Gizmo Guy: One of the city's last stereo stores still resounds with sound

Hungry for musical adventure? Gather some favorite tunes, preferably on CD or vinyl, and saunter over to Community Audio, 8020 Germantown Ave., in Chestnut Hill.

The place was recently cited by Popular Mechanics magazine as one of the nation's 10 best hi-fi stores. "But they also could have called us one of America's last hi-fi stores," said longtime proprietor John Adams.

What makes it special? This place sells only high-grade sound gear, both new and used, plus accessories that help improve a system's performance - such as the nifty $79 Hum X by Eb Tech - "a filtering/grounding device that eliminates humming line noises that can drive you crazy," said Adams.

Esoteric brands rule at Community Audio, rather than the standard names sold at big box stores.

And unlike those uniformed folks "who could just as easily be working at Burger King," Community's proprietor and his team know what they're selling. They offer backstories for all the products, too.

Take the handsome, British-made Naim all-in-one streaming music system called Mu-so. "That's also the name Brits give to music heads, the audio equivalent of 'gear heads,' " we learned from Adams. And did you know that Naim products are made in Salisbury, just down the road from Stonehenge?

Adams equally admires North American sound gear, we gathered, while wandering through Community's four rooms of equipment, split between two buildings. Take the PSB speakers designed by Paul Barton, "a technical big shot of the Canadian Broadcasting Company."

Adams is likewise a fan of Grado headphones and phono cartridges, still made in a Brooklyn rowhouse. And he took special Pennsylvania pride showing me a "still sounds great" 1957 Dynaco mono tube amp built in our town's Strawberry Mansion, and a brand new Rogue Audio Sphinx. That's a $1,295 hybrid tube/solid state two-channel amp made in Brodheadsville, Pa. ("at the base of the Poconos") that equals "the legendary best of Audio Research and Conrad Johnson, which sell for two or three times as much," he said.

Adams, 67, could go on. He's been selling hi-fi for "33 and a third years," he spun with a laugh, after a false start in social work. And in old-school fashion, he still likes when you pull up a chair and stay even the whole afternoon, checking out tunes on different setups of turntables, CD players, pre-amps, amps, speakers, and streaming devices such as Sonos, "a great, no-wires-to-run, multi-room solution."

It amazes him "that people today can buy sound gear without listening to it, sometimes just on the say-so of an online reviewer who could be a novice or on the manufacturer's payroll," Adams grumbles. "Would you buy a house without going to look at it?"

But Adams has learned to boil down his presentations "for young folks who come in pushing a baby carriage, with a dog on a leash, who have severe time constraints and need to cut to the chase - 'just show me what's best for my application.' "

Back before the Internet, there used to be "dozens of stores like Community Audio in the city, sometimes as many as three rivals on opposing corners," recalled Richard Glikes, of Chester Springs, a hi-fi biz veteran who now steers the retail buying group Azione Unlimited. "People would make the rounds from a Tech HiFi to a Bryn Mawr Stereo, then to a HiFi House, a Sassafras, or a World Wide Stereo," the only one of the bunch still in business, with handsome showcases in Ardmore and Montgomeryville.

In the city, David Lewis Audio on Bustleton Avenue in Rhawnhurst is humming, too

"Each chain would stock maybe five or six brands of speakers, yet there was very little overlap," Glikes said. "That made it easy for an enthusiast to efficiently shop the market."

Today, Azione negotiates bulk buys of audio, video, and home control electronics for 127 dealers nationwide. But most are custom integrators/installers operating out of an industrial park or their home.

Fewer than "12 of our dealers have a walk-in store setup," said Glikes. "For everybody else, it's by appointment only."

The latter is the case for Sound Xperience in Jenkintown, a home systems integrator run by former HiFi House VP Paul Sandquist. Yes, he has 5,000 square feet of display space at 509 Old York Rd., with rooms dedicated to, say, high-grade video projectors or a single pair of primo ($50Gs) Wilson Audio speakers.

But good luck getting in to sniff the stuff - except on weekends in the fall, when the doors are usually open. Some makers "insist we have a location to demonstrate their products," Sandquist said. But they don't set the hours, which are by appointment.

It doesn't please Community's John Adams to be the only pure hi-fi showcase open daily in the city proper. "I got into and stay in this business out of a love of music. So music - and good musical playback equipment - should be readily available for everyone, everywhere to hear."

215-854-5960@JTakiff