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rogue's gallery
Pear Cables Make It to Yahoo's Worst Tech Products of 2007 List
While sifting through the umpteenth Tech Products of 2007 lists, we stumbled upon this Yahoo! Tech list that contains most of the usual suspects, except one of the entries interested us: Voted one of the 10 worst tech products of 2007 were Pear Audio "Anjou" speaker cables, those pieces of wire that cost $7,250 and that one reviewer inexplicably called "danceable." Yahoo referred to our report earlier this year that moved James Randi to offer $1 million to anyone who can tell the difference in a double-blind test between those cables and some run-of-the-mill Monster cables. Alas, while there was lots of talk and bluster, it turned out that Pear Cable wouldn't offer its cables for testing, and nobody was fool enough to spend the $7,250. Certainly not us. See Yahoo's list on the next page. More »
body mods
Ever thought of getting yourself a permanent pair of Star Trek Vulcan ears? A day trip to the plastic surgeon can get that done for you. This body modification is said to enhance the music listening experience, but then, you have to go around looking like Spock to enjoy that questionable benefit.
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Spock-Ear Plastic Surgery Mod is Not Logical
Ever thought of getting yourself a permanent pair of Star Trek Vulcan ears? A day trip to the plastic surgeon can get that done for you. This body modification is said to enhance the music listening experience, but then, you have to go around looking like Spock to enjoy that questionable benefit.
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audiophiles
Okay, audiophiles, the coast is clear. Now you can safely dive into the streaming network audio game with this strangely named and wildly overpriced Linn Klimax DS, billing itself as the "highest performance digital music player in the world." It's able to move those high-rez FLAC audio files from one place to another with excessive cleanliness, and if you ever have stoop to using lowly WAV files, it up-samples those to a less-embarrassing 384 or 352.8 kHz. Touchscreen-controlled, it doesn't include any hard disks; you must supply those yourself and still pay $20,000 for the privilege. [Linn, via bb Gadgets]
Linn Klimax DS Network Audio Streamer Welcomes Audiophiles to the 21st Century
Okay, audiophiles, the coast is clear. Now you can safely dive into the streaming network audio game with this strangely named and wildly overpriced Linn Klimax DS, billing itself as the "highest performance digital music player in the world." It's able to move those high-rez FLAC audio files from one place to another with excessive cleanliness, and if you ever have stoop to using lowly WAV files, it up-samples those to a less-embarrassing 384 or 352.8 kHz. Touchscreen-controlled, it doesn't include any hard disks; you must supply those yourself and still pay $20,000 for the privilege. [Linn, via bb Gadgets]
audiophiles
We asked readers for examples of outrageous audio equipment, and boy did we get a boatload of responses! Thanks to all our readers who sent in suggestions for our list of audiophile accoutrements. Dive into the gallery below for the grand exhibition of audio enhancements and tomfoolery, with gadgets and geegaws from the sublime to the absurd. Each entry has a caption with our own take on its worth or lack thereof, along with a URL so you can go buy it if you're gullible enough. Hold onto your wallets, because here we go.
Outrageous Audio Equipment Gallery: For Audiophools Only
We asked readers for examples of outrageous audio equipment, and boy did we get a boatload of responses! Thanks to all our readers who sent in suggestions for our list of audiophile accoutrements. Dive into the gallery below for the grand exhibition of audio enhancements and tomfoolery, with gadgets and geegaws from the sublime to the absurd. Each entry has a caption with our own take on its worth or lack thereof, along with a URL so you can go buy it if you're gullible enough. Hold onto your wallets, because here we go.
11:11 AM on Thu Oct 11 2007
By Charlie White
15,281 views,
29 comments
Latest by n/a: @BurstAneurysm: re cat5 that you tried..... a $1 or $1000 speaker cable will sound the same if your source and speakers can't match up to the quality of the cable. expensive interconnect on cheap speakers/source will sound the same as more »
audiophiles
We've been running into quite a few high-end audiophile devices lately, some of them outlandishly priced. Cases in point: those $7250 speaker wires from Pear Cable, or that $6,820 wooden volume control in the pic above. We're wondering how far this audiophile affinity goes, and would like for you to help us. What's the most outrageous audio product you've seen? Send us your nomination in the form of a URL to tips AT gizmodo.com, and we'll put together a gallery of all the most extreme entries. We're not necessarily making value judgments about whether any of these products actually make any difference or not, we just want to have a grand exhibition of the extravagant lengths to which audiophile products have extended. Have they gone overboard? Let's line them all up along with their prices, and then we'll let them speak for themselves.
