Vale Josef Riediger

[Marc]

1 minute ago, Rockford said:

Sometimes you wouldn't even get upstairs as Rudi would be chatting to you and sell you something instead!

Classic! I am sure it worked well for both of them.

[tripitaka]

Really nice article, kudos to all concerned. RIP Josef

[Wimbo]

R.I.P. Joe  Good times over at Bankstown and when you used to linger at our shop back in the 80's and 90's. I remember Phil as far back as his school days and getting off the train at Mount Kuring-gai, same suburb the Gibsons lived in. Sad day for the HiFi industry though, one of the entertainers gone.

[Sir Triode]

I first met Joe at his Bankstown store in 1990. I had specially made the trip down from Brisbane to visit the stores in Sydney. His store had the most esoteric and interesting gear. 

 

In 1994, I traded my B&W 801 m2s for a pair of new Apogee Stages. And have popped into the new stores from time to time over the years. 

 

The last memorable time was when he had a pair of Wilson Sashas hooked up to D'Agostino mono amps driven by an ARC Ref5 - I can't remember the source. The sound was holographic and spanned from wall to wall in his large upstairs listening room at the Drummoyne store. He always had a good ear and knew how to tune his systems. His talent will be missed. 

 

RIP Joe.

[Bunno77]

 

[tripitaka]

/\

Beautiful eulogy from Mr Rasmussen

[hugo_wilco]

Wow what a beautiful tribute from Gryphon. RIP mate. 

[muzzagruzz]

Great tribute to Joe. Thank you Stereonet for honouring him. 
 

I remember the day I bought my Gryphon Diablo 120 and Joe telling me that it was the amplifier I should’ve bought the first time. 
 

And he was right. Thank you, Joe. 

Edited September 23, 2020 by muzzagruzz

[shovel]

Ahh...1989, Thursdays nights hanging out upstairs at Bankstown. Some of the rotating brands, trading upgrading. Bill Beard, Ensemble,

Gryphon,  Apogee, DPA,  Kebschull, Oracle, Sota, Audion....

And even a trip on Joe to the Chinese around the corner. Lazy Susan.

Memorable misspent youth thank to Jo.

I dont think life has been that good since.

Miss you Joe.

[analog brother]

i learned the sad news this morning.

i also first met joe when i ventured out to his bankstown emporium in the early nineties.

i was mesmerised by the endless racks full of esoteric gear such as gryphon, sonic frontiers, vimak,

enlightened audio designs, classe, jadis, martin logan.......amongst others.

i was there to purchase my first 'hi-end' speakers, a pair of atc scm-20's standmounts.

when we went down to the  garage to load the speakers into the car, joe asked me what amp i was going to 

run them with. when i told him of the 600w per channel p.a amp that i had, he said, "that amp is ****. you should buy this", and proceeded to unveil a monster pre-owned krell. i said i can't afford that, thanks anyway.......but as always he was right; i ended up buying a krell, 5 or so years later after experimenting with a few other amps. 

joe knew where i was heading before i did.

those equipment racks went from shop to shop and are still in use today at leichhardt. 

 

over the years, i have developed my passion into an obsession, and joe and his loyal staff, many who have been working with him for many years, have always been there to help, advise and realise some dreams, as well as become

good friends along the way. i have met many great people in this hobby from all sides of the fence including retailers, wholesalers, label anoraks, equipment hoarders, cable tweakers and music lovers. joe once asked me who i thought was the craziest, maddest about hi-fi guy in australia was, and i answered, "you".

"correct", joe said with a knowing smile.

 

joe was always humble though. willing and able to share extensive knowledge. he always made time to sit down and listen and offer genuine advice or talk current world issues even if there wasn't a sale in sight. he was a tough negotiator, but fair and his word was bond. he was also generous and modest even though he was a card-carrying titan of the audio industry.

you will be missed - may you rest in peace in perpetual musical bliss, joe.

 

james

 

 

 

 

[ray4410]

so sad to hear about joe,
i had the privilege of meeting joe way back in the early 80s,he would drive down to melbourne in a van hunting quality second hand hifi gear,i at the time had a pair of amcron es212 electrostatic speakers advertised in the trading post,joe rang me and asked if he could have a look at them he turned up at the time he said he would took one look at the speakers and bought them ,they were in excellent condition,it wasn't till a few years later that i realised this hi end hifi shop in sydney,was the same man i had met and had a pleasant encounter with years before,
condolences to his family
rip joe.

[Chris Launder]

Truly sad news , I actually met Josef in his ' pre Bankstown ' days when he used to buy and sell from the Trading Post and had a delivery van as his mobile office , In fact i actually managed to sell him something before he sold me something . I have been a customer ever since , he had a knack of coming up with an irresistible deal that you couldn't refuse and for an item about 3 rungs up the ladder from what your budget allowed . I think from memory he was the 1st to sell VTL in Australia . I remember those trips to the Chinese Restaurant on Thursday evenings after the Bankstown shop had closed . Once during the late 1980's he came to pick me up when I was unemployed and gave me a weekend's work helping set up gear at the Sydney HiFi show , he pointed to a guy in the back seat and said , ' Oh , Chris , This is Fleming ' ... ( Of Gryphon fame ) .... Everytime I fire up my Diablo & Wilson Sashas I will think of him ....

