page 12
daily nebraskan
friday, September 29, 1977
Brand X Speakers designer builds, sells product
Trying out a new product on an already crowded
market is not the easiest way to start a business. But Har
old Scheldt is sure of the quality on every speaker he puts'
his Brand X on.
Scheidt should know, because he is the designer,
builder, and -owner of Brand Speakers, 230 Sunvalley
Blvd. Since the store's formal opening in March, Scheidt
has sold custom and handmade speakers to a variety
of clients, including the Stuart Theatre.
"The current stereo market is in three main categories:
junk, medium and audiophile." Scheidt said.
"There is no in between. You either pay a lot of
money, or just get a speaker in a box. I decided to give
the buyers more for their money and can do that by mak
ing and selling my speakers at the same place."
His Brand X Speakers were chosen for the Stuart
Theatre's new surround-sound stereo system, and Chris
Parker of the Dolby Corporation (a corporation that pa
tented noise reduction systems) rated the Stuart
as having the best theatre sound system in the nation.
Leases speakers
Scheidt, who provided the Royal Grove's new system,
has done custom building for the Flatlands Boogie Band,
leased his speakers for the state auctions and hopes to
lend equipment to the planetarium for an upcoming
laser show.
"I've always liked electronics, and the feeling of build
ing and selling my own equipment," Scheidt said.
"At first the speaker business was going to be strictly
wholesale, but seeing the market was so mismatched, we
' decided to go into retail sales," he said.
In the small but homey showroom at Brand X, Scheidt
features speakers from $200 a pair, to his Condors, hom
loaded comer speakers that sell for $1,500 a pair. He feels
his Condors are in the same class as the famous La Scala
brand, which sells for twice the price.
Behind the showroom is the work area where Brand X
employees wrap coils, make enclosures, fiberglass mold
their own mid-range horns and even stamp out their own
emblems. -
Scheidt uses electronic equipment to test frequency
response, distortion and impedance in the speakers,
but the real judge of quality is his own ear, he said. He
redesigned his Falcon model seven times before manufac
turing it in its present siaie.
Raw speakers
"There are only about six or seven manufacturers of
raw speakers in the world," Scheidt said.
"Speaker manufacturers aren't going for the effic
iency factor, or using hornJoaded systems," Scheidt said.
"Everybody in the stereo business is getting power
hungry. A good horn-loaded system delivers a natural
sound and doesn't require more power than 25 to 30
watts per channel"
When he first started fishing for product names,
Scheidt came up with E X P, only to find the name had
been adopted by a California firm. After unsuccessfully
tossing names back and forth among collegues, Scheidt
sarcastically suggested calling them Brand X, he said. The
name stuck.
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Photo co ur testy of Museum of Modern ArtFilm Stills Archive,
Oedie loves Mommie in Murmur of the Heart, 0
Malle's 'Murmur'
peculiar comedy
A 15-year old boy has his first sexual experience with
his mother. How does that grab you?
Well, the Foreign Classics Series show this weekend,
Murmur of the Heart, deals with just such "happy incest"
as Roger Greenspun of The New York Times called it.
This 1971 Louis Malle film from France is the story
of an upper-middle-class boy (Benoit Ferreux) and his -mother,
played by Lea Massari.
"Murmur of the Heart is comedy, and I guess its soph
istication is a bit peculiar," Greenspun wrote. .
Miller's most important achievement is a , sense of
period authenticity. Murmur of the Heart is set in the
early 1950s and Malle's treatment of the boy's older
brothers is evocative of that time. v.
Greenspun wrote, "Lying, cheating, stealing, drinking,
wenching and insulting their elders, they are the very
incarnation of 1950s juvenile delinquency. Of course
"they seemterribly classic and lovable: Biit. in their
genuinely- outrageous vitality they are also the best re
minder of the imaginative world Louis Malle used to in-habit-and
can still, when the inspiration strikes."
Murmur of the Heart will be showing at 7 and 9 pjn.,
Oct. 2 and 3 in the Sheldon Film Theater. Admission is
$2.00 or $ 1 :50 with a foreign film series ticket.
Poor structure makes'Fire Sale go up in smoke
. The best moment in Fire Sale comes five minutes into
the film. Alan Arkin, as Ezra Fickus, runs out of his house
in a football uniform protecting himself from the rocks
his angry basketball team is throwing at him. You see, his
. - "" ' "v. ; ... ;';','-; ,.
high school team has a record of two wins and about a
zillion losses. ,
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie tries so hard to
be 4zany," 4madcap" and all those other adjectives that
it loses any semblance of plot and degenerates into mass
confusion.
private choving
what stands out is that Arkin, who is also the director,
works so desperately to be hilarious every minute of the
film. . V
He doesn't succeed, of course. He couldn't. There is
no timing, no build-up, and worst of all, .no real structure
to the film. Who can sit through 90 minutes of uncoor
dinated silliness? It gets boring.
