoria BC Canada. Started hanging out there when I was 12 years old and essentially grew up there.
My system at the moment consists of an Oracle TT with a Syrinx PU3 arm and my life long companion a Denon DL103 moving coil. Plugged into an Audio Research SP 10 preamp fully updated and capped with VH AUDIO which feeds a pair of tricked out 600 watt VTL amplifiers that seem to please my Magnaplanar 1.7i’s each with its own REL Subwoofer. The early version of the MARANTZ Super Audio CD PLAYER. Made my own interconnects with Levinson silver wire and WBT termination. Two dedicated 20 amp circuits one for each amplifier and a third for everything else. The Oracle is suspended from the ceiling and my REL’s are anchored hard into the floor. I’m about to bust out my Threshold Sl10 preamp because I just lucked into the one component I have always wanted since listening to it at the 1980 Vegas CES Show. I just stumbled into and purchased 4! Not 2 but four Threshold Stasis 1 amplifiers that I haven’t recieved yet. I feel like a boy on Christmas morning I’m so excited to get these beasts.
My system at the moment consists of an Oracle TT with a Syrinx PU3 arm and my life long companion a Denon DL103 moving coil. Plugged into an Audio Research SP 10 preamp fully updated and capped with VH AUDIO which feeds a pair of tricked out 600 watt VTL amplifiers that seem to please my Magnaplanar 1.7i’s each with its own REL Subwoofer. The early version of the MARANTZ Super Audio CD PLAYER. Made my own interconnects with Levinson silver wire and WBT termination. Two dedicated 20 amp circuits one for each amplifier and a third for everything else. The Oracle is suspended from the ceiling and my REL’s are anchored hard into the floor. I’m about to bust out my Threshold Sl10 preamp because I just lucked into the one component I have always wanted since listening to it at the 1980 Vegas CES Show. I just stumbled into and purchased 4! Not 2 but four Threshold Stasis 1 amplifiers that I haven’t recieved yet. I feel like a boy on Christmas morning I’m so excited to get these beasts.
Welocme to diyAudio,
If so we would have met if your hanging out was during my time there, Terry, Don & I made Sound Hounds a leading North American HiFi shopin the late ‘70s. CES in 1980 might well indicate ourtime frames crossed.
I learned a lot from Terry and the exploration of emerging HiFI over those years taught all of us a lot more.
chrisb worked at Sound Hounds after i quit. Jeff spent a lot of time there. Terry died shortly after i got out of my long hospital stay, probably a relief given his no kidneys. Don had a massive heart attack just after he retired. Cheryl, Terry's wife us the only one left, customers when i orked there now work there.
dave
If so we would have met if your hanging out was during my time there, Terry, Don & I made Sound Hounds a leading North American HiFi shopin the late ‘70s. CES in 1980 might well indicate ourtime frames crossed.
I learned a lot from Terry and the exploration of emerging HiFI over those years taught all of us a lot more.
chrisb worked at Sound Hounds after i quit. Jeff spent a lot of time there. Terry died shortly after i got out of my long hospital stay, probably a relief given his no kidneys. Don had a massive heart attack just after he retired. Cheryl, Terry's wife us the only one left, customers when i orked there now work there.
dave
And don’t forget grandson Michael.
A lot of water had passed under that bridge, for sure - seems like more than a single lifetime ago.
A lot of water had passed under that bridge, for sure - seems like more than a single lifetime ago.
I just couldn’t believe it when Cheryl called me about Don. I’m glad I got to see him for dinner when I was out. He had just done a big favor for me and talked the boys at Magnaplanar to drop ship a pr. Of 1.7i’s under the staff purchase program. I had to sign something that said I wouldn’t sell them for at least one year. You will be happy to know I once again found a gem in the used section, a Transcriptor Skeleton I have been trying to make sound good ever since.
Those were some memorable years for sure. How are you doing? I still talk to Cheryl now and again as well as Chris.
