i used to visit Tott Ct Rd every saturday when i was a student in London - as well as Laskys there were numerous other smaller hifi/electronics shops on TCR to nose around in. In those days according to the salemen it was all about the watts, knobs and slider controls (equalisers), VU meters and lights. There were huge RtR tape recorders, mega size japanese amps and receivers. Lots of big brands, - Wharfedale, Rotel, Tannoy, Celestion, Leak, Garrard, BSR, Thorens, JBL, Yamaha, Pioneer, Trio/Kenwood, Akai and then the cheaper "Audiotronics" stuff. Speakers came in teak or white (!) and there were devices to allow the salesmen to instantly switch between different sets of speakers. Everything was solid state. The atmosphere was kinda like Currys/PC World is today - racks of kit all blaring away at the same time at high volume. Life was simple...... beer was 28p a pint - shit beer mind you before the revival of real ale.

Fiannly managed to save up for my Rotel 611 amp (complete with slide controls) and Pioneer PL12D T/T and Sennheiser HD414 headphones which i bought from a hifi shep in Wembley and hauled them back by tube to my digs in Woodford because it saved me about £3 in total compared to TCR. I couldn't afford any speakers (my friends had Ditton Counties I think. Few years later picked up a pair of s/h Ditton 44s which I sold to a man in eastern Europe a couple of years ago. Hey ho...