The Mad Minute

Last week, Jimmy Fallon interviewed Tom Cruise on NBC’s The Tonight Show. There’s nothing special about that – Cruise is promoting the latest in the Mission: Impossible franchise, he’s a regular on Fallon’s show (and the talk show circuit in general), the two appear to be good friends, and – whatever you might think about Cruise – the man gives good TV.

However, within this segment of the show, though there was a one-minute discussion between them, which could just as easily be heard in the corridors of any audio show. And in case you missed it:

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/tom-cruise-is-a-lowkey-audiophile-tech-nerd/2885989

Essentially Jimmy Fallon the audiophile thanked his more knowledgeable audiophile friend for hooking him up with some great equipment. We’ve all done that, whether as the neophyte or the expert. It seems Tom Cruise emailed Fallon a list of top-notch product for his system, Fallon then approached a high-end retailer, and now Fallon has a listening room for his vinyl collection, and a system that includes McIntosh electronics, Synergistic Research power conditioning, and Magico loudspeakers. Fallon even name-checks an audiophile retailer named Pablo who developed the system.

Tom Cruise mentioning those audio brands wasn’t as a result of paid celebrity endorsement, because Cruise, his publicity department, and every one who has ever approached a celebrity for potential paid endorsement knows the cost of such endorsement all too well. Paying for their one second of fame from Tom Cruise would sink most audiophile companies. Product placement in shows is different, and putting a SOTA Cosmos on the set of House was a perfect example of paid product placement (and – reputedly – very successful product placement at that). Instead, this was a moment when the fourth wall came down, to reveal a dialogue between these two audiophiles.

There are more celebrity-audiophiles than you might think. The difference is this is rarely discussed, because people in the spotlight always want something to do when they are away from the spotlight. I know this from personal experience – my mother was a well-known UK movie actor (although not to Tom Cruise levels – she was best known for her work in the popular Carry On! Series of the 1960s and 1970s), and also was a keen artist and Monet obsessive, which was kept completely out of gaze of the public eye.

An audiophile system is perfect for the private life of a public figure. It’s something that is highly personal, bespoke, can be an obsessive collection in its own right, and if it’s ‘outed’ by the celebrity media, there’s a low risk of demonization (the high-end audio world used to be known as a dentist’s hobby – perhaps if Walter Palmer had paid $50,000 for a pair of loudspeakers, he’d still be extracting teeth in Minnesota, rather than facing potential extradition to Zimbabwe). And, if you are a music lover, it’s sometimes hard to turn up at a live event without attracting attention, whether that’s from paparazzi or merely other concertgoers.

Unlike those who are so keen to have their voice heard on forums, those in the public gaze often recognise and cherish ‘me’ time, and it’s why there is a higher than average percentage of audiophiles in the private sector of the public domain. Not just gazillionaires with systems costing more than most people might spend on a house; a kick-ass stereo system that doesn’t necessarily cost the earth is the preserve of more Primetime Emmy nominees than you might expect.

Almost every audio manufacturer, retailer, and magazine editor has a select list of relatively famous names, craving something to do in private. Of course, for the reasons discussed above, this means few companies earn bragging rights. Perhaps we should be more up front, and get photos taken with the uncomfortable-looking celebrity, like every Italian restaurant owner in every Italian restaurant on the planet. But the likelihood is if we did that, those in the public domain would go look elsewhere.

In truth, we’d love more of these audiophile moments on TV. If we are being honest, this one-minute exchange between Cruise and Fallon will do more for the audio world than a year’s worth of audio shows, audio magazines, and audio forums, because it reaches new people. OK, so not many viewers of The Tonight Show will have the sufficient funds to run out and buy the kind of systems these two were talking about, but simply audiophile talk helps put this little industry back on the map a bit.