Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: and how the tech are you? It's time for a
Speaker 1: tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally published on October
Speaker 1: twenty one, two thousand fifteen. It is titled expensive Consumer Tech.
Speaker 1: And this was back in where I was just kind
Speaker 1: of looking around some of the most expensive examples of
Speaker 1: consumer technology to talk about what they were and whether
Speaker 1: they made any ding dang darn sense. Let's listen in.
Speaker 1: This is an episode in which I have specifically requested
Speaker 1: my co host do absolutely no research on the topic whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I got no idea what's going on? Yeah, you only
Speaker 1: know what the topic is. That topic is expensive sumer
Speaker 1: technology because you know, we're ramping up to the holiday
Speaker 1: season and obviously you know you have to start looking
Speaker 1: at the people in your life and what sort of
Speaker 1: gifts you need to give them exactly. And I thought, well,
Speaker 1: what if what if one you and I were making
Speaker 1: the crazy kind of money that Beauty Pie is making
Speaker 1: on YouTube? Because because as we record this, the day
Speaker 1: we record this is also the day that Forbes released
Speaker 1: what the top YouTube performers are earning, or what they
Speaker 1: guess they are earning. It's it made me question all
Speaker 1: of my decisions in life up to this point. But
Speaker 1: we are not making that money. But if we were
Speaker 1: making that money, and if there were spectacularly awesome people
Speaker 1: in our lives, maybe these are the sort of things
Speaker 1: we might look at in order to say you mean
Speaker 1: something to me, Mr, Mrs Miss whatever. So. But I
Speaker 1: didn't want Ben to to know about any of these
Speaker 1: because I want to get his actual reaction. Plus, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quiz him a couple of times, not really quiz,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get an idea, see if he can
Speaker 1: guess what some of these things are based upon the names. Now,
Speaker 1: some of them are evident by the name, so not
Speaker 1: all of them will be a guesswork. But I may
Speaker 1: have you guess occasionally what it might be, and then
Speaker 1: maybe I'll even ask you ballpark figure how much you
Speaker 1: think it might might be. Let's let's do it. I
Speaker 1: love it, uh listeners. Just so you guys know, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that I'm the best slash worst sidekick
Speaker 1: for Jonathan and this type of episode, it's because I
Speaker 1: am a notorious chief skate. I am personally offended. Car
Speaker 1: stuff listeners probably know this, but I am. I am
Speaker 1: personally offended if I think something is too expensive. Now, also,
Speaker 1: in the interest of full disclosure, I was not aware
Speaker 1: of that when I asked them to do this, but
Speaker 1: it does make me very happy because it means that,
Speaker 1: even if everything else goes wrong, your reactions are going
Speaker 1: to save this episode. So I'm already upset. Here we
Speaker 1: go here. I decided to go with U with a
Speaker 1: real doozy first, and it's one you may have actually
Speaker 1: talked about on a different show, so that gives you
Speaker 1: a hint already. Can you guess what the element? Palazzo
Speaker 1: Superior is element found so superior. I'm thinking it's a
Speaker 1: car very close it is an RV. Oh, well, come
Speaker 1: also know Well, it was just a guess, like one
Speaker 1: of those things like it might have been something that
Speaker 1: you and Scott have covered for car stuff. I should
Speaker 1: ask Scott if he's heard of it when, because I'm
Speaker 1: actually peek behind the curtain. After I do this episode
Speaker 1: with you, right, I'm recording another episode after this. Scott's
Speaker 1: going to be my guest, so we're starting this episode
Speaker 1: late because Scott and I were in the studio earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's just it's just a Jonathan, Scott and Ben
Speaker 1: like schmorg is bored there and as you're here, So
Speaker 1: that would make I guess it's the million something Ami
Speaker 1: goes now, right, So the element Palazzo Superior is an RV.
Speaker 1: It is known as the most luxurious mobile home in
Speaker 1: the world. It is also sometimes referred to as a
Speaker 1: mansion on wheels. Now, I'm not going to make you
Speaker 1: guess how much this is, because it would you would
Speaker 1: just be unfair. This monstrosity. Well, let me let me
Speaker 1: explain what what it is first before I give you
Speaker 1: the what what the cost is. So the they the
Speaker 1: driver's compartment, known as the cockpit actually referred to as
Speaker 1: the cockpit, was inspired by the design of jets as
Speaker 1: a panoramic windshield. It has an adjustable tent on that
Speaker 1: win she'll T I N T like, you can go
Speaker 1: to two different stages of darkness on it with a
Speaker 1: flip of a switch. The whole thing is made out
Speaker 1: of carbon fiber, so that means it's incredibly strong and
Speaker 1: incredibly light. And by incredibly light, I mean it's a
Speaker 1: mere twenty eight tons. Uh. It has seven hundred thirty
Speaker 1: two square feet of living space, which is sixty eight
Speaker 1: square meters. Is it Is it okay? Is it street legal? Yes? Also,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that it expands outward, so
Speaker 1: like you know, when you stop wherever you're you're going
Speaker 1: to stop, then you hit in. So in fact, when
Speaker 1: you put into camper mode, it nearly doubles its width.
