No doubt the people that will be buying this are the same people who buy Monster Cable products, because they're 'better'.

@jamesuschrist:

Not quite, Monster Cable is *far* too affordable for an audiophile. You're not in audiophile country until wiring your "listening room" runs the price of a Lexus.

@O-Z: Hm, this me betray me as a budding audiophile, but I'm trying to figure out which would be the better investment... I would dare to say the listening room.

Theoretically speaking, it is a good idea to separate the transport from the DAC. In practice, you need every other audio equipment connected to it to be close to perfection to appreciate its avantge. It also better be set up in a perfect room too. There are people out there who spend several grands just for a pair of speaker cables you know...

What a piece of shit. Does it come with a bottle gipsy tears?

If you're managing a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and you've invested tens or hundreds of thousands into your setup, getting something like this would let your system shine.
People have been trying to isolate the individual components in a CD player or record player for years to reduce noise so going that extra step makes perfect sense.
Plus, you now get three paperweights instead of one when you realize you can't actually tell the difference.

Some of the audiophile stuff out there boggles the mind. Things like ruby and gold turntable needles. [www.needledoctor.com]

Oh, and the $8 grand turntable. [www.needledoctor.com]

It's more like if you have to ask why you aren't an audiophile then, I guess.

Triforce....No? Just me?

@HDC: That website is insane.

yeah, HDC - 8 grand for one cart? You can buy a 5K PA system for that! I don't get this sort if audiophile stuff... I mean, what happens if you've got a bit of wax in your ear?

The human ear is probably the most expensive part of the human anatomy. A golden ear to some people costs tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for listening rooms and gear to achieve an eargasm.

For comparison a golden penis will only set you back 25 bux for a pack of magnums and a room. For some people this is alot more fun.

The cited website (needledoctor) is not insane. What's insane is that there are cartridges out there so expensive that wear out so fast that it would be cheaper, on a dollar-per-minute basis, to actually hire Yo-Yo Ma to sit in your living room and play for you as compared to playing his records. The fact that needledoctor is smart enough to make a buck off the audiophile market is admirable.

I say this as someone who has spent more than a little time with a USD$30K turntable. I've spent a lot of time listening to stereo systems that cost twice what I paid for my house. (Hell, you can find *lots* of different speakers that each sell for more than the USD$90K I paid for my house.) I actually appreciate this stuff.

However, I outgrew it a long time ago. My advice to budding audiophiles goes like this, in this order:

1. Get season tickets to the symphony. Much better sound than a million-dollar stereo, more social, and better training for your ears.

2. USD$10K in cannily chosen components will sound better than 99.999% of people can appreciate. If you want to spend more than that, go to step 3.

3. The listening room is a bigger component than you can imagine. When you next build a house, design a good room for that purpose. There are specialty firms that will help you. Once it's designed and built, put your USD$10K system in there and enjoy. A more expensive system can't overcome a bad room; a cheap system (relatively) can sound great in a good room.

4. Only after you've done #1-#3 above should you start considering USD$30K CD players, USD$250K amps, and the like. And if you've got that kind of money, you're probably not wasting your time reading random advice posted to a web site, anyway.

At this point, I propose that Gizmodo should have a "Things You Will Only See Again In Music Videos" category. Because you know that the next time you see this thing, Toni Braxton will be lounging on an ultra-modern chaise singing in front of it.