You know your Black Star Bags amp wallet or bag? It protects your rig, keeps your amp, DAC and iPod all in one easy to use place, it’s tough, hand built and rugged. These aren’t shipped from some nameless … Continue reading →]]>

You know your Black Star Bags amp wallet or bag? It protects your rig, keeps your amp, DAC and iPod all in one easy to use place, it’s tough, hand built and rugged. These aren’t shipped from some nameless manufacturer and rebranded for us. These are made right down the street from our shop in Portland, OR. The real deal! The amp bags are a custom job for Black Star Bags, 100% exclusive to ALO audio. These guys occupy most of their time building bike messenger bags and backpacks, they use heavy duty Cordura with ballistic nylon reinforcement and heavy-duty vinyl making the bags virtually waterproof. We are proud to carry these locally made bags and we are proud that so many of our customers have purchased them! Since 2011 we have sold over 600!

Recently the folks at Cool Hunting paid them a visit and wrote a great piece on these fantastic hand built bags. Read up!

www.coolhunting.com/travel/black-star-bags.php

And while your at it, get yourself a new backpack!

Next week is the New York Audio and AV Show at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC and we are going to be there! Although we won’t be there in any official capacity, Caleb and myself will be roaming around … Continue reading →]]>

Next week is the New York Audio and AV Show at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC and we are going to be there! Although we won’t be there in any official capacity, Caleb and myself will be roaming around checking out the sites, taking photos and hanging out. Can’t wait! Let us know @aloaudio if you are going to be around!

Friday, April 13, 2012 from 3:00 — 8:00 p.m. is $17 (e-ticket) & $22
Saturday, April 14, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m. is $22 (e-ticket) & $28
Sunday, April 15, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m. is $22 (e-ticket) & $28
Complete weekend tickets valid for all 3 days is $39 (e-ticket) & $49

www.chestergroup.org/index.php/extensions/newyorkaudioshow

Here is a comparison shot of the National and the Continental.  Essentially the same enclosure design, but its a bit shorter in its overall length.

Continental is 4.5″ long while the National is 4″ long.

Both sound great!

April 21st 2012. We’re one month away from the annual celebration of music, vinyl and the places we go to get our music. Record Store Day is about a lot of things and one of those things is community. … Continue reading →]]>

April 21st 2012. We’re one month away from the annual celebration of music, vinyl and the places we go to get our music. Record Store Day is about a lot of things and one of those things is community. If you read through the quote section of RSD’s website almost every artist/manager/producer claims the importance of hanging out at the record store, meeting people that like the same music, discovering new bands, meeting girls, making friends, starting bands, you name it, it all came from the record store!

Here in Portland there are 18 music shops participating in this years event. There are thousands of stores across the country involved. (Find one near you at the RSD website) Bands and labels create unique content to give away and sell throughout the day with tons of great deals on CDs, Vinyl and more.

Iggy Pop is sitting at the helm of RSD as the official “Ambassador” of the event. Here’s what he has to say about it: “A person should have a personality. You won’t get one dicking around on a computer. It helps to go somewhere where there are other persons. Persons who are interested in something you are. That’s how a record store or any shop that’s got some life to it should work. It’s not about selling shit. I got my name, my musical education and my personality all from working at a record store during my tender years. Small indie shops have always been a mix of theater and laboratory. In the 50′s and 60′s the teen kids used to gather after school at these places to listen free to the latest singles and see if they liked the beat. You could buy the disc you liked for 79 cents and if you were lucky meet a chick. Clerks in these places became managers, (like Brian Epstein), label heads, (Jack Holzman) and Faces on album covers (like me). Personally I feel best in a store that, while staying small and socially relaxed, still keeps a complete variety of music types and non musical recordings on offer. I’m aware though that a lot of great places are genre-specific, like dance hall shops in Jamaica or Compas here in Little Haiti. In Europe and on the West coast the same goes on for Punk and Goth. All of this is cool and has a much bigger future than most people realize today. When the record and record store businesses began to die at the turn of the new century, they deserved it because they got too big too boring and too plastic. As Record Store Day Ambassador for 2012 I feel like a representative from some exotic jungle full of life and death and sex and anger, called upon to wear a leopard skin and translate joy to the world of the dead.“ –IGGY POP

So mark your calendars and start getting ready for tons of cool stuff and special deals, and in the meantime, why don’t you head down to the record shop, pick out a stack of vinyl and hang out for a while.

www.recordstoreday.com

Click the link above to view the online version of our Spring Catalog. Once you’re there just click on the bottom corner of the catalog to view the next page.

Enjoy!