A $49,590 hearing aid, in diamonds

(Credit: PC News)

Don't get us wrong: We're all in favor of using fashion, or whatever else it takes, to de-stigmatize ailments. But a gold and diamond hearing aid isn't exactly what we had in mind.

Unlike the tasteful designs we've seen in other versions, Widex is offering a horrific 24k hearing device and controller studded with 220 diamonds, according to Gizmodo, for the princely sum of $49,590. Even if carbon-bearing materials have some kind of audio-enhancement properties that we don't know about, this has got to be one of the more ridiculous examples of egregious excess we've seen in awhile. And that's saying a lot.