$168,000 Harion speaker set crafted from heat-resistant glass, fairy dust

We're pretty sharp on the fairy dust market, and while it no doubt goes for a premium in certain parts of the world, there's still a serious surcharge being added in here for transparency. Japan's own Hario is catering yet again to the affluent among us with its Harion speaker set, which boasts a subwoofer, two mid-range drivers and a pair of acrylic tweeters -- all encased in heat-resistant glass. Of course, the company is no stranger to pumping out exclusive glass-based kit and charging a wad for it, as this particular package will run customers a staggering 16 million yen, or just north of $168,000. Oh, but if you and ten others dial in right now, they can be produced and sold for just 10 million yen each ($105,030). Economies of scale, now that's good stuff.

[Via Gearlog]

[yzfer @ Nov 29th 2008 5:33PM]

now there's a chirstmas present.

[Blackstar @ Nov 29th 2008 5:48PM]

Looks like something out of "Forbidden Planet". Watch out for the ID! :O

[brandon @ Nov 29th 2008 6:32PM]

It's so powerful, it can shatter windows!!
Too bad it's made of glass :(

[page87 and counting @ Nov 29th 2008 7:17PM]

I want I want! I hope I win!!!





Dang... not the Engadget giveaway....

[jaywontdart @ Nov 29th 2008 5:33PM]

wow

[Jimmijam @ Nov 29th 2008 5:37PM]

Will it blend?

[bboston7 @ Nov 29th 2008 5:54PM]

That is the question.

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 29th 2008 6:01PM]

If you decorated your house with an avant-garde theme with liberal use of glass and reflective metallic surfaces with examples of surrealist paintings on walls, this would blend right in.

...Oh, I see what you mean there XD

[AVG @ Nov 29th 2008 6:34PM]

How in the world did this get highest ranked?

Engadget's comments have officially hit ROCK. BOTTOM.

[Shinigami @ Nov 29th 2008 9:11PM]

It will! If you can put the whole house in the blender :)

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Nov 29th 2008 5:41PM]

FUGLY, Don't like it, I recommend nobody buy this, FUGLY


Proffessional
Fusion Fuzo

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 29th 2008 5:46PM]

NICE :P

It actually looks like something aliens would be wielding when they have abducted a human.

[Saad Rabia @ Nov 29th 2008 6:30PM]

lol, Man, I fucking want to pop your eyes out of your balloon head, if you know what I mean.

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Nov 29th 2008 6:36PM]

still FUGLY, Thats horrible looks like it was designed for a FUGLY apple machine, but they say curiosity killed the FUGLY cat,

Looks FUGLY to me, which nobody will buy it

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Nov 29th 2008 6:40PM]

@ saad rabia

yes, looking at is killing my eyes, cant believe somebody would design something this fugly

[Cubfan786 @ Nov 29th 2008 6:53PM]

You haven't looked in the mirror recently have you?????

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Nov 29th 2008 7:03PM]

Yes, and the mirror on this products legs, is FUGLY

Professional
Fusion Fuzo

[maveric101 @ Nov 29th 2008 8:50PM]

you know, passing the computertraining.com test doesn't make you an IT professional.

[Davin Black @ Nov 29th 2008 10:30PM]

@Fusion: You're awesome...


...lol

@the rest of you: Arguing with a moron on the internet is like winning in the special Olympics - at the end of the day, you're still a retard.

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 30th 2008 7:16AM]

@ Davin Black

And you are the second last guy in the race, right in front of Fusion

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 30th 2008 8:54PM]

And Davin, those who compete in the Special Olympics are to be respected for not giving up hope and life despite being disable and all the hardships and sometimes social stigma that come with it, their courage and spirit are commendable and is an inspiration to us all. Tell you what, you don't even deserve to be in the race.

[MarbleMind @ Nov 29th 2008 6:03PM]

So, when my house bursts into flames and I stagger ablazed through my apartment, expelling horribly distorted screams of uttermost agony into the thundering inferno that surrounds me, I can still listen to "Light my fire" from The Doors?

...

Where's the order form?

[dj496 @ Nov 30th 2008 5:41PM]

That's what hell's going to be like.

[Jazper @ Nov 29th 2008 6:15PM]

While I agreed the styling is ... um, an acquired taste? ... and the pricing "limiting" it would have better served the Engadget audience to at least TRY to say why this is supposed to be worth the money. THEN make fun of it, if that floats yer boat.

[PaNiD @ Nov 29th 2008 6:21PM]

$168,000 and theyre not even wireless???