Outrageous Audio Equipment: A Call for Examples
We've been running into quite a few high-end audiophile devices lately, some of them outlandishly priced. Cases in point: those $7250 speaker wires from Pear Cable, or that $6,820 wooden volume control in the pic above. We're wondering how far this audiophile affinity goes, and would like for you to help us. What's the most outrageous audio product you've seen? Send us your nomination in the form of a URL to tips AT gizmodo.com, and we'll put together a gallery of all the most extreme entries. We're not necessarily making value judgments about whether any of these products actually make any difference or not, we just want to have a grand exhibition of the extravagant lengths to which audiophile products have extended. Have they gone overboard? Let's line them all up along with their prices, and then we'll let them speak for themselves.
speakers
Evolution Acoustics MMthree Speakers Stand Tall with Monster Specs
Just look at these monster speaker stacks from Evolution Acoustics, dubbed MMthree, standing 74" tall and weighing in at a floor-challenging 525 pounds. Powered by a self-contained 1000-watt amp, each of the two speakers in the set consists of a couple of 15-inch woofers, two 7-inch midrange drivers and a 5-inch aluminum ribbon tweeter. The setup gives you spectacular frequency range, from 10-40,000Hz. To roll out next week, these babies will run a cool $50,000, quite a price for music playback only a dog's ears could appreciate. But hey, we're loving that gorgeous, highly polished cabinet, adding a sexy sheen to the dizzying display of sound tech. We'll take two. [Evolution Acoustics, via Audio Junkies]
double blind
Last week, magician and paranormal debunker James Randi (pictured above left) offered the makers of Pear speaker cables $1 million if they could prove in double-blind testing there was a difference between their $7,250 cables and ordinary Monster Cables. Now, Adam Blake (pictured above right), CEO and co-founder of Pear Cable, has called Randi's offer "a fake" and a "joke". We've contacted James Randi, asking if he'd like to get together with these Pear dudes for some double-blind testing. We've also contacted Adam Blake, asking if Pear planned to participate in Randi's double-blind test. After the jump, see the full text of Pear Cable's accusations that Randi's million-dollar offer is a hoax. We'll keep you posted if anyone responds.
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Pear Cable CEO Calls James Randi's $1 Million Offer a Hoax
Last week, magician and paranormal debunker James Randi (pictured above left) offered the makers of Pear speaker cables $1 million if they could prove in double-blind testing there was a difference between their $7,250 cables and ordinary Monster Cables. Now, Adam Blake (pictured above right), CEO and co-founder of Pear Cable, has called Randi's offer "a fake" and a "joke". We've contacted James Randi, asking if he'd like to get together with these Pear dudes for some double-blind testing. We've also contacted Adam Blake, asking if Pear planned to participate in Randi's double-blind test. After the jump, see the full text of Pear Cable's accusations that Randi's million-dollar offer is a hoax. We'll keep you posted if anyone responds.
More »
speakers
We've been pretty tough on audiophiles lately with our harping on ripoff speaker cables, but there are some areas where spending more money on audio components can actually make an audible difference. Case in point are MartinLogan electrostatic speakers, decidedly high-end at a cool $11K a pair and up. Just released yesterday is the ability to configure your own MartinLogans on the company's website, choosing colors and finishes for every area of these mysterious-looking, gorgeous speakers. If they sound half as good as they look, this is going to be truly danceable. Too bad the site requires you to download the Viewpoint Media Player to see the manipulatable 3D models, but it's worth it just to virtually manhandle all that sumptuous speaker-flesh. [MartinLogan]
Configure Your Own High-End MartinLogan Speakers, Then Digitally Fondle Them
We've been pretty tough on audiophiles lately with our harping on ripoff speaker cables, but there are some areas where spending more money on audio components can actually make an audible difference. Case in point are MartinLogan electrostatic speakers, decidedly high-end at a cool $11K a pair and up. Just released yesterday is the ability to configure your own MartinLogans on the company's website, choosing colors and finishes for every area of these mysterious-looking, gorgeous speakers. If they sound half as good as they look, this is going to be truly danceable. Too bad the site requires you to download the Viewpoint Media Player to see the manipulatable 3D models, but it's worth it just to virtually manhandle all that sumptuous speaker-flesh. [MartinLogan]
speaker cables
If you thought Monster Cable was bad with its $80 HDMI cables, check out these Pear Anjou Speaker Cables, ringing up the cash register at an astonishing $7,250 for a couple of 12-footers. The most entertaining aspect of this sucker bait is the way the company got some gullible snob to gush about how he thinks he can actually hear a difference between these and the other presumably high-end wiring he's auditioned:
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$7,250 Speaker Cables Turn You Into a Dancin' Fool
If you thought Monster Cable was bad with its $80 HDMI cables, check out these Pear Anjou Speaker Cables, ringing up the cash register at an astonishing $7,250 for a couple of 12-footers. The most entertaining aspect of this sucker bait is the way the company got some gullible snob to gush about how he thinks he can actually hear a difference between these and the other presumably high-end wiring he's auditioned:
More »
portable media
Future Wireless Headphones to Transmit Music Through Your Body
Wireless headphones are great in theory, but in practice they tend to be bulky and not really worth the snipping of wires. The problem is that you need to cram a Bluetooth receiver into something that's supposed to comfortably rest on your ears, which isn't that easy to do. More »
home entertainment
Apple Lossless On the Way to iTunes?
Although some of us here at Gizmodo are near-deaf from spending way too much time in musical environments exceeding 130dB, we're still happy to hear the rumor that Apple will soon distribute tracks compressed in its Apple Lossless compression format on the iTunes Music Store. More »
home entertainment
