This yr has been full of some jolly excellent andinnovative technical school products , and that let in audio / telecasting and base theater paraphernalia — fromblisteringly bright TVstoheadphones with Wi - Fiand earbud charging cases with light-emitting diode screens to Modern - and - improved merchandise from all the big snapshot likeApple , Sony , Amazon , and more .
But I ’m here for the unearthly stuff . The interesting poppycock . The material that made our eyes broaden and our eyebrows do risible thing . Throughout 2023 , there have been a few practiced ones , including a fervidness - breathing $ 3,900 environs sound frame-up , a lazy Susan you might desire to eat with a side of fries , and a James Bond - worthy goggle box in a suitcase . Here , then , is some of the eldritch AV geartrain of 2023 .
Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 surround sound system
The smoke - and - attack puns were put down on thick , but you ca n’t blame our own Caleb Denison for that in his excellentvideo reviewbecause theNakamichi Dragonsurround system middling much gear up our studio apartment aflame ( great , now I ’m doing it).Denison called it“without a doubt the most over - the - top home theater - in - a - box I ’ve ever find ” — and for right reason . The $ 3,900 system consists of a principal soundbar unit of measurement that librate 32 pounds , is made of unstained steel , and features 14 drivers , three tweeters , and seven amplifiers . Then , there are two surround speaker unit ( each with five drivers ) and two subwoofer , each with two 8 - column inch woofer in them . The whole affair blasts out a total system power of 3,000 watts at a vertex yield of 125 decibels . And like Smaug lay waste to Lake - townspeople , thisDolby Atmossystem is just a face - melting place theater in a corner .
Audio-Technica Sound Burger
Would you care fries with that ? Back in the mid-1980s , when vinyl platter find , the originalAudio - Technica Sound Burgerwas sold as the iPod of its time — a succinct , battery - poweredrecord playerthat you could take anywhere … if you were willing to choke up a milk crateful full of LPs along with you . Its sandwich - like design and introductory lineament were popular enough that Audio - Technica saw fit to reprint theSound Burgerthis year , striking while the spatula ’s live ( gentleman , I ’m thirsty ) to take reward of vinyl ’s still - sizzle nostalgia broker ( someone please prey me ) . This time around , though , A - T has given it some upgrade , including Bluetooth connectivity and new rechargeable atomic number 3 - ion battery . Sadly , there ’s still no getting around transporting your heavyvinyl platter , but peradventure you could tally a drive - thru for some burger power first .
LG StanbyME Go portable briefcase TV
TheLG StanbyME Gois the variety of espionage - tinged monitoring equipment - in - a - briefcase you could seeMission Impossible‘s Ving Rhames scrunch over in the back of a vanguard as he help Ethan Hunt teddy through air epithelial duct . Coincidentally , it ’s also not too far off from the kind of briefcase you ’d see living accommodations the golden - glowing somebody of one Marsellus Wallace ( see what I did there ? ) . Sadly , you wo n’t detect Marsellus ’ mortal inside the 28 - pound,$1,200 StanbyMe Go . Instead , there ’s a 27 - in , 1080p LCD touch screen that can swivel vertically , horizontally , up , down , left , and right . contrive it in the back of the pickup for your next tailgate party ( like we did with it ) . And while it ’s technically not a TV as it does n’t have a tuner , its Bluetooth and Wi - Fi connectivity , as well as its webOS operating system , think of you’re able to cast to it from your devices via AirPlay or get at stream services like Netflix . Plus , you get to wait like a badass undercover agent .
Apple Vision Pro
We could n’t talk about weird and gaga 2023 tech without refer theApple Vision Promixed - realness headset that Apple unveiled at itsannual WWDCevent in June . And while it is n’t strictly an Ab gadget , Apple pass us a raft to blab out about with the headset’sTV- and movie - viewing featuresthat promise an immersive experience that assume a screen up to 100 feet wide-eyed that can know within a range of simulated environment . The micro - OLED display inside features 4 green settlement and can expose 3D message , and the headset supports spatial audio . apart from the fact that it looks like it was ripped directly fromReady Player One , the Vision Pro received more than its share of criticism , in the main for its sailplane $ 3,500 Mary Leontyne Price ticket but also because the VR space has been well - trodden , leaving many wondering what makes this any differentfrom , say , a Meta Quest . However , several hand - on reviews from WWDC reported an telling experience , and if Apple can addressits many issuesbefore its launching next class , 2024 will give us a net ton to spill about with the Vision Pro .
Dyson Zone noise-canceling, air-purifying headphones
In addition to vacuums , hand drier , and fuzz accessories , James Dyson has obviously invented a Time Machine . That ’s the only plausible account for theDyson Zone headphone , a twist that is clearly from our dystopian future . But until originally this year , when they were last release , we mere civilians must n’t have been ready for their Optimus Prime - like stylings . At a walloping $ 950 , theDyson ZonefeaturesANC ( participating noise cancellation)and sound quality that got pretty friendly review across the control panel , but it ’s the magnetically connected melodic line distill “ bill ” that ’s hard to get by visually . But do they work ? When join , air is pulled in through the earcups and through two layers of static filters before stream out to your nose and backtalk . And while the mask does n’t seal up tightly like an N95 masquerade or filter out out virus , the Dyson Zone can filter gases , odors , and air pollutants as little as 0.1 microns . Weird , yes , but decidedly more than meets the heart .
McIntosh House of Sound
OK , so it ’s more of a wildexperiencethan one undivided man of AV tech , but theMcIntosh House of Sound , a five - narrative townhouse in New York City that ’s dump out top to bottom with some of the adept and most expensive audio gear in the universe , is something that has to be seen ( and heard ) to believe . open up to the public in the late summer for private , guided listening sessions , the swanky apartment lineament six curated listening rooms that the McIntosh Group has equip with the amplifier , speakers , turntable , and other gear of its many firebrand , admit McIntosh , Sonus Faber , Pro - Ject Audio , and Rotel . Highlights let in its main music listening way that features McIntosh ’s 7 - foot - tall flagship XRT2.1 speakers ( visualize above ) and a full outturn of 8,000 hairsbreadth - swash watts , and the ground floor ’s plate theater with its 9.16.4 audio organization that let in 16 butt - grumble subwoofer and a giant projector screen . It ’s a must - visit the next clock time you ’re in the Big Apple .
