Meet the World's Most Expensive Blu-ray Player - $17,000

Since the format war has just come to an abrupt end a few days ago and things have become a lot clearer in the field of HD, we're expecting quite a large number of Blu-ray related announcements in the near future. And one of the first such releases comes from Goldmund, a Swiss-based manufacturer of high-end audio/video systems, which has announced the release of what really seems to be the world's most expensive Blu-ray player, the Eidos 20 BD.

In the company's own words, with the release of the Eidos 20 BD, "Goldmund becomes the first high-end audio/video manufacturer to issue a Blu-ray player". While this statement should be taken with a serious grain of salt, the truth of the matter is that the new player does offer quite an interesting set of specs and features, some of the most important being listed below.

Thus, the Goldmund signature features found on the Eidos 20 BD include the "AC-Curator" power supply circuit which is supposed to improve picture and sound stability and dynamics, as well as the "Mechanical Grounding" construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the video signal and increasing jitter.

In addition, the new Eidos 20 BD uses the Goldmund "Magnetic Damper," a device designed to lower the reading errors (a feature previously exclusive to Goldmund's highest end devices, according to the company's statement).

"As a result of last week's news in regards to the format wars, Goldmund decided to launch the Eidos 20 BD earlier than we had originally planned to capture the attention of the industry that believes in the superior technological merits of the Blu-ray format," declared Michel Reverchon, president of Goldmund, regarding the company's latest product. "The Blu-ray player is the perfect addition to our Goldmund Media Room, which requires high-definition playback and is the pinnacle of technological excellence."

While the Eidos 20 BD is truly a high-end device, designed especially for audio and video purists, its price tag is way too high for most customers out there, since there are quite a few people willing (and able) to spend almost 17,000 US dollars on a player (after all, one can get a mid-range car for this sum).

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