I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember 'Radio Row' in Manhattan, but it was a mecca for HI FI enthusiasts for many years before the World Trade Center was put up...

[see:] http://www.antiqueradio.com/Sep02_RadioRow_Steinhardt.html

[and:] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Row

I remember going there with my father in the early 60s... He was a ham radio nut... He had a radio shack, and a place to work on his stuff...

There were scant ways of getting obscure radio and electronic parts outside bazaars like this...

[another good link:] http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/when-lower-manhattan-had-a-radi...

When the WTC went up, we lost a great section of the city... (m.)