[tripitaka]

4 hours ago, Chris Launder said:

Truly sad news , I actually met Josef in his ' pre Bankstown ' days when he used to buy and sell from the Trading Post and had a delivery van as his mobile office , In fact i actually managed to sell him something before he sold me something . I have been a customer ever since , he had a knack of coming up with an irresistible deal that you couldn't refuse and for an item about 3 rungs up the ladder from what your budget allowed . I think from memory he was the 1st to sell VTL in Australia . I remember those trips to the Chinese Restaurant on Thursday evenings after the Bankstown shop had closed . Once during the late 1980's he came to pick me up when I was unemployed and gave me a weekend's work helping set up gear at the Sydney HiFi show , he pointed to a guy in the back seat and said , ' Oh , Chris , This is Fleming ' ... ( Of Gryphon fame ) .... Everytime I fire up my Diablo & Wilson Sashas I will think of him ....

Wonderful little note and thanks for sharing.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

Sad news indeed when I found out Joe was terminally ill and recently of his passing. I think in many ways it marks an end of an era in Australian high-end audio.

 

I knew Joe since 1987 in the Bankstown store. I was a young doctor with a passion for music and high end gear but without the  deep pockets to afford it. I had many trips out to the Bankstown to peruse the trade-ins and to listen to the gear. In those days it was Phil and JoJo (or Little Joe) and Josef running the store. My friends and fellow audiophiles always referred to Josef as 'Uncle Joe'. This was the guy that was going to look after you even if you knew he was going to sell you something more expensive than you planned!

 

The thing about Joe, even from those early days, was a strong conviction in his beliefs and a sense that whilst it would cost you, he indeed would look after you. Call it good business acumen if you like but Joe was a person who always kept his word. He was a man of honour and sometimes in later years boasted to me how people trusted him with large sums of money that he kept on account. I personally know of at least one person that did this. I ended up buying many pieces of gear from Joe and he could always be trusted to keep his end of the deal.

 

That trust was also given by Joe to many of his customers. In a sense it was part of his business strategy. I recall many times in the early days Joe encouraging me to take stuff home on long-term loan/audition. There was rarely a time period set and he would throw in cables or whatever else you needed. There was a book system for stuff out on loan but I swear there was many a time it was not recorded. He did however have a phenomenal memory to back up his trust in you! He was shrewd enough to know that if he loans something for long enough it likely would never come back. You got to used to the superior sound quality and ended up buying it.

 

Importantly, in those early days at Bankstown, Joe always had time to spend with you even if you were trading up on some of the second hand gear and couldn't afford any of the new stuff. Joe was smart enough to look after his customer base whatever their budget. The boys would happily audition the high end gear even if they knew you couldn't buy it....... yet! Favourite music tracks were produced and people just enjoyed the the fun of being an audiophile. Something, I think is sometimes missing today.

 

Cash flow at times was pretty tight for Joe at Bankstown. I recall one evening he turned up to my house with a Wadia that was out of my price range but which he knew I coveted. He sold it to me at a drastically reduced price explaining he needed the cash to pay his staff.

 

That style of doing business with trusted customers continued through to the present day. I ended up buying Gryphon mono blocks and many other items from Joe. On the rare occasion that something went wrong he would just fix it.

 

I recall a very memorable dinner with Joe and Flemming Rasmussen and invited guests.

 

He continued to have time to chat in later years when I would need to speak to him about this or that. He spent nearly an hour on the phone with me when my best friend passed away over a year ago. I sold all of his audiophile gear on behalf of his widow and it was done through this website. Joe took the time to advise me what everything was worth and what was a fair price to expect. Since then we have spoken a few times about gear or when he would simply "pocket dial" me. We would end up chatting about where high-end audio was heading, life or sometimes his medical situation. He was just happy to chat.

 

'Uncle Joe' was truly one of life's characters, a larger-than-life character, someone that you thought would always be around. My thoughts go to Maggie and the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chris Launder]

On 23/09/2020 at 7:43 PM, shovel said:

Ahh...1989, Thursdays nights hanging out upstairs at Bankstown. Some of the rotating brands, trading upgrading. Bill Beard, Ensemble,

Gryphon,  Apogee, DPA,  Kebschull, Oracle, Sota, Audion....

And even a trip on Joe to the Chinese around the corner. Lazy Susan.

Memorable misspent youth thank to Jo.

I dont think life has been that good since.

Miss you Joe.

We must have been at the same dinners ?

[Tax]

I went in to Audioconnection with a friend and a budget of $5000 nearly two decades ago.., came home and had spent $7500 and then traded in my PMC speakers a month later to upgrade.... it started a journey back then with Pathos Acoustics, Jadis etc

 

Joe always had time for me if I ever wanted his advice, hadn't seen him in the last decade as I wasn't buying the latest and greatest.

 

Vale Josef Reidiger!

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Tax

[theking]

Terrible news,  I just got my DD amplifier and pre amplifier from him early this year. I enjoyed every conversation on many occasion with him, very knowledgeable and humble person.

Big loss for hi-fi community in Australia. RIP Joe. 

[Hilltop Rob]

Only just heard of this now and am genuinely saddened to learn of it.

I bought a couple of Gryphon integrated amplifiers from him about 15-20 years ago, after I was introduced to Joe through another Gryphon-addict.

 

He was always very sincere and trusting (Both times he shipped the amplifiers before he'd even received payment!)

 

He always told you exactly what he thought about any component he was selling and how it would match with the rest of your gear, whether good or bad; He wasn't just out to make a sale at any cost and that is VERY rare to find, in today's market.

 

Vaya con dios, Josef.

 

Thanks for looking after us.

[wadiman]

I was deeply saddened to hear of Jo’s passing.  I’ve bought a bit of gear from AC over 20 years -  first in Bankstown and then from the Leichhardt shops.  
 

marc - thank you so much for the tribute - I only had a few personal dealings with Jo over the years (he recommended my Dali MS4s which I purchased and am enjoying immensely) and I now understand the profound contribution he has made to our hobby here in Aus. 

A real loss - I’ll toast him with a red in my next listening session.

 

Deepest condolences to Jo’s family and the AC team.