The following text is a reply shared with AUDIOKARMA.ORG at Pacific Stereo the early years

WOW.. this is a BELATED reply.. now living in San Diego, I was an early employee to Pacific Stereo, was trained in the engineering department with several of my musician buddies.  You see, we musicians needed income to supplement making money doing music, so we all got jobs with Pacific Stereo working in the engineering warehouses of Emeryville (between Oakland and Berkeley, near the bay).  The warehouse had three divisions: 1)engineering and store interior design upstairs; 2)sound room development and equip testing lower floor 1/3; and 3)Wood Construction and Wire Channels development lower floor 2/3.  Half my team developed the portable store frames that were inserted into each warehouse.  Each warehouse would be totally painted flat black, all walls, ceiling, and floors covered with indoor/outdoor carpet.  The wood team would construct from 16-foot sections, an inner frame work of wood with slotted 4×4″ supports, the inner walls, and a couple of sound rooms.  Spotted lighting was used to highlight contrasting colored section panels that served as back-board to hang a couple of shelves where stereo hi-fi systems were displayed as “pre-made” combinations.. very attractive to the eye.  The 2nd half of my team was the sound room wiring team.  We created the first master control panel where any combination of amplifiers, pre-amps, input source (i.e. tape, plastic record, radio receiver) and speaker models, could be mixed without causing damage to any components because of variations in equipment sensitivity (low wattage to high wattage quick changes, safely).  After a good long season working for production and installation of stores (I installed most of the early west coast stores including San Diego, and two stores in towns like Akron, OH., I then moved to the new store in Berkeley after installing it, onto the sales team and helped develop and prove the sales training program, i.e. every sales person had the same script but learned how to make it their own.  The sales script was well published and documented with simple-person pictures to teach us how to educate the customer, like a sound technician consulting sales with simple examples of explanation that made working with components instead of buying everything in one-console, a safe and understood choice by the customer.  They would feel good about spending $500-$2000 in a “custom” component sound system they put together from hearing the combination of components that pleased their ear!  After working the floor at the Berkeley Pacific Stereo, I got hooked with a leader called Phil, who was a brilliant sound man who could sell anyone; he looked like a ZZ-Top musician with his beard and long hair; and came up with the concept: Pacific Recycle Stereo, which he and I opened across the street from the new Berkeley store, and that is when Pacific Stereo started taking in components from customers who had developed their ear to sound, and now wanted to trade in their components to purchase changes and upgrades, therefore, recycle stereo !!  (LOL)  Yes, it was a GREAT journey.  And, I took a long sabbatical after several years good service in Pacific Stereo, won a sales contest for weekend vacation at DisneyLand Anaheim, ended up in San Diego and forgot to leave.  CBS bought Pacific Stereo after I left, and that history is well known and understood.  OH… but the early days were GREAT adventure!  And here I am, in San Diego, still playing music gigs and loving my sound !  Peace be with all you readers… ~ Clifford Maverick Taylor