A thought just came to me that a lot of movies show us the lives of fictional people doing the everyday things that real people do. However, we never see anyone sitting down and listening to a high end system.
The only thing that I can remember is when the billionaire played by Robert Redford put on an LP on what appeared to be a high end turntable in the movie "Indecent Proposal".
I have never seen exposed tubes on-screen, or an amp of any type for that matter. Big speakers, fuggedaboudit...it seems hifi does not fit the decor scheme of movie sets, or more realistically, audiophiles are rarer on earth than Klingons and Romulans and hollywood does not know of their existence.
It would seem that some of the well heeled actors, directors and producers would own a killer 2 channel system and periodically include one in a scene when the character has discretionary income.
We've all seen scenes with the wife complaining about the husband always watching sports, but never complaining about him pampering his hi-fi rig.
We've all seen characters with automobiles and other toys that we've envied, but never a stereo system to make you salivate.
Anyone ever see a hi-fi system onscreen worth mentioning?
Papa 171...I beleive that the celebs on the MTV "Cribs" show aren't cheap. I my opinion is that a lot of them don't even know about the world of HiFi audio.
I manage and train salespeople for a mortgage bank. I use a projector for a lot of my training sessions. For the fun of it, I have projected the Audiogon website on the screen a few times at the start of a sales meeting. They have no idea that one can pay 5 or 10k for an amplifier...20 or 50K for a pair of speakers. I show them some these items on the screen and they are just blown away.
Celebs are just ordinary folk too with a lot of money. I believe that they just don't know that the world of hifi exists. I know a lot of professional types that could easily afford high end audio.....they don't own any because they don't know that it exists. I will start a conversation with someone about audio, and the guy will start bragging about his 100 wpc reciever....the guy has no clue that separates even exists.
All print advertising for audio is for the mass market stuff. When was the last time you've seen an ad in your newspaper from a high end audio store?
Just ask around the people that you know and see what happens.......overwhelmingly, they don't have a clue about hi fi audio.
Advertising works. Hi end audio doesn't advertise to the masses.
Sears has the latest plasma screens in stock...now try to find a decent pair of speakers, or an amplifier there. The world goes to Sears because they have the bucks to advertise. Hence if the public doesen't see it at Sears, Curcuit City or Best Buy, to them, it probably doesen't exist.
Just watched Garden State (fantastic movie) not sure what Equipment Natalie Portman is running in her room but tons of Vinyl laying and she even gets some going as well.
Who is Fabio? "I can't believe its not butta?" Remember that commercial, the long haired blonde beefcake with the Austrian(?) accent?
If you still don't know he made his bones by modeling as a cover/loverboy on many of those cheap romance novels that women gobble up at checkout counters of supermarkets. Another "famous for little to nothing" celebrity. Oh, I almost forgot, he's now an author. He also has scripted a few of those novels.
Thanks Tubegroover, I read all of those cheap romance novels but I still don't know who he is.....he probably doesn't know who I am either, so what the heck!
Wasn't he in the "Beaty and the Beast" TV series with Linda Hamilton?
In The Italian Job, Seth Green's system has many speakers next to eachother in a row. They really should have asked to borrow my old Infinities! While they won't blow a woman's clothes off, they certainly look like they could.
Indeed, not much in the way of anything impressive on MTV cribs. They always spend time showing a copy of Scarface on DVD, but not that much on showing the equipment.
Cool deal Slappy, you deserve a nice system like that!
As long as you don't start writing boring movies with characters no one cares about, then start ruining classic movies you made in your youth that the whole world loves by inserting stupid CG/FX scenes for no good reason.
You have McIntosh in the film As Good As It Gets. In What Women Want with Mel Gibson he had a Mark Levinson Reference system with Revel Gems in the bedroom.
Hi - Fidelity , the hi-end store told me at the time they didnt know the name of the movie but it had Jon Cusak in the movie and it took place in Chicago, where the speakers were shipped from. I did see some shots of speakers in the background and in one scene in the store there are some klipsh's shown, I dont know if they were mine though.
Asonicyouth, the table in "Indecent P.." is a VPI TNT with an Eminent Technologies tonearm. I gasped in the theater much to the dissapointment of my wife and was quickly followed with an elbow to the ribs! "Love Potion No.9" has a Krell system in it...
There's pair of Martin Logans in the home of the sleazy record producer in "The Limey". In "Traffic" the hit man talks about his B&W speakers before, as I recall, he gets bumped off himself. Both films were directed by Steven Soderbergh. Maybe there'll be something in "Ocean's Twelve".
Remember the Mel Gibson flick where he can "hear" what women are thinking, with Helen Hunt? i thnk it was called "What Women Want". Anyway, I seem to remember him spinning vinyl on a fairly pompous system in one of the scenes.
It's an image thing. The studio will pay for what the the producer thinks the audience will notice or want to see. I worked in a store that sold telescopes, and quite often studios would rent a huge telescope for about 20% of it's retail value (sometimes the owner would cut the fee for a credit). The studios must not feel that the audience will notice or care about high end equipment, especially since it's a bit esoteric, and not as noticable as a huge telescope or an italian sports car. I have noticed, as in Austin Powers spoof type movies, that entertainment packages that include moving beds and automatic lighting changes get some play. I guess high end audio isn't sexy enough.
