From the Los Angeles area and I remember just about all of the stores mentioned above from LA. wow! all gone.
Christopher Hansen also.
I started out thinking that Yamaha was the best with KEF speakers.
Most of the high end stores ran into the same problem that dealers are experiencing today. Most people really don't have discretionary funds lying around to justify spending on "audio equipment". At least in their minds.
So, they would by lower end stereo equipment. Well, most times they listened as background music anyway, so most didn't notice it anyway. But, interestingly enough when higher end cd players came out or the magic Sony upper end TVs came out, they had to have them.
Unless the stores sold lower end equipment along with high end equipment, or were thoughtful enough to transition over to home theater in addition to stereo, they went out of business. Especially when Circuit City, Sam's club, Costco came along with lower equipment prices that these other stores couldn't compete with.
Funny, sort of, that Circuit City put Pacific Stereo and many other stores out of business and Best Buy, Walmart, Costco, etc. put Circuit City out of business.
I do like the occasional discussion and list of stereo stores in various locations posted here on Audiogon. it is good information to have.
enjoy