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$2,000,000 speaker can be yours for just $500,000

Moon Audio claims the Signature Titan was designed to outperform any speaker system in the world. It's a strictly limited edition of three pairs, and each pair is hand-signed by the designer. Each pair will also be named after its buyer and once the third pair is built, the Signature Titan is history.

Even by high-end audio standards the pricing structure is a little unusual: Signature Titan #003 can be yours for $500,000 per pair, but the cost for #002 doubles to $1,000,000! Sounds crazy, but #001 has already been sold for $2,000,000!

I spoke with Moon Audio's founder, Chris Moon, yesterday about the Signature Titan, and learned the speaker grew out of Moon's dissatisfaction with the world's best production speakers. He went out and built the Signature Titan just to see how far he could take speaker design. Moon isn't your average high-end guy, he told me that he discovered, recorded, and produced Prince, along with Morris Day, Alexander O'Neal, Dez Dickerson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Moon wrote and produced music for companies such as Northwest Airlines, music scores for films and television.

Moon claims the designers of the 72-inch-tall speaker have been involved in the high-end audio industry for 25 years. Installation and setup in the customer's home anywhere in the world is included in the purchase price. They better have strong floors; the pair of speakers weighs 2,800 pounds!… Read more

Amazon.com has the Tripp Lite U239-000-R USB2.0 SATA Hard Drive Cradle for $49.11, after $50.88 savings.

Amazon.com has Tripp Lite U239-000-R USB2.0 SATA Hard Drive Cradle for $49.11, after $50.88 savings. >> Regular price is $99.99 >> Sale price is $49.11 >> Savings $50.88 (50.89%) >> Click here for deal

Luxurious Bentley laptop

In the past, we've seen laptops named after high-end sports car manufacturers, such as Ferrari and Lamborghini, but what about the luxury car enthusiast? Well, the wait is now over: Ego has announced the Bentley laptop. In keeping with the tradition of the hallowed British brand, the laptop features a hand-stitched leather lid cover and a curved metal case painted the same colors as the car. When closed, the laptop can be carried by its handle, which is also reminiscent of the door handle of the automobile.

Otherwise, you're getting a pretty standard laptop, featuring Windows Vista 64-bit … Read more

Western Digital reportedly working on 20,000rpm hard drive

While many are marking 2008 as the year of the solid-state hard drive, Western Digital seems to be saying if it doesn't spin, it's crap. The company is reportedly developing a 20,000rpm Raptor drive--double the rotational speed of its current Raptor lineup--to combat the increasing popularity of SSDs.

While a 20,000rpm drive might compete on performance with SSDs and offer greater capacity, it would seem to be moving in the opposite direction when it comes to energy efficiency--another chief benefit of the SSD set. Also, heat and noise concerns grow as the revolutions per minute increase. … Read more

The $7,000 flashlight

With so many unimaginative dolts apparently working in technology marketing, we all too often see product names that are about as creative as Social Security numbers. But then there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum that are stupefyingly prosaic, as evidenced by the brilliant "Cat Speaker" just hours ago.

This next item falls into the latter category, though at least they didn't called it "The Big Flashlight," and it's actually pleasantly menacing: "The Beast." And that it is, considering it's only a flashlight but weighs 4.5 pounds … Read more

$100,000 speakers or Transformers?

Some insightful readers have gleaned that Crave has, on occasion, shown a weakness for unorthodox or expensive loudspeakers (preferably both).

The latest "Voyager" model from YG Acoustics fits that profile to a tee, with a Star Wars-esque design and a price of $100,000 per pair, not to mention that they tip the scales at a full 200 pounds apiece. But what really attracted us to these cast-aluminum monsters was the description from Audio Junkies: "If the YG Acoustics Voyager loudspeakers appeared in the new Transformers movie, I would expect them to promptly turn into a robot … Read more

100,000 standalone HD DVD players sold in U.S.

Just got an e-mail from the PR firm representing HD DVD, and the North American HD DVD Promotional Group has announced that "sales of dedicated HD DVD consumer electronics players reached more than 100K units sold in the United States, ahead of any other high definition format." I'm not sure why, but that figure doesn't include sales of HD DVD PC drives or the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, which the group says, "are also selling strongly."

I presume that Team HD DVD may not want to compare total HD DVD hardware sales to … Read more

$100,000 home theater projector can be yours for $99,995

We have to give the folks at Vidikron a hard time about the company's announcement that its flagship front projector, the Vision Model 150, is now shipping. Make no mistake, the thing looks awesome. (I think that word was in the press release somewhere.) But what's with the $99,995 pricing for the base model? If I've got that kind of money to spend on a projector, what do I care about 5 bucks? We're not talking about a $999.99 plasma; we're talking about the ultimate projector. So come on, guys, let's go … Read more

The week's Best New Music--a new Download.com Music video report

Everyone likes to know what everyone else is listening to, right? At Download Music we listen to a lot of music each and every day, and so we decided it was about time to get up from our desks, face the cameras (courtesy of our friends at CNET TV), and talk about some of the best songs and albums we've heard lately.

Our new weekly video report has the brilliantly simple title, Best New Music--clever, eh?--and includes photos, video clips, and songs as well as our bright and sunny personas. Give it a whirl, then check Download … Read more