The most credible threat to Apple's dominance in the consumer electronics marketplace may turn out to be Ferrari, which has added a $20,000 tower speaker called the Art.Engine to its lineup of branded electronics that also includes laptops, MP3 players and cell phones. Designed by David Wiener Ventures, the Art.Engine is available in most Ferrari colors and features WiFi connectivity to receive wirelessly streamed music from your computer and a low-tech minijack to plug in your iPod. Your 20 Gs won't buy you standard RCA or digital inputs, however. Exclusivity will be guaranteed by the limited run of only 1,000 copies. Now, we know less about the art of high-end audio than we do about... nearly anything else, so we'll take SonicFlare's word for it that while the Art.Engine may sound great and certainly sell out, Ferrari's too smart to submit its speaker tower to any publications for a serious review.
[Source: David Wiener Ventures]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Corey @ May 23rd 2006 1:00PM
About as useful as those "ferrari" acer laptops.
GDUB @ May 23rd 2006 1:20PM
Oh my goodness i need to get a pair of these to better hear my soon to be released ;) Paris Hilton CD.
Richard Warren @ May 23rd 2006 1:26PM
Isn't this a little large to carry along with you IPod?
Navigation Blog @ May 23rd 2006 2:09PM
when i can afford a ferrari, i'm getting that and putting it in my garage right next to it!
rip @ May 23rd 2006 2:21PM
Based on the specs, I'd say this is outrageously overpriced crap.
It has unimpressive amplification, unimpressive woofers and zero base response. By that I mean you can find better technology, frequency response and materials in a 2k pair of speakers. So your basically paying 18k for the Ferrari name at the bottom. And I can't imagine there is any way to get good stereo imaging from that thing. And to be honest, I have no idea why they would design it that way in the first place. The speaker is big, so it's not like your getting any packaging benefit.
They are probably limiting the production because they determined that there are only about 1000 people in the world with enough money and stupid enough to actually buy these speakers.
Steve @ May 23rd 2006 2:39PM
I would also like to announce that starting soon I will be selling $14,000 Ferrari staplers to anyone stupid enough to buy them. Please email me for specs.
the chad @ May 23rd 2006 6:51PM
20K for something to plug your iPod into????
This is TERRIBLE and a horrible reflection on Ferrari. Look at the specs
The 16 mid-range drivers are supposed to handle all of the lows thru mids, with just 2 tweeters at the top for the hi's. Can you say "Will sound like crap."? Where's the optical to hook it up to my computer or the RCA (or even standard spkr wire) to hook up to a receiver?
Even if I had the 20k, there's no way I'd waste it on this.
the chad @ May 23rd 2006 7:00PM
Whoops,
John, according to the Art.Engine site, it does have RCA, but no stereo mini.
Just wanted to let you know.
Still overpriced, though.