new interview this morning, an ~*~*exclusive*~*~ with Virgil Abloh for GQ on his new collabo with Braun —
https://www.gq.com/story/virgil-abloh-braun-interview
About a re-doing of a Braun component stereo system (Wandanlage) from 1965. Was a pretty fun interview, My Dinner With Andre (1981) meets … IDK. A couple promissory notes in here so as to pay my way invading the email inbox, mostly on the Braun system….
The last auction for a Wandanlage stereo was like years ago on eBay.de… there used to be an incredible amount of Braun stereos on there a while back (the 80s components, the ones with towers, under Rams but post-OPEC), but fewer now. There IS a Wandanlage on a German stereo site:
Which looks like an eBay description pull but it’s not on Kraut eBay.
One Wandanlage in 2015 was listed for $11K…. another ended on French Canadian (!) eBay for $18K after multiple relists…. because it’s a component system, you can approximate it with a rebuild, like this guy did... he bought the components:
TS-45 receiver:
TG 502 reel 2 reel:
L470 speakers (hostage quality pic):
PCS5 turntable:
this fool in South Korea has one:
The message board guy who bought his in Europe was not happy, it’s a pain in the ass shipping old components from Europe:
and good support isn’t guaranteed for Euro stereos stateside… it would be funny if there was a big Braun retro movement in the Fredericksburg, Texas… I like the Braun stereos that look like Geiger Counters the most… I like any Brauns more than Clairtone… there’s an abundance of Clairtones in Canada.
Maybe my favorite YouTube video there is:
Reinhold Weiss, who designed a handful of all-time Braun items:
(hair dryer^) under Rams also designed the NAD 3150 amplifier…
Which looks so good, you can even play the X Plagued With Rage X demo on it. I wanted to ask Abloh if he ever drank coffee out of the Florian Seiffert orange coffeepot (Braun 1972) but ran out of time.
Anyways, grateful to do this story.
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Past work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JLRt0Ec6gZBm50hATYCYmLctnF9GhVijoEbam50JSw/edit