Speaker 1: The normal width is eight point four feet or two
Speaker 1: point five five. When you expand it, it it goes to
Speaker 1: sixteen point four feet, so almost twice as much, and
Speaker 1: that's five ms of width as a rooftop deck. It
Speaker 1: has radiant floor heating. It's got refrigerators, a wine cabinet,
Speaker 1: a coffee machine, a sink, a freezer, an ice maker, stovetop,
Speaker 1: a master bedroom with king sized bed, addressing, table, closets,
Speaker 1: and more. It has a sixteen square foot or one
Speaker 1: and a half square meter rain shower with light therapy
Speaker 1: features built into the shower stall light therapy, light therapy
Speaker 1: so you can give that nice blue missgoing. It has
Speaker 1: two forty two inch televisions. It has onboard WiFi, satellite TV,
Speaker 1: a custom audio system, ambient light control and more, and
Speaker 1: you Ben Bolan can be the proud owner of an
Speaker 1: Element Plazzo Superior for the low low price of three
Speaker 1: point one million dollars for an RV an RVY. Okay,
Speaker 1: so is the WiFi service including do you get an
Speaker 1: I s P for the three point one million three
Speaker 1: point one million? All right, think about some of the
Speaker 1: homes in Atlanta there in the one to two million
Speaker 1: dollars range. We're talking some pretty big houses along some
Speaker 1: very uh choice real estate, like along ponstantly An Avenue,
Speaker 1: for example, or along you know, along the Chattahoochie. You're
Speaker 1: gonna find some mansions there that are going to start
Speaker 1: creeping in around this three point one million, maybe even
Speaker 1: some that top out over three point one million. But
Speaker 1: that's a full mansion, right, This is a seven two
Speaker 1: square foot r V I. You know, I gotta tell
Speaker 1: you I I live in a pretty small place. So well,
Speaker 1: I also don't pay three million, four But it also
Speaker 1: doesn't roll right, That's true. I mean with this, you
Speaker 1: could you your home could be wherever you park. Now.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because I recently had a pretty frank discussion
Speaker 1: with a car stuff listener when I was talking about
Speaker 1: how as a kid, was always my dream to have
Speaker 1: an r V. Right, I thought I had this view
Speaker 1: that I would just live in this thing, drive everywhere
Speaker 1: and be cool and and food would magically appear in
Speaker 1: the car and the gas would never be empty. But
Speaker 1: what I've learned from people were in the RV cultures
Speaker 1: is a lot more of just driving to a destination
Speaker 1: and camping, because people who like to drive don't really
Speaker 1: like to drive RV. No, there are monstrosities on the road.
Speaker 1: I imagine it has to be incredibly stressful because I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to I assume you have to have a
Speaker 1: bus driver's license to even operate one. And then on
Speaker 1: top of that, you know, just just think about what
Speaker 1: it's like navigating through traffic with a regular sized vehicle.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a nightmare with something that large.
Speaker 1: Three millions. So, so, Jonathan, would you ever if Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's see you're on tour. Okay, all right, let's
Speaker 1: let's say that let's say I am somehow filthy rich
Speaker 1: would you be? Would you take one of these behaviorths as?
Speaker 1: Would you just go with a charter bus? I'd go
Speaker 1: with the charter bus. Dude. First of all, you know me.
Speaker 1: I'm not a driver at all, so so the idea
Speaker 1: that's the appeal of this is lost on me. Um.
Speaker 1: But I would prefer to travel someplace and stay at
Speaker 1: a hotel than to go camp. I'm not a camper either.
Speaker 1: To have a driver, I would have a drive at
Speaker 1: this point, if you can afford this thing, if I'd
Speaker 1: reached that level of ridiculous uh luxury, I would have
Speaker 1: a driver. Yeah, I would, or or I would have
Speaker 1: a driverless car. One of the two would be one
Speaker 1: of those things. And I just I want to be
Speaker 1: completely honest with you. I appreciate it, but don't don't
Speaker 1: get me this all right, I will mark it off
Speaker 1: the list. Well here, how about how about I hit
Speaker 1: you with this one. Alright, let' see if you can
Speaker 1: guess what this is based upon the name. Now, this
Speaker 1: is a little different from some of the others. A
Speaker 1: lot of the other ones I'm talking about are relatively new,
Speaker 1: but this is actually an old thing that has been
Speaker 1: sold more than once. So that I'll give you a
Speaker 1: little hint. It's not going to be like a computer
Speaker 1: or anything like that. The protech Philippe Henry Graves super Complication. Ah, Yes,
Speaker 1: one of the most legendary, legendarily sophisticated watches. Very good,
Speaker 1: Ben Bolan. Yes, as absolutely act it was. It's a
Speaker 1: pocket watch and it was designed by the Swiss company
Speaker 1: Protect Filly in nineteen thirty three four Henry Grays Jr.