[kadajawi @ Nov 29th 2008 6:30PM]

Wireless is for cheap speakers. This sort of system is wired with some $5000 cables that have been made out of space shuttle materials, blessed by African high priests and holy virgins, to make the electrons flow better in one direction.

Seriously though, you usually hook up this sort of speakers to some very seriously and big high end amp, and the buyer wants to decide himself which amp. And of course you use very good cables.

[Mitch @ Nov 29th 2008 7:32PM]

I think 100 audiophiles just died.

[DT @ Nov 29th 2008 9:19PM]

@ mitch,
Only 100? I hope more. Those pretentious douchebags.

[bjrcboy @ Nov 30th 2008 1:50AM]

@DT
I resent that...

[Shinigami @ Nov 29th 2008 6:32PM]

If you plan to spend $168,000 on a set of speakers, better spend them on charity. You can get awesome speaker set for $5,000 and donate the rest to a hospital, making lots of xmas presents.

[Mr. Ford @ Nov 29th 2008 9:27PM]

If you can afford $168,000 speakers, you can probably afford them (hopefully sounds and looks much better than 5k ones) and the aforementioned $163,000 donation.

[bob @ Nov 30th 2008 3:10AM]

dam orphans get evrything if you wont to donate donate to me!

[kadajawi @ Nov 29th 2008 6:32PM]

They look cool, yes. But for this sort of cash a sub/sat system? Speakers of this price class should have subwoofer dwarfing bass, without using a subwoofer. This thing looks more like a designer piece than something for serious audio reproduction. I'd stick with Isophon and the likes.

[MadMike @ Nov 29th 2008 6:34PM]

That costs more money, than my boat!

[MRLN @ Nov 29th 2008 6:35PM]

If your profession involves high-end music recording and you're prone to disastrous home/studio fires, this could actually be a bargain. You can save hundreds of millions of yen from potentially lost speaker systems!

[LonnieDvD @ Nov 29th 2008 6:39PM]

$168,000 for a speaker set....wow. This takes the cake, and the ice cream too!

[blaze @ Nov 29th 2008 6:40PM]

I bet it costs like under a grand to make the whole thing... that's some serious profit right there.
and imagine these breaking during delivery lol

[El Taco @ Nov 29th 2008 7:11PM]

wake me up when it goes down to $100

[xiln @ Nov 29th 2008 8:13PM]

Let me pull the plug, it'll be cheaper..

[holycow @ Nov 29th 2008 7:29PM]

Madness!

[Game_playa @ Nov 29th 2008 8:24PM]

THIS IS HEAT RESISTANT!!!!!!!!!!

[ethana2 @ Nov 29th 2008 7:52PM]

That's all swell and good, but do they have an Apple logo?

[steven @ Nov 29th 2008 11:56PM]

That'll be an extra $10,000.

[Scrote Bag @ Nov 29th 2008 7:56PM]

It's always amusing when every so often an engadget scrote bag puts some expensive piece of gear in front of the mouth breathing, bargain-shopping masses and then thinks he has the snark cred to be implying it's stupid because it's so expensive when it's simply a product not intended for the demographic reading the blog.

Go back to the more typical engadget updates - like black friday "giveaways" of mediocre crap that your office got as freebies, or counting the seconds until the next time the apple store is down.

[Davin Black @ Nov 29th 2008 10:43PM]

Fuck that noise.

If it's an a/v or computer-related product, it makes sense for an a/v or computer-related site to talk about it. If I wanted to solely hear about affordable products, I'd switch over to the electronic section of Consumer Reports or a like-minded site.

Just because someone can't afford it doesn't mean they can't say whether or not it's a complete waste of money. As if I give a shit about glass being heat-resistant; all glass (being made in heat) is heat resistant to a point, and that's a temperature that I wouldn't expose my non-glass speakers to in the first place. You can't tell me that there's a practical advantage to owning these that merit its price tag - and I wouldn't want you to, either. They weren't built to really be practical, in much the same way that a Rembrandt painting isn't "useful".

Unfortunately these speakers, unlike works of art, don't have the benefit of appreciating in value, therefore making them a complete and utter waste of money. Even the people who buy these would acknowledge that they're a waste.

[Ronald Arif @ Nov 29th 2008 8:01PM]

But can it run Crysis?

[Game_playa @ Nov 29th 2008 8:25PM]

Yes, and so can every other speaker

[tikirob @ Nov 29th 2008 8:17PM]

Fairy dust? At that price I want whole fairies!

[Indy @ Nov 29th 2008 8:18PM]

Danger Will Robinson!

[shmengie @ Nov 29th 2008 8:28PM]

i had a chance to hear these. they sound like $80.000 speakers, at best.