This time in our ‘Sound Travels’ series, Australian Hi-Fi magazine contributor Tom Waters visits one of the stalwarts of Sydney’s hi-fi scene, Len Wallis — the man behind the eponymous audio store in the Lower North Shore suburb of Lane Cove — about the many changes the audio market has seen over the years. For many decades, Wallis has consistently delivered the best of the best to the city’s audio community, and thankfully plans to continue doing so for years to come…
Tell us a bit about how Len Wallis Audio started back in the late ‘70s…
At that time I was working for Allied HiFi in Crows Nest. Unfortunately, things were not going well for the shop, and being worried about losing my job I suggested to my wife Suzie that we open a business of our own. This was a huge leap of faith on her behalf — we were about to start building on a block we owned in Dural, which we had to sell to finance the business. It was a bit of a risky move back then and, since both of us are country folk, it was also a brave move that solidly bound us to the city. But it has worked out well.
The market has changed dramatically since you opened shop in 1978…
The market was so much simpler then. The total sum of our hardware consisted of turntables, amplifiers, tuners, cassette decks, speakers and cabinets. There was no box-mover
