Stereophile and the love of hotel decor


I often appreciate the Stereophile review of industry shows but one thing that always bothers me is the choice of images. They often lead with a full-system image which is usually 80% hotel curtains and rugs.  That is, there's a speaker in the left, the system in the middle and another speaker on the right.  That's fine but if you look at the image as a whole, the area of the image that is covered by gear is about 20% or less.  The rest is invariably 1980's hotel curtains and rugs.

Once you see it that way there’s no going back, your eyes see the curtains and rugs forever.

I really wish they’d focus on more interesting close-ups or even montages.

erik_squires

Doesn’t everyone still have Burnt Orange shag carpet throughout their homes?😁😁

 

Only in the sexy rooms. 

Stereophile should disclose their major investment in the Hotel Curtains R’ Us franchise. Their selection of rugs is still a mystery to me.

Here is a perfect recent example. Two speakers, gear in the middle. If we cover up the gear, 80% of this image is the hotel room. Even if you wanted to have speaker to speaker coverage, what point is there in including so much carpet and window in this shot?

 

Focals in Hotel Room

I remember those shots. To refresh my mind I went back to look for an example. The first show I found was The Absolute Sound show report July/August this year. Not a single curtain shot… all close ups. I went looking for a Stereophile show article and gave up but I remember them. Thanks @erik_squires… I can stop looking.

 

A reason these wide shots are useful is to put the look and scale in context. With only a shot if a speaker it is harder to get a feeling for size. Also, it gives you a feel for how bad the acoustics might have been for a person listening to the system. You can alway find lots of color glossy promo shots… in the same issue usually.