NBC’s Friends: Chandler Bing
The one about the speakers.
From the mid-nineties to the early aughts, fashion on TV had pretty much gone down the toilet — extra khakis and rollerblades anyone? During these archetypal norm-core years, in two (unbelievably affordable) apartments across the hall from each other in NYC’s West Village, a dramedy of love, relationships, parenthood, friendship and, yes, stereos was taking place. Amidst Ross’s pining for Rachel, the uncertainty of Phoebe’s surrogacy, and the raw sexual tension of Joey’s many [pause] “how you doin?”s, fans of Friends were in for a treat during season four episode 7 when the show got a couple of new stars.
So no one told you life was gonna be this way.
Short story, Joey meets Kathy. They date. He gets stuck on the Parkway on the way home, Chandler sees Kathy naked. Chandler entertains Kathy. An innuendo-filled haircut ensues, and, BAM!
Chandler and Kathy kiss.
Your job’s a joke, you’re broke, your love life’s D.O.A.
Chandler freaks out, he feels like he betrayed his friendship. To salve his guilt, he goes out and buys new furniture for the apartment he shares with Joey. And that’s when we get two new speakers as recurring guest stars on the show.
“Ah, you know I’m 29, I mean who need a savings account,” quips Ms. Chanandler Bong after he reveals that he’s bought a pair of Martin Logan Aereus speakers.
Nothing says dripping with remorse like these drool-worthy speakers. Back then nothing looked like them. You can just imagine Chandler walking into Sound by Singer or Stereo Exchange near his apartment, feeling guilty and saying, “What I need is the biggest, most impressive speaker you have!”
And these are what the salesperson brings him to. Why? Because normally speakers are boxes — cone shaped resonators in a wooden enclosure. But these are a different type of speaker. Electrostatic speakers. Impressive, even electric, in their sculptural oak majesty; and in the same breath vulgar, and challenging. And the panels — that’s not cloth my friends, it’s metal, and metal is just more \m/etal than cloth.
I don’t think these are speakers for a crowded New York apartment. Too big, too domineering over the rest of the decor. And at $2,600 in 1996 money, they are not a sound financial choice. However, as the show’s designers knew, they are the right speakers for this moment in the show because they are just so wrong. You would only buy these out of emotion, not rationality. They are a statement. A statement of Chandler’s contrition wrapped in a cloak of modern design.
Pioneered at Bell Labs in the 20’s and advanced by Magnepan and Quad decades earlier, electrostatics are not a new idea. Till this point though they were dowdy panels with wooly covers. These are a bit different though, the highs and mid-range of each Aerius speaker would be handled by the electrostatic panel at the top of each speaker. Constructed as a sandwich, each panel had two metal grids (stators) and a conductive membrane. It worked by sending current across the metal grids in opposite polarity to move the membrane in between. The whole membrane moved back and forth like the cone of a speaker. Cool, right? And for the bass, so they didn’t have to have a large panel or multiple, they added a woofer which took over at 450Hz. Martin Logan also still makes new speakers like this, these red monsters being a new incarnation.
It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear
Why are you always in second gear, Chandler? It’s because you make poor amplification choices!
What does Chandler pair these speakers with? Some brutish Krell — so hot back then — amplification?
No. Though indistinct in the photo, it looks like a receiver of some sort, and some disc players. Not my first choice, and probably not my third either, but receivers were hot back then (these things are cyclical). Home theater was all the rage, and DVDs were just coming out.
And it doesn’t bother me too much, the speakers are the apology, the statement, the conversation piece, the show of love. Electronics are filler for this apology, and they’re treated that way. All of this was impulsively bought, and hampering these speakers with sub-par and ugly stuff is appropriate to the story line. I feel like the set designers did a good job capturing that.
When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year
In the end though, there isn’t much Chandler can do to make Joey feel less betrayed. He fesses up, and even the sweet sounds of those speakers can’t help heal the rift between them. He hurt his friend, his friend needs time to heal.
I’ll be there for you
Always, the Stereo Stylist.
PS: These speakers truly do live on, following the bros as they move to the apartment across the hall. Though they are inexplicably crammed to the side of the room.
