$68,500 Illuminator Series Speakers by SGR [Floor-Based 8000-W Monsters]

The world of the ultra-high end speakers has seemingly made it through the economic douwnturn nearly unscathed. There is apparently still a market for ridiculously expensive electronics and the folks at Australia’s SGR Audio are thumbing their noses at convention with their latest product offering, the Illuminator floor speakers.

The company’s Illuminator Series floor-based speakers feature their latest marvel with 4-Way Active Floorstanders. The flagship speakers tout 22 drivers and an output of 8000W. And with a design that could make just about any audiophile drool with anticipation, they are sure to fit in just about any mansion’s decor. According to SGR, “From 60Hz to 40Khz, we’ve used the impressive flagship Illuminator range of drivers from ScanSpeak. These are then augmented down low by our own SGR ultra-low distortion 12? woofers built with a Linear Symmetrical Gap (LSG) motor structure. To dramatically reduce box vibration, a self-canceling mounting structure has been implemented with the front woofers internally attached to the rear woofers.”

Talk about your insane specs. That works out to four 12-in woofers per speaker for a total of eight per system. Each of the 12-in woofers is capable of 40mm linear movement. The 4-way design is composed of five mechanically isolated modular enclosures which are individually shipped and assembled on site. The Illuminators are still in development and since they are expected to fetch about $68,500 a pair, you had better dig into that trust fund now.