hifi audio in movies

Hi Arthur: Just got back from seeing the Departed (Great Movie) and I noticed the Mcintosh set-up too. Nice set-up. (McIntosh MVP-861, I think it was a 6900 Integrated and a MR85) Probably would make an interesting forum: Best Looking Gear, but I am sure it's already on here somewhere. I personally think McIntosh makes the best looking components and probably one of the reasons why McIntosh has stayed in business for 50 plus years. Those wonderful blue lights. lol

If we want to degenerate to TV, one episode of Smallville prominently displayed some electrostats (I think they were Sound Labs) at Lex Luther's mansion/castle. If I remember correctly they did some wild back lighting of the speakers. I think Lex's evil half-brother may have temporarily taken up residence. Lex just does not have that kind of cool.

Infinity RS-1b's in the Bobcat Goldwaith movie "Hot To Trot". JBL 4311's in the background of the basement scenes in Fox's "That 70's Show". And let's not forget the tape recorder in the background of the old Dean Martin Show.

I finally saw "The Departed" on cable while on a business trip. The movie is based on a Hong Kong flick "Infernal Affairs". Whoever wrote the script for "The Departed" had kept the original story pretty much intact. But the high-fi reference in "Infernal Affairs" is much better. Matt Daemon's character actually had an all tube amplification and a beautiful two-channel setup dominating his living room. When he first moved into his new apartment with his girlfriend (not the psychiatrist, they were two different people in the original flick), he immediately set up the new system he had just purchased and put on a female vocal track to enjoy, even before all other boxes were unpacked.

In one of the earlier scenes, DeCaprio's character went into an audio store and hassled with the store owner to let him borrow some expensive cables to try. And the store owner complained and moaned about it. He then asked DeCaprio's character to watch the store for him while he went out to run some errants. DeCaprio's character then went behind the speakers in the demo room to fix something. At that moment, Daemon's character walked in to try to audition some speakers. They listened to something, and then DeCaprio's character switched the cables, and they both went "ah!" and agreed the new cables sounded better. DeCaprio's character then told Daemon's character to go down the street to another store where he would be able to get a better deal on the same speakers by mentioning DeCaprio's character's name. At that moment, the store manager guy came back and yelled at DeCaprio's character for sending his customer/business to another store.

The Hong Kong film has a different ending, Nicholas' character didn't die. So sequal #2 and #3 came out later. And you find out that the boss' wife owns the Hi-End Audio Store. There were a few scenes shot in the store listening room. And she mentioned that something about these foolish rich people dig tubes.

You see high-end products as props in Asian TV shows quite often. I recently saw a pair of Watt Puppy 7s in one TV drama series, and B&W Natilus 802s paired w/ all Classe equipment in another.

I've also seen a Nagra recorder in one of the movies recently but I can't remember which one.

FrankC

So. Cal. Hi end audio dealer Brooks Berdan of Brooks Berdan Ltd. has set up numerous systems for TV and movies over the years, including Indecent Proposal .