The Century Stereo Story
Century Stereo was founded in 1950 by Phil Sunseri. The 600 sq. ft. store was located in The Cedar Tree Plaza on Winchester Blvd and at that time was known as Audio Phil’s When Phil was in college he would go around to the music stores at that time and most of them treated students like garbage and would run them out of the store thinking kids were a waste of time. While serving as a medic in the military during World War II he vowed that he was going to open his own store where everyone would be treated with respect. He did just that and in his store kids could come in and he would teach them all he knew about music. He also had a love for classical music and probably had the premier collection of classical recordings on the peninsula which he hand selected.
In 1960, Century Stereo moved across the street to the Winchester Mystery House in Music City to gain another whopping 1000 sq. ft. He then changed the name to Century Music. At that time the focus was purely on two channel and records but we did start to sell TVS.
In 1969, we officially became known as Century Stereo. In 1970, Gary Lawson, came to work for Phil and later in 1977 RIck Bronner, the managing partner started in the car audio department. In 1979, the Bascom Ave store was opened across the street from Valley Medical. We gained another 4000 sq. ft.!
In 1981 Jeff Wilson, our Customer Service manager came to work at the Bascom Store. That year, Century Stereo also opened its second location in Hayward. Ron Cornelius of McIntosh Labs managed that store for a time. Century Stereo has had a long history with McIntosh having been a dealer for nearly 60 years. Back then, it would have been common to see Dave O’Brien at one of the annual McIntosh clinics. Back then you could bring in your gear and have it tested on professional equipment to make sure it still met factory specifications. And if it didn’t they brought it up to factory specs regardless if it was within warranty. All this was free of charge.
For a time, Century Stereo also had a small satellite location in San Mateo.
Through the years Century has offered a wide range of products and services for the love of all things related to music… from renting musical instruments to students, professional audio gear to schools and churches like Santa Clara University and even car audio. In fact, car audio is how the president of our company got his start here back in 1977.
In the late 80’s, CEDIA (custom electronics design and installation association) was formed has a way to create a higher standard for the budding custom installation industry for consumer electronics. CS is proudly one of its earliest members. In 1992, Marc Latimer came to work as a Sales Consultant. 19 year later, he can still be found on our sales floor.
In 1996, Phil sold the company to his dear friend and audiophile, Buzz Armanini and longtime employee, Rick Bronner. Buzz was mostly a silent partner due to the fact that he was a full time Pharmacist. But during the early days we saw many unique products pass through these doors all at Buzz’s urgings and they left with his finger prints all over them too! From speakers to amps too numerous to name. Which were excitements all its own to the employees who genuinely love music.
In 1998, Phil Sunseri passed away and sadly never got to see the opening of our current location which happened in 1999. When the showroom opened it was unique in its layout. At that time most stereo stores were man caves. Century wanted to show systems in lifestyle vignettes that catered to both men and women. Today many hybrid retailers like us have followed suit in that design.
Over the past 60 years, we have seen in excess of over 100 store fronts disappear both large and small from single store to multi-store chains. We are proud of the fact that we have been able to weather these changes and we thank our clientele for their continued support. They tell us we must be doing something right to have survived.
To us 60 years has made a century.