This Stereo Establishes A Social Boundary That You Can Not Cross

Download the complete 36pp 1980 Studer REVOX catalog (presented in three parts due to file size):

DOWNLOAD PART 1: Revox_80_part1

DOWNLOAD PART 2: Revox_80_part2

DOWNLOAD PART 3: Revox_80_part3

Products covered, with intensely detailed text, specs, and photos, include: Revox B790 and B795 turntables; B750 integrated amp, B760 FM tuner, B780 receiver, B77 tape deck, BX4100, BX350, BR530, BR530, BR430, and BR320 speakers; the REVOX Triton sub/satellite speaker system; and a whole range of accessories.

REVOX was the consumer-products brand of the Swiss firm Studer; Studer being most noteable as maker of the finest multi-track analog audio tape machines in the world, machines that are still used in studios around the world everyday to make records for top artists.  OVER THIRTY YEARS after they were manufactured.  Think you’ll still be using those Lynx Convertors in thirty years?  NEways…  yeah so this is pretty solid kit.

Most audio-folk are familiar with the B77 tape deck, so it’s interesting to see that there was a whole line of amps, tuners and speakers arranged around it.    It’s interesting to note how the products are numbered sequentially across their ‘product-types,’ which certainly seems to encourage one to conceptualize them in unity rather than as tokens of a certain ‘kind’ of audio-hardware.

But let’s talk about this catalog. Without a doubt, this is one of the most lavish and neatly designed pieces of audio ephemera I have ever come across, and y’all know I’ve seen a lot of this crap.

Well I guess that explains it.  Let’s buy this one.

What does this all mean?  What can we take from this layout, lighting, design, mise-en-scene… how does it all work together to create the overwhelming sense that I will never, ever, EVER be able to afford shit like this?

There’s a concept in semiotics called discourse.  Discourse can be understood as a social boundary that is learned through lived experience.  Discursive boundaries are established by all sorts of things, from spoken language to dress, gestures, the kind of food that one consumes, and the objects that one associates with their person.  Consider the King and his throne (above).  What does the throne say about the person who sits on it?  How do we conceptualize that relationship?  How do we describe that relationship?  I would suggest that the Revox hi-fi is a discursive marker of an extreme kind of wealth and privilege.  The way that this document reinforces this discourse through its various design and art-direction elements is fkkn masterful.  Well done, unnamed Swiss ad agency of old.  You would def get an A+ in my graphic design class (visual narratives assignment).

Alright let’s get back to some pictures of old stereos.