1. In Sixteen Candles, when panning over Jake's house after the big party has occured, you can see a Nakimichi Dragon malfunctioning.
2. In the first Punisher movie (with Dolph Lungren) you can see, once again, a Nakimichi Dragon in the house of the mobster that the Punisher kills.
3. In a Chinese cop thriller called Internal Affairs, there is a scene near the beginning of the film that takes place in an audio store. Two characters (one being a salesman and the other being a customer) actually sit down and listen to some hi-fi. There is tube gear, Thiels, B&Ws, etc. They listen to some female vocals and the sales guy talks about "letting the sound wash over you".
Internal Affairs is actually a good movie, and as far as I know, it is the only example of true-to-life audiophilia ever making it to the big screen.
just an add-on to Rottenclam post : the exact title is "InFernal Affairs". And incidentally, the "dealer" promotes Esat Asian production as being as good as the "occidental" one, then refers the buyer to another shop where the item's cheaper. Beside this small variation (but it has its self-explanation in the movie drama), it is indeed very true-to-life...
Although we don't get to see the system, (at least I don't recall seeing it in any way) in a scene from the recent movie 'Constantine,' Keanu Reeves' character is listening to Dave Brubeck. I feel this several seconds piece of music gave me alot more insight to the character. I wonder....was this an addition to the scene by a music lover/audiophile who purposely left their mark, or was it scripted in accidentaly? It just seemed so un-Hollywood.
Watch "House MD" on Fox. Almost every week the main character (Hugh Laurie) spins vinyl on what appears to be a high-end table. I don't know what kind it is, but it has a clamp, and an arm that appears to be an RB-300 or something similar, and a wood-bodied phono cartridge. Looks like a grado.
"Buffalo 66" or "Brown Bunny" defnitely do not qualify as Hollywood films, but one of the residences of one of the biggest "entertainment-world" audiophiles is in Los Angeles. I am speaking, naturally, of Vincent Gallo, who: 1.) owns a large amount of original Western Electric equipment--if that does not qualify as hardcore audiophilia, I don't what else can 2.) has written articles on high-end audio, passionately espousing the superiorities of monophonic hifi and Mark Levinson CD players (see following article "Mono Mia" for intro, but more articles can be downloaded from the "Appreciation" website, and from the "Drowning in Brown" website): http://www.drowninginbrown.com/dib_sp.htm 3.) owns and operates a supremely obsessional recording studio, where even the patch cables are strictly color coordinated, called „The University for the Development and Theory of Magnetic Tape Recorded Music Studio” For picture: http://www.drowninginbrown.com/dib_studio.htm 4.) is constantly searching for obscure pieces of Western Electric equipment and old German studio equipment, along with especially rare pieces of clothing. (See his personal website). Any reaction to Gallo's particular brand of audiophilia?
I just finished viewing the dvd of the movie "Stealth". The character, Dr. Keith Orbit, has what appears to be a ClearAudio Master Reference turntable and a wicked looking pair of speakers in in house.
Yeah... House uses a top o' the line Sota. And the cart is like a Benz Micro Ruby or som eother snazzy wood-body - a Hugh Laurie touch I wonder... a vintage motorcycle guy as well, from what I hear.
I also remember Robert Redford putting the stylus down on the record in "Indecent Proposal". The other movie that comes to mind was "Love Potion No. 9" when we see Tate Donovan's apartment full of Krell KSA series equipment; later he is loading all the equipment into the truck of his car to give it to some person he has fallen in love with (can't rememember but it might be Sandra Bullock).
The new "Stepford Wives" movie has some scenes of a wealthy men's club, which is equipped with lots of dark wood paneling and leather furniture...and a couple of nice McIntosh monoblock amplfiers tucked into the bar area.
I was thinking of an halo/xbox scene in "Entourage".
So why doesn't House have an amp for his Opera Piega's and Sota Cosmos on the show? I think we should put together a campaign: "Find Gregory House a decent amp." We should start a petition to get him an Airtight integrated or something...
that movie "Infernal Affairs" actually took my audio fever to another level...one message that hit me hard was that once entered into the heaven of music, a person seizes to suffer for that brief moment, and it is no longer relevant whether he is a good guy or a bad guy...
In Jerry's apartment on "Seinfeld", the box speakers sat on the floor, behind the couch on both sides....with no sign of speaker wires...or a reciever.
'Nother "House" one - the apartment the good doktor lives in has a Joule Electra of some variety on a shelf. Definitely *the* high-end show - is there a showroom down the street on Pico Blvd. or something they raid?
I watched the movie the departed today and there is a couple of Mcintosh pieces in a rack, they listen to a cd with headphones, (couldn't make out what brand of headphones).
not quite Hollywood but a nice 'vintage' audiophile setting
Malena - an Italian movie set in WWII the soon to be widow plays a record on a victrola seductively listening the young peeping tom protagonist goes out and hums the record then buys the 78 he then obsesses to the record
I'm surprised that nobody in this thread mentioned the tape recorder prominently displayed in the background of the old "Dean Martin Show" or the JBL 4311 speaker in the background of the basement scenes on "That '70's Show".
Waking life - even though animated- had a scene in a guys apartment with tons of LP's and a nitty gritty machine. I was shot on DV then converted to animation however- so i was realy there.
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