My first two jobs were dishwashing and bagging groceries. The first one covered the summer of 1985, and afforded me a fine, used, 1978 JAG snowmobile come Fall. The second was bagging groceries at Trig’s Food and Drug in Minocqua WI, something I would continue for several years, but that first year set me on a tack to Audio Video Master. The first step; acquiring some really big speakers.
My friend in band brought a DAK Catalog to school one day and I perused it between songs. That’s when I fell in love with these mammoth speakers (which were also promoted as such a deal in the catalog). I began to save my grocery bagging money, and by mid summer, I had accumulated enough. I got a money order from the bank, mailed it with my order, and waited. Then one day I came home on my bike from work, and there in the open garage, they were; these 43lb speakers that were just a foot and 1/2 shorter than I was.
The DR-1550R BSR speakers had MASSIVE 15″ Woofers in the front, accompanied by a mid-range and tweeter. On the top was another mid range speaker along with a cone style tweeter.
Soon I acquired a floor model 100w receiver, cassette deck, and then another item from DAK – the BSR EQ-3000 Stereo Frequency Graphic Equalizer Spectrum Analyzer, and then a Hi-Fi VCR. I was now a Commander of the A/V Navy.
I used those bsr speakers all through high school. Loud as hell when mom and dad were gone, super quite as I went to bed. They traveled with me to college, were played way too loud, too many times. They came with me to every post-college apartment, and were installed along with my other stereo equipment as the house-entertainment system, until I got married; then they were pushed to a far corner in the basement, as they had become a bit “unsightly”.
We moved to a second house as our family grew, and once again the BSR Behemoths made the trip, but were sanctioned to the basement. There they sat for ten years. Finally, as we talked of making the basement a livable space, I decided to “put the band back together” so to speak, and brought all of the antique HiFi equipment together. All components worked like a charm. So did the BSR-1550Rs …albeit with a little crackling.
Ultimately, while these 30+ yr old bsr speakers still made decent sound, they were made of particle board with wood veneer, and were really showing their age. I posted them to a free site on Facebook to let someone else make use of them. I’ll miss my first big (BIG), purchase, always remember them, and always be a little deaf because of them.
