How Much For That Radio In The window?

By Andrew Ehinger

Lots of people come up to me and ask me questions about my weekly segment "The Download." I think it's because deep down everyone loves a really cool gadget. But my last one the Meridian F80 audio system got lots of people talking.

Cutting to the chase here, the F80 is basically a $3000 table top radio. Yep.. 3-Grand!

We'll let that settle in for a moment.

OK, so what do you get for all this money. Well, Meridian is one of those companies which makes some pretty high end speakers and audio systems for the home. Audiophiles around the world praise the companies rich sound and attention to detail.  But it doesn't come cheap. So why make a table top radio? Well as one of the company reps told me, "This is your first Meridian. It's a welcome to the company." (an expensive welcome -geeze..)

So does it sound good? I hate to say it, but yes. When I got to listen to the F80 in the noisy atrium of the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan it sounded pretty good. I've been to lots of gadget trade shows and typically you can't really get a feel for sound and video quality because you're not in ideal conditions. But in this case, the F80 punched right though the cacophony of the show and really showed its muscle. I can only imagine what it would sound in the home.

But aside from sounding good, it also looked great. The F80 was designed in conjunction with the artisans at Ferrari. The semi-circle curve of the unit is meant to reflect curve of a Ferrari wheel arch. Also the company rep said Ferrari F1 racing engineers helped design the interior chassis which holds the speakers with exotic composite materials and racing grade aluminum.  Oh yeah, you get Enzo Ferrari's iconic prancing horse logo on the front - now are you seeing why it's $3000?

I've noticed there is a market nowadays for small high end audio systems (The Bose Wave Radio & etc.) but none that I know of have such a high price tag. If you're looking for a great audio system that looks pretty amazing and you don't mind paying what could be the deposit for a Ferrari (ok maybe a used one) the F80 may be something to consider. Click here for more on the Meridian F80.