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)
High-end isn't always expensive, check out these $250/pair Scandyna Micropod SE speakers.
(Credit: Stereophile/Robert Deutsch)Stereophile magazine sponsored the Festival Son & Image show in Montreal, Canada, that ran from April 3 through the 6th. The show was the largest ever, with over 120 brands represented. True, most are unknown outside of audiophile circles, but that's part of the appeal. These small companies aren't trying to dumb down their products to reach a mainstream market, no, they just build the best sounding speakers, amplifiers, CD players and turntables they can. Many are hand crafted, lavishly designed products. Point is, in a world where true quality, as opposed to marketing hype, is the rarest commodity, high-end audio is the real deal. If you love music and want to hear it like never before, check out the wares on Stereophile's show report. There's nary an iPod in sight.
Yes, a lot of high-end audio is expensive, but after looking at this week's New York Times Magazine's six page spread on high-end watches--the Patek Philippe Nautilus goes for $25,000--you might conclude the bling market knows no bounds. Actually, there's a lot of relatively affordable high-end audio covered in Stereophile magazine, and as I've pointed out in this blog before, audio is a much better investment than video. Anybody want to buy an $800 HD DVD player, cheap?
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