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tommyboy

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I'm at RAF Mildenhall

Tommyboy,

I did a 4-year tour there, my last assignment in England, as a matter of fact. I had 4 different tours in England, loved them all. Back in the day, all the overseas bases had what they called audio/photo clubs, basically high-end shops sponsored by the military, the best on being at RAF Upper Heyford. Cornwall IIs went for $650.00 a pair and, like an idiot, I didn't buy them. Lot's of high-end gear was available to GIs back then, at insane prices. Nowadays, the "Power Zone" is all we have, but at Mildenhall and, indeed, RAF Lakenheath, you might have a better selection of audio equipment not available in the statesside BX's.

Don't forget, as a uniformed member of the Armed Forces, you can shop in the British NAFs, where you can find some nice Euro equipment, as well. I purchased a pair of Quad ESL-63's for 1000 Pounds, back in the early 90s. The exchange rate made them $1650.00, at the time. These were $5000.00 speakers in the states! Sadly, I no longer have them. Also, if I'm not mistaken, places like the Sevenoaks chain of audio stores will sell to US service members tax free.

Anyway, welcome to the forum, and enjoy your tour in England.

William

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I'm at RAF Mildenhall

Tommyboy,

I did a 4-year tour there, my last assignment in England, as a matter of fact. I had 4 different tours in England, loved them all. Back in the day, all the overseas bases had what they called audio/photo clubs, basically high-end shops sponsored by the military, the best on being at RAF Upper Heyford. Cornwall IIs went for $650.00 a pair and, like an idiot, I didn't buy them. Lot's of high-end gear was available to GIs back then, at insane prices. Nowadays, the "Power Zone" is all we have, but at Mildenhall and, indeed, RAF Lakenheath, you might have a better selection of audio equipment not available in the statesside BX's.

Don't forget, as a uniformed member of the Armed Forces, you can shop in the British NAFs, where you can find some nice Euro equipment, as well. I purchased a pair of Quad ESL-63's for 1000 Pounds, back in the early 90s. The exchange rate made them $1650.00, at the time. These were $5000.00 speakers in the states! Sadly, I no longer have them. Also, if I'm not mistaken, places like the Sevenoaks chain of audio stores will sell to US service members tax free.

Anyway, welcome to the forum, and enjoy your tour in England.

William

Oh, how the times have changed. The BX at Lakenheath is VERY limited on audio gear. I just order anything and everything I need over here. Luckily now I'm good to go until we get back to the states. Buying anything on the market is out of the question because the exchange rate right now is 2 dollars to the pound, so..... We're here until '09, so we're gonna save our COLA until we leave. When we get back stateside, the wife wants to upgrade everything up to the reference line. :) Oh, I love my wife! the BX does have some really nice TV's though.

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tommyboy,

I remember the days when the BX used to carry lots of great audio gear...I bought a Nakamichi cassette deck there (I forget the model; it was the one where the tape door opened and the tape spun around). They used to have lots of Klipsch speakers on display. And, not having to pay sales tax was great too.

Nowadays, it's all about home theatre. Our BX here at Travis doesn't even carry stand-alone speakers anymore; only Bose "home theatre-in-a-box" systems to go with their televisions. I guess that's what the folks want... [:(]

As for your wife, she's a keeper! After auditioning speakers for several months, my wife decided she liked Klipsch best, so we bought 'em. Somehow, women just seem to know about these things...[:)]

Dale

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Ya, our BX over here does OK with receivers, dvd players, etc. But the speaker selection is definitely lacking. Ironically enough, they carry the ENTIRE Bo$e line though. I think my wifes main interest in the reference line isn't the sound, but the look of them. She likes the cherry finish because it looks nicer in "her" living room. But she is completely sold on Klipsch though.

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I remember the days when the BX used to carry lots of great audio gear...I bought a Nakamichi cassette deck there (I forget the model; it was the one where the tape door opened and the tape spun around). They used to have lots of Klipsch speakers on display.

The Nakamichi RX-505 was one such model that was 3-head autoreverse. Nice decks indeed, and very popular at the Robbinson Barracks PX in Stuttgart back in the '80s. I considered the RX-505, but since I had money to burn I bought the DRAGON instead! That was a wonderful deck that I enjoyed for many years. In the early '90s I began losing interest in cassettes so I sold it...dumbest thing I ever did!

The PX back then was always stocked to the teeth with lots of high-end audio gear from many name-brand manufacturers. Bought all my Carver components there, along with Denon, harman/kardon, dbx, and my kick-*** JBL L112 Century II monitors! Remember lusting over a Teac X-2000R reel to reel on display and almost bought it; had actually put it on layaway with AAFES but cancelled it later that day...what a fool I was, and wish I had it now!

The Klipsch line was always impressive whenever the PX had them in stock (lots of Cornwalls and Heresys and a few La Scalas and Belles, but never the Klipschorn though). I wanted the Cornwalls so bad but never had enough money (since I was blowing it on Minolta SLR camera gear as well). When I finally saved up enough, the PX was all sold out with backorders backed up for months (?). So I settled on the JBLs which I'm happy to say I never regretted!

post-11084-13819321697518_thumb.jpg

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Boy, the selection of Audio equipment was endless in 69 -71......you name it you could get it through the PX........speakers included, never noticed Klipsch, but I didn't know about them...............I ordered equipment and had it shipped home......it was waiting for me at home when I got out........

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It is a small world. I've seen a couple of people from my hometown over here as well. I just ate lunch at the Bird in Hand about a week ago. Our BX over here has some really nice receivers, but that's about all. I bought my Pioneer VSX2016 there. ($600) As far as I know, it's a European model. Great receiver though. They also have some nice Yammy's but they're all out of my price range. The speaker selection is pretty laim though. Lots of Bose, but that's about it.

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