2. amps-preamps
  3. 1093393251

No Audiophiles in Hollywood

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?

Just a thought.
128x128mitch4t
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
If these have been mentioned before forgive me, but this thread is over 4 yrs old and I didn't read through all the posts.

Anyway, two films that easily come to mind are Indecent Proposal, where the Redford character had an audiophile turntable and played LPs for romance at a time when LPs were considered (by me, too) totally dead.

In The Bone Collector, the Denzel Washington character has a pair of walnut-staved small Sonus Faber speakers mounted near the ceiling and aiming down.

Although John Cusack in High Fidelity isn't an audiophile, he does have an interesting mix of mid-'70s hi-fi equipment, and he runs a primarily vinyl store in 2000 before it was hip or popular.
audiotomb's avatar
audiotomb
1,112 posts
 
kill bill I
in the fight scene between Black Mamba and Copperhead
they trash the living room, knock over cd's and vinyl records are seen in a shelf under an unseen stereo
pause
21 posts
 
Dark Knight had beolab speakers in the penthouse/apartment scene, the 2008 horror movie Shutter had Meridien speakers in the guys apartment.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
On TV, not movies, but Dr. House has a SOTA in his office, and I believe Revels. Of course, both the character and the actor (Hugh Laurie) are decent amateur musicians.
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
If Steven Spielberg walked into an audio store, and was mesmerized by say, an Oracle CD transport or turntable, most hi fi store owners:

1) Wouldn't recognize him

2) Would ignore him and/or be really condescending because he was wearing jeans

3) Would discourage and squash his enthusiasm for any stunningly exotic component and attempt instead to get him focused on some tweaky garage built no name brand

4) Finally, would say that, no, he couldn't borrow or return any equipment - even if it wasn't even plugged in during a blockbuster Hollywood scene -- and there would be a 25% restocking fee.

Arrogance and incompetence have killed far more 2 channel audio industry sales than video and and the internet combined.
More to discover