File this one under 'crazy' and 'Japanese'. It's a pair of speakers, 2x1W, with a mounted diorama of a Tokyo street scene slapped on top of it. It's so wonderfully tacky that I'm actually rather fond of it.

Want one? No? Okay. Well, if you know anyone who does, then tell them that it's limited edition - just 2000 are being made - so get moving sharpish. It'll cost them ¥198,000 (£1,640). That's what's known in the trade as 'too much'.

Bandai (via Akihabaranews)

Related posts: Lightbulb/speaker mashups suddenly all over the web | Teufel shows off Motiv 5 surround speakers: just plug in and play

If you work in an office, then how does the music work? Is it a tinny radio in the corner blaring out Radio 1? If so, I feel sorry for you, and I suggest you take control.

We moved offices over Christmas, and switched from a benevolent musical dictatorship run by Stuart from My Chemical Toilet to a much more democratic approach using communal playlists in Spotify. It's very simple, and all you'll need is some speakers, as well as someone volunteering to take charge. Click over the jump to find out how.

European loudspeaker manufacturer Teufel has just unveiled its latest creation -- the Motiv 5 5.1-channel surround sound system that's designed for simplicity.

With no need for external amplification, it's possible to directly connect an iPod dock, MP3 player, TV, PC, CD or DVD player and get great audio straight away. Of course you could also connect them to a full AV system...

I'm not sure how many all-night-rave organizers read Tech Digest, but you can never tell with the internet. The SW915 Digital Audio Travel Partner is a whopping great big box on wheels that contains, variously, a speaker, an amplifier, a CD player, SD card slot, and wireless microphone.

One of the CES 2009 innovation awards this year went to the i2i Stream which was initally explained very badly to me at the booth. I'll endeavour to do a better job of telling you why this little device is indeed an excellent gadget.

The Stream does what it begins to say on the tin. The system consists of two identical mini terminals which stream uncompressed HD quality audio wirelessly at 2.4GHz from one to the other. It doesn't matter which you choose to send with and which you use to receive. That can be switched at the touch of a button.

Pioneer has been showing off its latest range of Blu-ray players, upconverting DVD player, and AV receivers.

First up is a new collection of advanced Blu-ray players, all capable of handling BD Live for advanced disc features.

The BDP-120 and BDP-320 are aimed at consumers who want a simple high definition disc player right out of the box and come with 1GB of memory (either via a flash drive or internal memory), full BD-Live functionality, USB and Ethernet ports, True24FPS feature for realistic reproduction of discs recorded at 24fps, full support of all high resolution audio formats including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream output, and up to 7.1-channel analogue output.

This is the very pretty, but very expensive Arcam T32 Hi-Fi DAB tuner. As you'd expect from Arcam, it's a top-end bit of kit, with a top-end price tag to match. Although it's essentially just a radio, it also comes with a high-end iPod interface.

It's got a DAB tuner, with band III and L-band reception, it's DAB+ compatible, and there's also an AM/FM tuner onboard, too, if for some reason you decide that DAB is too nice-sounding. Lastly, the iPod interface is viewable from the front of the display, so you can scroll through artists and tracks on the LCD screen of the device.

It's yours for £500. That's not cheap, but this isn't a cheapy-made bit of kit. Full details are on the Arcam site.

For more products and releases from CES 2009, click here.

Probably not a Christmas present but perhaps a treat for yourself after you've liquidated all the rubbish everyone else got you on eBay is the range of home cinema/hi-fi speakers from American non-Dutch audio specialist Klipsch.

The RF-62 sytsem is an "entry level" product as far as enthusiasts are concerned featuring several permutations and combinations of speaker choice to tailor-make yourself a 5.1 surround set up ranging from around £900-£2000 depending upon how flush you're feeling.

Even if I didn't know what these things were, I'd want them in my home. For the record, you're looking at a set of speakers with an iPod dock on top. That's the cruel description.

To give these $1,500 beauties their dos, their designed by genius French nutball, Phillipe Starck and put together by makers of good yet dull in-car speaker phones Parrot. Well, you wouldn't want it the other way round, would you?

The music from the speaker with the dock leaps via the magic of Bluetooth over to the other and, hey presto, you've got stereo sound. This is the point at which audiophiles vomit a kidney onto their CD transports and follow it up with their lungs when I say that these "Zimku's" also receive streamed music from you PC over Wi-Fi.

The only mystery remains over whether these things have a hidden central stand, a perspex base or actually float on a cushion of sound waves. Please, please let it be the last one.

Pumping out 100W of audio power in living rooms from Spring 2009.

Update: We've just found out that these speakers will be available in the UK this spring, priced at a cool £1200 for the pair.

(via Wired)

Related posts: Phillipe Starck faceless watch | marginally more readable Starck watch

Sony has launched a range of home cinema systems in time for the holidays, so if you've got a bit of money to spare and want an all-in-one package, these are worth considering.

First up is the HTP-BD3iS, which combines Sony's BDP-S350 Blu-ray player and HT-IS100 5.1-channel surround sound system that features subwoofer, powerful S-Master digital amplification, surround sound processing, and automatic audio calibration.