Fire Sale is playing at the Plaza Theatres.
There is good cinema available, though.
Dan Ladely should be congratulated for bringing
another series of important foreign classics and contem
porary films to UNL
I shouldn't forget what the Roxy is doing, and the
"Take One" series of American classics also is offering
some good stuff including Orson Welles' monumental
Citizen Kane next week. By all means, see it!
My favorite movie experiences, though, over the past
few years have been the KFMQStuart theater midnight
movies. Their flicks have .ranged from good to terrific
(Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick. Monty Python etc.) and
the atmosphere is always festive, to say the least.
So don't lose hope, movie buffs. There are good films
around. You just have to look for them.
S
Robert Klane wrote the novel this mess is based on,
but his screenplay-or maybe the lousy editing-certain-ly
leaves out some important points. Why, for example, .
are Ezra and his brother Russel, played by Rob Reiner,
successful after their clothing store's fire?
This weakness makes individual performances the only
elements worth seeing. Each star has his or her moments,
but only Sid Caesar, as shell-shocked cousin Sherman,
manages to be consistently funny.
,
Reiner does little more throughout the film than
wheeze from his asthma and scream at Vincent Gardenia,
playing his father.
I really wanted to like this movie. Maybe that's because
it's full of comedians I've always enjoyed, but I think
Wrong dates
The dates for the Lincoln NeoClassic Jazz Orchestra
concerts were incorrectly reported in Thursday's issue of
the Daily Nebraskan. The concerts will be next weekend,
Oct. 7 and 8 at 8 p jn. and Oct. 9 at 2 p jn. at the Lincoln
Community Playhouse, according to John Tavlin, a mem
ber of the orchestra. ;
Movie schedule
Cinema 1: Gnderella 2000; 7:45, 9:40 pjn.pC
Cinema 2: You Light Up My I; 7:30, 9: 15 pjn.;
PG
Cinema X: Love On Top; no set times; X
Last of the Wild; no set time; X
CooperLincoln: Wizards; 6:25, 8, 9:30 pjn.,PG
Douglas 1: The Last Remake of Beau Geste; 7:20,
9:20 pjn.;PG
Douglas 2: The Spy Who Loved Me; 7:40, 9:55 pjn.;
PG
Douglas 3: 77:e Last Hard Men: 7:30, 9:30 pm.;R
84th and O Drive-in: The Last Hard Men; 7:40 pjn.;
R
W. W. and the Dixie Dance Kings; 9:20 pjn.; PG
Sky riders; 10:50 pjn.;PG
Embassy: Sweet lunkin' and Sherlick Holmes; 7,
9:40, 12:20 pjn.; X
Plaza 1 : Smokey and the Bandit; 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
pjn.; PG
Plaza 2: Black and White in Color; 6: 1 5, 8 and 9:45
pjn.;PG
. Plaza 3: The Other Side of Midnight; 5, 8 pjn.; R
PLza 4: Between the Lines; 5:45, 7:45, 9:45 p jn,;R
State: Suspiria; 5:50, 7:30,9:15 pjn.JR
Stuart: Star Wars; 7:20, 9:30 pjn.; PG
Joyo: Vie Rescuers; 2, 7:20 p jn.;G
out on the
veokond
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
Three Nebraska Sculptors: Leslie Bruning, Lee Lubbers
and Jim Schwartz.
Art Shop : .
. Paintings and Drawings by Glenn Johansen, North
Platte, and Ceramics by Robert Anderson, Ames, Iowa.
Sheldon Film Theatre
Fata Morgana. Last Words and Precautions Against
fanatics, all three by Werner Herzog, 3, 7 and 9 pjn.
Friday and Saturday.
Murmur of the Heart by Louis Malle (Foreign Classics
scries) 7 and 9 pjn. Sunday.
Union Program Council
East Union Program Council Art Display, Nebraska: A
View From Within, East Union Loft, through Saturday.
Kimball Recital Hall -
Misha Dichter, piano, 8 pjn. Sunday.
Ra'ph Mueller Planetarium
Satufday! ShouUen f Giants ,
Borders of Infinity. 2:30 and 3:45 pjn. Sunday.
Lincoln Community. Playhouse
Jacques Brcl is Alive and Well and Ltvin in Paris
music by Jacques Brel, 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
