Ferrari's $3,000 boombox

(Credit: Shiny Shiny)

Crave appreciates fine sportscars as much as anybody, but even we thought it a bit odd that Ferrari was making an audio system that some people planned to keep in their garages. (To lull their Enzos to sleep, we assume.)

The company has decided, thankfully, to make something for the living room too by partnering with Meridian to create its F80 entertainment system. Its features don't exactly blow the doors off competing products--the F80 can play DVDs, CDs, MP3 files and AM/FM radio with 80 watts of power--but Shiny Shiny says it does have a "sleek high-lacquer finish and organic curves" in a style worthy of the Ferrari name.

The price may seem a tad steep starting at 1,495 pounds, or nearly $3,000, but compare that with the $20,000 tag on the "Art Engine" system sitting in the garage. When you're talking about Ferraris, it's all relative.

[Dachi]

80 watts is probably per channel, not total power

You can't compare the 80 watts of this system to the ~500 watts of some $200 shelf systems (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xP0IUbPRTDd/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=120900&I=257MXC55 ) becasue those shelf systems add up the watts for all the speakers, each of the channels etc. for the amp and come up with a "total power" figure.

This system from Ferrari most assuradly using watts per channel (each speaker supports a full 80 watts), becasue if it is 80 watts of total power it would only be about 20 total watts, which could barely be used as a garage radio becasue of the extra noise.

If by 80 watts they mean total power then it would barely be powerful enough for a garage radio, and at $3,000 I doubt it.

The problem is that even 80 watts per chan is a little weak. The $200 shelf system I linked has 170 watt subs.

Even if at low volume the system has amazing sound, if you turned the volume up a bit the $200 shelf system would begin to surpass it.