TechnoLust - The World’s Most Expensive MP3 Player
The first entry in Thoughts from the Sidelines’ TechnoLust section is the world’s most expensive MP3 player – the i.Beat Organix Gold by TrekStor. Costing a cool £13,600, its shell is composed of 18-carat gold set with a total of 63 one caret diamonds (taking the jewellers over 100 man hours to construct).
Initially designed following a personal commission from the Russian-Canadian billionaire, Alex Shnaider – who also happens to be the owner of the Midland Formula One team – the player offers one gigabyte of memory, which is roughly equivalent to 240 tracks, as well as a host of other high-level features.
Feature List:
- Playable file formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, OGG
- Integrated stereo FM radio
- 2 headphone jacks
- Integrated voice recorder (MP3)
- Folder navigation
- Extremely sharp 2-colour OLED display
- Direct recording from the radio (as an MP3 file) (optional)
- Line-in recording (MP3)
- Supports WMA-DRM9 (supports DRM-protected files)
- 16 station presets / automatic station search
- ID3 tag display
- Maximum operating time of 25 hours
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (downward-compatible to USB 1.1)
- Lithium-polymer battery (charged via the USB)
- Equalizer visualization
- SRS WOW – Surround Sound
- 11 equalizers + user equalizer
- Digital clock, alarm function, stopwatch
- Mobile data storage device (“USB Mass Storage Device”)
- German and English user guide
- Firmware update possible
Personally, though I can certainly appreciate the craftsmanship required to produce this player, I have to be honest and say that it really doesn’t float my boat (so I’ll be sticking with my Samsung player in the meantime). Besides, I can imagine what would happen it I flashed this on the packed commuter train on my way into work and I can also envisage leaving the train some minutes later, heavily concussed and with it no longer in my possession.
Top points for quality, undoubtedly, but for us mere mortals could such a device even be considered remotely practical? (Out of interest, at 1 gigabytes of memory, the price per megabyte equates to £1,360 per MB storage – ouch!)
Nevertheless, if you have that sort of money burning a hole in your wallet, and you are in the market for a new MP3 player, you can visit Treksor’s site here.
(And if you have that sort of money spare and don’t know what to do with it the following applies to you…..Hi, how are you, great to meet you, you’re looking well….what a present? For me? Cash? Oh, I couldn’t – oh on second thoughts, it would be rude to say no….:-)).
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The TFTS Team
1 GIGABYTE????? BWAHAHA! I can’t even comprehend how they could give this MP3 player all those features and all that bling… but restrict it to a measly 1 Gig.
I bought Ms. Worm a Creative Nomad with 40GB two years ago for $200 (£105). Shoot, even my phone Methinks I’m gonna get some bling and pimp my phone…
Yes, the memory is extremely poor, isn’t it. Even mid-range players have a great deal more thse days.
I think its a bit poor to be honest. Looks like the firmware is 1st gen basicness. Much prefer my 4gb Ipod Nano (with Linux Installed (www.ipodlinux.org)
Although having a platinum back and diamonds would be cool. My girlfriend would rob me of it in a second, then lose it in the depths of her handbag
And even 4gb is not enough seeing i have well over 120gb of music…
Just thought id get my 2pennies worth
I think about all the people in this world who could be helped by the money this things costs. Nobody needs this sort of thing, a unit 1/10th the price will be just as goods. I would not want to meet anyone who buys this piece of hubris.
it’s for people who have more money than sense.
You cannot buy class. Money can be used much better to help the needy. Shame some individuals waste it on such rubbish or wars.
I saved up for a couple of weeks (just took a little overtime with my flourishing male modeling career) and bought one of these, and let me tell you, the sound quality isn’t that great and the UI is pure crap. It’s almost as if they DON’T EXPECT ANYONE TO ACTUALLY USE IT…
anyone who buys this is buying it, not for its functionality, but as a status symbol. Which is odd, because personally I think it look vulgar – but there’s no accounting for taste is there.