For all those who thought that CDs have indeed begun to draw closer to their existential twilight, here goes an impressive piece of design which will most likely please both music lovers and collectors of rare and amazing things: the Pandora Alcantara. It's not the purpose and by all means it's not the novelty which strikes first: having a gimmick to play your CDs is old news while CD players with odd shapes can be found in every shop. The real essence of the Pandora Alcantara is style and luxury.

Indeed, there are quite a lot of luxury items in the audio world which get their ridiculous prices from adding diamonds or other precious stones and relying on these frills to get your "wow!"; yet there is another category of devices which breath and live their own magic true style.

Like the Bang & Olufsen gear (which happens to cross my mind now), Antoine Lebrun & Volkan Akbiyik's Pandora has something that's unique: its very own character, with an almost mystical aura, neatly combining the somehow old feeling of the CD technology with the modern, high-end touch-sensitive screens and intriguing design.

All the novelty of the Pandora Alcantara comes from utter luxury: with a wall-mounting design, this CD player comes close to Bang & Olufsen's Icon, unless we're not talking a multi-disc unit but a single drive one. With the CD unit in the left and the intriguing remote on the right side, the Pandora Alcantara looks almost like some alien technology, with this feeling dramatically enhanced by the minimalist design. And that's true: the use of touch-sensitive surfaces has eliminated the need of knobs, potentiometers and similar controls and now everything runs smooth, literally.

The remote control can be docked on a special stand and it sports a dual operation mode: in the horizontal position, you can slide your finger on the control surface and scroll through the songs while having the same gesture with the vertically positioned remote will let you adjust the volume. One very cool and classy feature is the elegant markings and numbering displayed on the control surface in a bright orangy light for exceptional readability.

And to make things even more luxurious, the Pandora comes covered in high-class Alcantara leather, a sort of faux suede with a very pleasant feel, usually to be found in luxury cars and limos, as well as killer-expensive yachts. No word on pricing yet, so stick to the admiring part for now.

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