American speaker giant JBL has launched what it says is the best speaker that it has ever made. The mighty Project Everest DD66000 has been built without compromise according to the company, giving it a mountainous $35,000 (£18,114) price tag.
The DD66000, which has already won a CES 2007 Best Of Innovations Award , was designed to celebrate JBL's 60th anniversary. 350 pairs have already been sold since the speaker made its Asian debut late last year - and the good people at JBL are evidently expecting to shift a few more before CES shuts up shop on Thursday.
The speaker's unusual design is a result of the fact that it features horn-loaded compression drivers to deliver pure sound quality free of unwanted coloration.
The driver complement is impressive.
Project Everest includes a 1-inch beryllium driver to deliver ultra high frequencies beyond 50kHz, which is well beyond the reach of human hearing (usually 20kHz to 20Hz).
It also includes a 4-inch beryllium tweeter for high frequencies and a two 15-inch woofer that deliver bass levels down to 30Hz, which is deep but not as deep as some dedicated subwoofers are capable of.
JBL reckons that tuning the speaker to meet your listening needs it easy, thanks to the inclusion of a front-mounted control panel that gives precise control over high, low and other frequencies.
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As for that $35,000 price tag that really applies only to the premium wood finishes. You can save yourself $5,000 (£2,587) by opting for a rosewood finish - leaving you some cash left over for speaker cable.