The ClearAudio Statement: At $100,000 the ClearAudio Statement, seen above, is everything that is wrong with the audiophile culture, combined into one four-foot, 770lb, variously suspended, NASA-electronics-adorned turntable (check out a full-length shot here). But it's a design triumph, coaxing a polished, demure aesthetic out of what should by all means be an ostentatious CNC-machined mess.

Speak-er: Spawned by a playful concept that nobody honestly expected to get made, the Speak-er isn't fancy, powerful or technologically impressive. It's a dead-simple desktop speaker in a fantastic shell, which opens up a slew of design possibilities for your office, room, or live-action comic book troupe.

Sonnance Freewheeler: Continuing the simple-but-perfect theme, the Sonnance Freewheeler is a wireless speaker disc, about the size of a car's wheel and able to run for about 8 hours on a full charge. It's also $21,000, but that neither here nor there, "here" being "within the range of you to buy" and "there" being "at all worth it, even if it was." But, pretty!

BeoSound 5: It's somehow heartening to see so much design go into a remote control. That's what the BeoSound 5 is: a 1024x768 screen with a brushed aluminum control wheel that serves solely as an interface for the BeoMaster 5, a giant B&O media server.

Montegiro Lusso Turntable: Apparently designed in the Towers of Hanoi tradition, this conical turntable is adorned with enough expensive-sounding features for even the most credulous discerning audiophile. It's just under $50,000, but really, you can't put a price on tying a room together, can you?

Sony Sountina: So, it's a speaker in a glass stick, but it's also one of the rare speakers that would work in virtually any setting. As a bonus, it can be illuminated in blue, amber or purple light, though I think it looks best without any at all.

V-Moda Vibe Earphones/Headsets: This is one of the few items on this list that people actually buy, and with good reason. They're capable (though not outstanding) earphones, on which V-Moda has shown extreme attention to design. The corrugated bodies, Mont Blanc-esque pen-tip wire accessories and (sometimes) fabric wire casings make for the most stylish earbphones on the market today.

Harman Kardon Soundsticks: You've seen this at Apple Store and Best Buys for years, but they're due some credit: they bring a stunning transparent aesthetic to mainstream buyers, perfectly complementing a generation of Apple hardware while being generally gorgeous enough to be appealing to the PC crowd too. You'd still be hard-pressed to find a lovelier set of speakers for under $200.

Opera Sonora Speakers: Every once in a while, questionably scientific theories of audiophilia result in extremely handsome products. That's the story of the Opera Sonora line of speakers. The theory: Bolting little speaker driver on to the back of tonewood—the same stuff used in high-end violins—will provide a rich, warm sound. The result: Speakers that look like they were designed by a reanimated Antonio Stradivari, with a sound—well, not many people have actually heard them yet.

Sony Qualia 010: Priced at over $2500, slapped with a painfully pretentious name and jinxed forever to be rejected by mainstream-averse audiophiles, these futuristic headphones were doomed from the start. But whatever, these are subtly good-looking cans, blending in for day-to-day use but revealing meticulous design and construction on close examination. (Image from Head-fi)

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

The control unit is as stunning as the early, blurry pics had implied. With a sharp 1024x768 screen, a brushed aluminum control knob and an attractive, minimalist interface it would be a treat to use as a home media controller. Unfortunately, if predictably, it is only compatible with one product, which is, you guessed it, a Bang & Olufsen server. Called the 500GB BeoMaster 5, the box is a largely unchanged followup to the company's $2700 BeoMedia media center PC.

In other words, the BeoSound controller is just that — a gutless remote. Without the BeoMaster, which it connects to via DVI, it's just a screen with a pretty dial. B&O haven't given any clues as to the price of the unit yet, but the BeoSound and BeoMaster will be, shall we say, luxury items. They're set for sale in May, you can find more detailed info at the B&O forums, or glance the presser below. [Bang & Olufsen via Acquire]

The BeoSound 5 are two components which make up the new audio master media player which was launched on 11th November 2008 The Beomaster 5 is intended as the a replacement for the Beomedia 1 and subsequent to the launch the Beomedia 1 will be discontinued.

The Beosound 5 has the following Key Features and Spec:-

* Graphical User Interface which provides the user the ability to navigate their entire music collection
* The users music files now resided on the 500GB hard drive located in the Beomaster 5 unit which has a physical size and appearance of the Beomedia 1
* When the music comes to an end, BeoSound 5 will continue to play ‘More Of The Same’ (MOTS) – that is, it will find other music on your system that complements what you’ve already been listening too.
* There’s an aluminum wheel that enables you to scroll smoothly and quickly through tracks and a 10.4” LCD with 1024 x 768 screen resolution that displays crisp graphics and album covers. You have your entire digital music collection plus thousands of internet radio stations available to you
* Mount it flat on a wall; or on a wall bracket with stand so you can tilt and angle it; or simply place it on a pedestal on an aluminum floor stand
* Designed by Anders Hermansen
* Cabinet finish is Aluminum/black
* Dimensions and weight is 12” x 7” x 3” and 5.8 lbs (31cm x 19cm x 8cm and 2.65 kg)
* Connections are via three which go to the BeoMaster 5 (DVI, Power, USB)
* An Aluminum and black wall bracket is included with the Beosound 5 and as an option you can have an extended wall bracket, a table stand in black and a floor stand in aluminum

Beosound 5 Overview

The BeoMaster 5 uses a VIA 2.0 Ghz processor made by VIA Technologies Inc with 1GB of random access memory and a 500GB hard drive and runs an embedded Microsoft Windows XP SP2.

The unit has DVI-I, S-Video and YPbPr for TV along with Masterlink, two Powerlink sockets, two USB sockets and a 10/100 Mbit/second ethernet.

BeoMaster 5 provides power to the Beosound 5 as well as infra-Red and USB mini. Display resolution via DVI-I is 1920x1200 and supports HD 1920x1080p