Goldmund's $135,000 Blu-ray player
No, the Goldmund Eidos Reference Blu-ray player is not made of gold.
(Credit: Goldmund)It sure looks expensive, and at $135,000, the Goldmund Eidos Reference Blu-ray player is definitely in the upper crust of Blu-ray players in terms of cost.
Hand-built in Geneva, the Eidos Reference Blue is a truly rarefied design. Limited in production to 50 units, dawdlers will be left having to make do with a plain vanilla Denon or Sony Blu-ray player.
Will the Goldmund outperform the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player we raved about a few days ago? I have no idea, but I do know that a $20 Casio watch keeps time just as well as a Patek Philippe Ref. 5102G that costs, gasp, $181,650!
My point: buying decisions for ultraexotic products aren't based solely on performance; they're more about a company's long heritage of building luxury designs and backing them up with extraordinary service.
The rich and famous still buy Ferraris that are no faster than a Corvette that sells for a fraction of the Ferrari's price. But Ferrari buyers want more than just speed--they want to be, well, special. They buy it for its looks and how it's made. It's the same deal with uber hi-fis.
(Source: Ultimate AV Web site)
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
My thoughts EXACTLY!!
That thing looks like it is something out of the 80's. Is it suppose to look like something, besides crap?
if 181,000 bucks only gets you an apartment then i would hate to see what a house would be! :)
in the DFW metroplex $181,000 would get you a comfortable home in a suburb in possibly a gated community!!
good metaphor to the cars, but not fair to talk about watches. time is time, but a patek philipe watch will last multiple generations. i've seen beautiful watches over 50 yrs old and still in perfect working condition. casio's won't last more than a yr.
My $17.99 Casio watch is in its 4th year. I've changed the batteries twice, and I've treated it with same common-sense love and care with which I treat my other gear (and myself, for that matter). It keeps great time. It is a somewhat distinguished-looking watch, and I dress very well when I wear it... so people almost always assume I paid upwards of $500 for it.
Generally speaking, if you treat your gear - and yourself - like a million bucks, 9 times out of 10, people will SEE it/you as being WORTH a million bucks.
No burgeouis Ferrari or NES-looking $135,000 Blu-Ray player required.
why spend US $1,000,000 on a car, when people are starving?
why spend US $399 on a phone when people are starving?
why spend US $6 on a coffee when people are starving?
there are people that make $135,000 in a days work. Should we ban such a high salary?
Your argument is fanciful and weak, moreover, the 50 people who buy this product have probably donated more money to charities than I make in a year. I don't know, I'm not going to be the one to disparage consumerism, because I buy **** too, albeit cheaper, but probably just as proportional to my income as the people that will buy products like this.
Nicely said. It's not pretty to think about, but it's the way capitalism works.
If you really think that I think you need to go back and study a few countries from the 1950...
Ya know try looking at the USSR, The Peoples Republic of China, or hell even today try Cuba.
If you cap what people make, people don't do great things if they can't be rewarded for it.
And what kind of remote, middle of nowhere place do you people live that $133,000 will buy a house? That wont even buy a PARKING SPACE here!
I bought my first - and only - home in Texas for $135K. It's 15-20 minutes drive from a major city (nightclubs, girls, Best Buy, etc). I saved and shopped smart.
Please don't equate "inexpensive" with "remote/middle of nowhere"...!
This is a stupidly designed device with a completely ridiculous price tag....and if you cant get a house for $135,000, what kind of idot are you to live in such a place?
You know who's moronic? Your mom, dude.
A starving child in Africa is probably wondering the same thing about you. You probably have four walls over you, three meals a day, color television, and warm clothes on your back. If there's anything else of value in your house, you should just liquidate it, and send the money over to a charity.
Don't fool yourself. It isn't the rich that got us into a recession. There aren't enough of them. It's all of us. It's America in general. We're ALL dumbasses, who always want more, crave more, and never have enough. The housing bust, credit crunch, and extreme borrowing from China all attest to this. Don't point the finger unless you can back it up.
- by Tod Smith September 9, 2009 1:41 PM PDT
- No way!
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