Sign of the times............ Radio Shack RIP

highup · Feb 3, 2015

I knew it was coming five or six years ago.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2015/02/02/nyse-begins-process-to-de-list-radioshack/
I went there to look for 12" woofers to replace the ones in the speakers that I built 20 years ago....... errr 30+ years ago?

My how time passes by so quickly.
I made these large speakers a long time ago, and over time the woofer's foam surrounds had totally rotted out. Each speaker has a 12" woofer, two mid range, a tweeter, and a "super tweeter" and the speaker encloisures themselves are on the large size, as was to be expected "back in the day"
Anyhow, all of the speaker parts, woofers ant tweeters and crossover capacitors, I purchased at Radio Shack. I even bought a book called "How to Build Speaker Enclosures" there. Speaker construction was one heck of a lot more technical than I ever thought it could be.......... that is, if you built them correctly.
Like I always do, I took the info and ran with it. I read the "right way" and made my own guesses as to the sound quality and enclosure size and construction methods. Book said to add 2 1/2" ports, 6 inches deep for enclosures of this volume...... so I made them 4" and 8 inches deep.
........... hey, you can't stop me ............I live on the edge.

Anyway, here it is almost 30 years later.......... Radio Shack didn't even sell a 12" woofer.

I could buy a 250 watt subwoofer for my car......... but I didn't want that. I just wanted a new 12" woofer that was somewhat equivalent to the old 80 to 100 watt 12 inch woofers that I had in these enclosures with the same Hz.
No-can-do, I guess. No use for speaker parts on a store shelf today. Does anyone ever build stuff anymore? It's cheaper to buy electronic stuff from a store or Amazon, Target, Lowes............ or wherever.
...but where is the satisfaction? where is the fun?
It was probably around 1990 when I built this pair of speakers and they cost me close to $250 to build........... I figured they sounded every bit as good as $500 brand name speakers I listened to at a stereo place at the time. I have the receipts from the build in a manila envelope ........... I need to dig that out for the fun of it.

RIP Radio Shack............. me too someday I suppose.

It's nice being able to buy electronic stuff pretty cheap now compared to way back then.................. but it isn't as fun.

Floorist · Feb 3, 2015

Remember when they were part of Tandy leather? In the 80s they opened McDuffs, an appliance chain, it went broke very quickly. Radio Shack, just couldn't keep up with the times. It had very poor management.
Bad management killed, Wards, Woolco, Western Auto and Sears will be next, right before or right after J C Penney.

highup · Feb 3, 2015

Floorist said:
Remember when they were part of Tandy leather? In the 80s they opened McDuffs, an appliance chain, it went broke very quickly. Radio Shack, just couldn't keep up with the times. It had very poor management.
Bad management killed, Wards, Woolco, Western Auto and Sears will be next, right before or right after J C Penney.

Tandy Leather.

never heard of it. You gotta be older than Daris if that's even possible.

DarisMulkin · Feb 3, 2015

highup said:
Tandy Leather. never heard of it. You gotta be older than Daris if that's even possible.

"What you talking about WILLIS?"
Who the hell is Radio Shack? The one here is very expensive so I don't go there except in a pinch.

Daris

Floorist · Feb 3, 2015

highup said:
Tandy Leather. never heard of it. You gotta be older than Daris if that's even possible.

When I was in the Scouts, many, many years ago, Tandy Leather sold all the leather craft kits to boy scouts. Later on, I did some leather crafting, and they were the biggest company that sold tools and supplies.
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/home.aspx

highup · Feb 3, 2015

DarisMulkin said:
"What you talking about WILLIS?"
Who the hell is Radio Shack? The one here is very expensive so I don't go there except in a pinch.

Daris

They were known for being expensive and that's why I didn't go there for stuff unless they were the only one that had what I wanted. They, to my surprise, stocked an odd battery that I wanted. It's a 1/2AA size and lithium. They wanted $19.95 for it. Batteries Plus is 120 miles away and they had them for exactly half that price............ problem was that shipping and handling brought the price back near $20.
These days, Radio shack seems more like a cell phone store that just happens to stock some other items. I've only stepped in there twice in the past 2 or 3 years.