re: Need help remembering a Stereo store back in the 80’s

From around 1980 or so to around 2005, Metairie/NOLA had (from my distant memory)…



Stereo Village was in a strip mall off Veterans one building past Transcontinental—mid to higher end gear—Luxman, Nakamichi, Carver, Micro Seiki turntables, Rotel, Bang & Olufsen, Revox/Studer, Tascam…

Sound Trek was in the building currently occupied by K&G men’s warehouse on I-10 service road in Metry and was owned by Tony Campo—they mainly carried entry level hi-fI, but decent gear—Aiwa, Sony, JVC, Technics, Hitachi, Carver, Onkyo, Phillips…

Silo was in Elmwood under the Huey P. train bridge (behind Lou Ripper’s Compass Furniture), and carried audio her from Sony, JVC, Cerwin-Vega, Bose (and others).

Alterman Audio (Henry Alterman) was on 17th St. in the strip mall just to the right of the main post office behind Lakeside Mall. He carried what I call “mid-fi” audio gear—Sony ES, Pioneer Elite, Klipsch upper lines (Klipschorns, Heresy, La Scala, Cornwall), TEAC, Sony XBR television, Harman Kardan, definitive Technology, and more.

Wilson Audio (Doug Wilson) had a place uptown on Maple St. near Carrollton Ave., and another in Fat City in Metry—carried high end audio gear from the likes of Magnepan, Focal Utopia, Audio Research Corp., Rogue Audio, Plinius, Esoteric (TEAC’s reference line), Tandberg, Pass Labs, Acoustic Zen Cables, Nørdost Cables, Wadia Digital, Nottingham Turntables, and a few more I have forgotten.

Audio Resource was on Edenborn in Fat City in Metry, (initially owned by Don & Margann Turnipseed). They carried Adcom, Mirage, Snell Acoustics, and a few more I can’t remember.
Around 1998 or so, Jay Valentino bought the business and really ramped it up—renovated the place making 5 listening rooms, and began representing Mark Levinson, VTL, Richard Gray’s Power Company, Bowers & Wilkins, Rotel, Martin-Logan, Manley Labs, McIntosh Labs, Sumiko, Classé Audio, Ayre, Boulder Audio…
After Katrina destroyed the store in Metairie, Jay moved to Baton Rouge and opened Valentino Home Entertainment off Jefferson (now defunct).


I still speak with Valentino and Henry Alterman regularly.