Those were some memorable years for sure. How are you doing? I still talk to Cheryl now and again as well as Chris.
Was a long time customer and frequent attendee of the Friday Night Light-em up after hours listening club before my short employment. Boxing Day Sales - whewie. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end ….
Waxing a bit nostalgic🙂
Waxing a bit nostalgic🙂
A bit nostalgic? Man those were many of the best days I have known. I was just a kid and I was hanging around with what I thought then and still do, the coolest cats I knew. I think I was seventeen when Dave left. I think of it almost as my upbringing. What I learned about so many things that have stayed a part of me. Terry Crabbe the Zen Master could communicate more with a look and a couple words so effectively you always understood.
The King Is Dead
Long Live The Queen
Upon hearing of the passing of my lifelong friend and mentor Terry Crabbe I find myself experiencing an onslaught of thoughts and emotions, many of which were unexpected. I learned something of myself as I pondered the 40 plus years I have known Terry.
Through those feelings has come a need to sum up in words what I believe to be the threads, the strands that connect us all. We are the people he left behind who share the bond of knowing and understanding why Terry was a rare and special man.
A certain and obvious quality resided within him , of course those who he drew near knew it well, but for those he encountered along the path, they also had the opportunity to recognize he was unlike anyone else as he carried with him an aura of command and control that insured you would never forget him. With few words needed his presence alone was enough to tell you what you needed to know. I first got to know Terry when I was just a teenager and have come to understand over the years that it was Terry who quietly in his way taught me what it was to be a man. Respect, honor loyalty, and do what you say you are going to do were all a part of the education Terry gave me.
The threads that connect us are that we all one way or the other had the opportunity to see, to feel, to recognize and to understand the education he gave us. We all learned from him, we are all a little wiser and perhaps a little better at how we live our lives simply because we knew him.
The sense of loss that we today are coping with is matched only by thoughts of how large he lived his life. The strength and the power are gone from him now but we can still feel it as that strength, his strength now lies within us.
For those who came to know Terry it quickly became obvious that he had another quality, a quality that we all hope to have in some measure in our lives. Passion!! Terry did not want to leave this life, his life wherein his passion and the love he had for his family never wavered. It was this passion that fed him, energized him and gave him what he needed. Whether you speak of his passion for his family, for business, music or fast cars Terry was all in all the time. It is that passion that made him, and made any who witnessed it take notice. It drove him, it gave him the power to master anything that interested him.
Terry has left behind a giant hole, both in his industry where he earned over a lifetime a national reputation, for having built the best two channel store in the country, where the legend of Terry Crabbe and Sound Hounds will live on.
But he has left an even bigger hole in our hearts as we all try to reckon with the loss of a great and special man.
I dare not think of how I will feel when I look for him and he is not there.
Peter Smith
The King Is Dead
Long Live The Queen
Upon hearing of the passing of my lifelong friend and mentor Terry Crabbe I find myself experiencing an onslaught of thoughts and emotions, many of which were unexpected. I learned something of myself as I pondered the 40 plus years I have known Terry.
Through those feelings has come a need to sum up in words what I believe to be the threads, the strands that connect us all. We are the people he left behind who share the bond of knowing and understanding why Terry was a rare and special man.
A certain and obvious quality resided within him , of course those who he drew near knew it well, but for those he encountered along the path, they also had the opportunity to recognize he was unlike anyone else as he carried with him an aura of command and control that insured you would never forget him. With few words needed his presence alone was enough to tell you what you needed to know. I first got to know Terry when I was just a teenager and have come to understand over the years that it was Terry who quietly in his way taught me what it was to be a man. Respect, honor loyalty, and do what you say you are going to do were all a part of the education Terry gave me.
The threads that connect us are that we all one way or the other had the opportunity to see, to feel, to recognize and to understand the education he gave us. We all learned from him, we are all a little wiser and perhaps a little better at how we live our lives simply because we knew him.