Does anyone still use mini disks? If so, you will be pleased to hear that Onkyo has not forgotten about you. They have embrace you with a big, warm hug along with the whole digital music public by featuring USB Direct Play in their latest FR-N9FX music system.

Here's the rather delightful Valve80 iPod dock from Logic3. It's expensive, but it sounds absolutely amazing compared to your average dock. In fact, calling it a 'dock' is a bit of an insult - it's a bonafide Hi-Fi amplifier, with two audio inputs and video out. £300 quid though... crumbs... that's not going to go down well with your bank manager.

Logic3 Valve80

Related posts: Logic3 releases iPod dock with valve amplifier | Shiny Review: Logic3 Jivebox iPod speakers

Okay, I'll have to admit I asked for this a bit. In my last post about Denon Blu-ray players I demanded to know what Denon would describe as 'high-end', after their 'entry-level' player cost £600.

Well, this is it. It's the catchily-named DVD-A1UD, and it'll play back Blu-ray discs, Super Audio CD (SACD), DVD-Audio, DVD-Video and plain old CDs. The DVD-A1UD is the replacement for the Denon's previous universal DVD player - the DVD-A1XV. Full specs are over the jump.

It costs a massive £3,300. I can safely say that I don't know anyone who'd splash out £3,300 on a DVD player, but someone must, or they wouldn't make the damn thing. It's going to show up across Europe in March 2009, in either a silver or black finish. Who knows, perhaps by then you'll be rolling around in pots of money. Denon can only hope.

It seems the fashion for sticking an iPod dock on audio products still hasn't died, with PURE launching its latest radio unit, the Avanti Flow, complete with Apple-friendly port.

The star feature of the unit is the almost complete coverage of modern radio standards. Not only is there FM radio, but also DAB and Internet radio, which can also be used to catch up with previously broadcasted shows (from the BBC, for example). What do you mean you listen to medium wave?

Here's a new home cinema speaker setup from Teufel. It's designed for computers and consoles, though it takes phono inputs, so you'll need some conversion cables. It consists of a subwoofer, centre speaker, and four satellites, and can pump out a rather loud 450 watts.

There are two colour options - midnight black and matt silver - and it comes with an infrered remote for volume control, but the best feature of this setup is that it's only £160 (€189). That's bargaintastic for a full on 5.1 surround system. It won't be the highest-fi system you've ever heard, but for pumping out Halo, Mario Kart, World of Warcraft, or a DVD in full surround, I couldn't think of a finer device.

Teufel

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Ion has announced three pieces of kit that could help turn you into a broadcast hit, as well as bringing your old record collection firmly into the 21st century.

The Ion UCAST lets you record professional podcasts with a high-quality microphone and stand, headphones, USB cable, and Windows/OS X software.

The kit costs £59.99, with a subscription to Alesis Podcast that lets you host your podcast and have it listed on iTunes and Podcast Alley.

We're pretty selective about what iPod docks we cover at Tech Digest, given that there must be hundreds of them floating about now and they're all much of a muchness. However, we like Marantz, so the latest Bluetooth wireless iPod dock is definitely worth a mention.

First up, the dock looks good. It's compact, holds the larger iPods at a nice angle (pictured is the iPod touch), and should fit in anywhere.

Thanks to a lot of hard work from Andrew over at TFTS, we have the pleasure today of a little exclusive look at what a group of top Danish designers have dreamed up for the audio gadgetry world.

You'd be hard pressed to recognise some of these as speakers straight off the mark but with traditional designers only getting as far as making them a bit taller and thinner, it's refreshing to see what else could be done.

Click on the first set below to have a look at the rest.

iPod docks, as I've said before, are ten-a-penny around here. They're not the most exciting product to write about, and every company in the world makes one. This, however, is something special. It's got valves.

If you don't know why that's good, then go ask your neighborhood audiophile. It basically makes the music sound 'warmer', and valve amps have long been praised for the lovely feel that they give to sound and music. Of course they're not cheap. This model costs £300. For that, you're getting lovely lovely sound, a pair of 40W speakers (though you can plug in whatever speakers you like) and two auxiliary inputs, for plugging in your TV or stereo. Full specs are over the jump.

The Pure EVOKE Mio comes in six "striking" colours - chilli (red?), chocolate (brown?), moss (green?), nicotine (yellow?), candy (pink?) and midnight (black?) - with the leather-esque front of each unit colour-coded so it's as much fun to look at as listen to. Almost.

One of those colours is fictional, by the way. Can you guess which? That's today's FUN QUIZ! The Mio is rechargeable, apparently going for 24 hours on one thorough juicing, also featuring an MP3 player audio-in so you can drain two batteries at once, should you not be able to find suitable music being broadcast at any particular time.

The EVOKE Mio will go on sale before Christmas at a price of £149.99. Which seems a lot for a radio, but then again most radios don't come in "moss" and won't be such amazing conversation pieces.

(Via Pure)

Related posts: EVOKE-2S | EVOKE Flow