The sense of loss that we today are coping with is matched only by thoughts of how large he lived his life. The strength and the power are gone from him now but we can still feel it as that strength, his strength now lies within us.
For those who came to know Terry it quickly became obvious that he had another quality, a quality that we all hope to have in some measure in our lives. Passion!! Terry did not want to leave this life, his life wherein his passion and the love he had for his family never wavered. It was this passion that fed him, energized him and gave him what he needed. Whether you speak of his passion for his family, for business, music or fast cars Terry was all in all the time. It is that passion that made him, and made any who witnessed it take notice. It drove him, it gave him the power to master anything that interested him.
Terry has left behind a giant hole, both in his industry where he earned over a lifetime a national reputation, for having built the best two channel store in the country, where the legend of Terry Crabbe and Sound Hounds will live on.
But he has left an even bigger hole in our hearts as we all try to reckon with the loss of a great and special man.
I dare not think of how I will feel when I look for him and he is not there.
Peter Smith
In 1981, would make you 60 now?
Terry had a black belt in Taekwondo and he could repeatedly put his foot less than a cm from your face.
Fat bikes first, he inspired Don’s souped up Kawasaki 900 that he used to make the back of Sound Hounds to Campbell River in 2 hr 5 min — before the big hiway was built.
dave
Having spent a fair bit of time (and $$) at the Hounds myself, back when, I always enjoyed chatting to Terry and Don.
- it was The hi-fi store at the time.
- it was The hi-fi store at the time.
Another lifetime ago indeed. A performance ride in either Terry’s white TVR, and was it BR green(?) Morgan were very memorable. OTOH, the VW microbus serving as transport from the Blanchard St warehouse storage before Pandora St basement became available leant a total new meaning to “slow rode” - and not of the Foghat variety.
Ya the cars! Interesting how cool cars seem to line up with good audio.
I remember the TVR of course but Terry’s last car was even more interesting, a classic Lotus Super 7 with the Cosworth dbl overhead cam 4 cylinder engine redlining at 9k. Jim the tech had a sweet BMW 2002 Tii, Jerry (my roommate) drove a gorgeous 69 E-Type Jag, Jim’s roommate and accountant had a very special Alfa Romeo Veloce then Don bought an Italian Ducatti. I was driving a factory race version of a Datsun Fair Lady 2 liter 175hp 1800 pounds (looks like a Tr6 / MG) which is what I drove when Terry and I entered the race at Clover Point.
I remember the TVR of course but Terry’s last car was even more interesting, a classic Lotus Super 7 with the Cosworth dbl overhead cam 4 cylinder engine redlining at 9k. Jim the tech had a sweet BMW 2002 Tii, Jerry (my roommate) drove a gorgeous 69 E-Type Jag, Jim’s roommate and accountant had a very special Alfa Romeo Veloce then Don bought an Italian Ducatti. I was driving a factory race version of a Datsun Fair Lady 2 liter 175hp 1800 pounds (looks like a Tr6 / MG) which is what I drove when Terry and I entered the race at Clover Point.
Whose rear end broke because of Terry teaching Jim how to do hand-break u-turns. Cost more to fo=ix than he sold it for. Turned me off BWM (except the proper ones with a flat-2).
One of Don’s buddies had a Red Lotus Esprit, the same connection led to him spending a Sat on the dad’s yacht with the Who.
dave
I remember on race day at Clover Point we all had three attempts around the track from which they took your best time. Before it started Terry suggested we walk the track like the pro’s do. Of course as we start walking he say’s here smoke this , it will take a few seconds off the clock for you…
Terry was first in our heat to go, the time started on the green light when you broke through the light sensor so Terry sat there for a good 15 seconds doing a break stand with those big 50 series tires making more smoke than there were clouds in the sky. Man I wish I had a picture of that!
Terry was first in our heat to go, the time started on the green light when you broke through the light sensor so Terry sat there for a good 15 seconds doing a break stand with those big 50 series tires making more smoke than there were clouds in the sky. Man I wish I had a picture of that!