Speaker 1: Who was a banker at the time. And Henry Grays Jr.
Speaker 1: Was in a bit of a competition with another gentleman
Speaker 1: whom you've also I'm sure talked about on car stuff, Uh,
Speaker 1: James Ward Packard. Oh yeah, is it? Wait? Is it?
Speaker 1: This is a competition to have the most complicated watch. Yes.
Speaker 1: They were constantly trying to one up one another with
Speaker 1: their various luxury a coup trement, and watches were one
Speaker 1: of the ways they were kind of showing off. And
Speaker 1: so Henry Grays commissioned protect Fillip, the Swiss watchmaker company,
Speaker 1: to build the world's most complicated watch at that time.
Speaker 1: It took three years to design and five years to
Speaker 1: make it. Now keep in mind this is before computer
Speaker 1: assisted design. This is all human design, right woe. It's
Speaker 1: made of eighteen carrot gold, and it's considered to be
Speaker 1: the most complex pocket watch that was made without computer
Speaker 1: assistance ever, and it has twenty four different functions. Uh.
Speaker 1: And here are some of the functions that are included.
Speaker 1: It keeps time number one. UH. It gives you the
Speaker 1: time of sunset and sunrise each day. It's mechanical. This
Speaker 1: is all mechanical. Yeah, this is pre digital nine. It
Speaker 1: has a perpetual calendar on it, so it has the
Speaker 1: mechanics in it to keep accurate what day it is. UH.
Speaker 1: Has days of the month, days of the week, and
Speaker 1: has a stars chart. It has phases of the moon
Speaker 1: charted on it. It has a stop watch. It has
Speaker 1: a thirty minute recorder meaning it will go off after
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, and a twelve hour recorder as well. It
Speaker 1: has chimes and the original price tag. But it was
Speaker 1: sold Okay, this is just the original price tag for
Speaker 1: Henry Graves was fifteen thousand dollars. Now we have to
Speaker 1: adjust that for inflation. So in today's might that be
Speaker 1: about two hundred two thousand dollars That, my friend, would
Speaker 1: be a bargain based upon what people have actually paid
Speaker 1: for this thing since then in auctions. Yes, so Southby's
Speaker 1: got it in auction and they sold it twice. In fact,
Speaker 1: the first time they sold it was in July when
Speaker 1: Chic Saud being Mohammed being Ali al Tani of the
Speaker 1: Qatari royal family purchased it for a cool eleven million dollars.
Speaker 1: First off, pronunciation thank you. Secondly, I am profoundly offended. Well, watch.
Speaker 1: He did have to return it because he had he
Speaker 1: incurred so much debt that he was he was forced
Speaker 1: to return it to Southby's. Yeah, so then Southby's sold
Speaker 1: it again in two thousand and fourteen for twenty four
Speaker 1: million dollars. South of Bees are they are they going
Speaker 1: to work with us? It's just like this, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So now it is a one of a kind. It
Speaker 1: is the world's most complicated watch, pocket watch that was
Speaker 1: made by human alone. Um, so there are some elements
Speaker 1: to it that you realize, all right, well this is
Speaker 1: not just because you know, this isn't just a brand
Speaker 1: or just one of many of this thing. This is
Speaker 1: a one of a kind thing. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people have said clearly the value of this now is
Speaker 1: in the perception of that thing, of the owning. This
Speaker 1: makes me special, makes me part of this story, right
Speaker 1: that the fact that I have the money to spend
Speaker 1: on something like this, it's like a status thing certainly
Speaker 1: far beyond it's intrinsic value, which is hard to first
Speaker 1: of all, whenever we talk about value, it gets all
Speaker 1: kind of whibbly wobbly anyway, right, because it's just whatever
Speaker 1: we put in stake, like what we think of, like
Speaker 1: what would I be willing to pay for this thing? Um?
Speaker 1: And then the more down that rabbit hole you get,
Speaker 1: the more you realize everything is a lie. So escalated quickly.
Speaker 1: So here's a here's another one. Let's see if you
Speaker 1: can guess what this is. Because you've done really well.
Speaker 1: You you've got the super complication, which blew my mind
Speaker 1: that you knew that. So how about the Ver two
Speaker 1: pure jet red gold, pure jet red gold. Now jet
Speaker 1: red gold would tell you some of the features of
Speaker 1: this thing. So what is it? Is it a mobile? Pe?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Ben Bulling two for two so far, Yes,
Speaker 1: the Ver two pure jet red Gold is a smartphone.
Speaker 1: Can you guess how all right, it's nine the million
Speaker 1: dollars range. I'm going to knock that out, But can
Speaker 1: you guess how much money this this phone? Michael? Now,
Speaker 1: this is not a one of the kind phone either.
Speaker 1: This is a phone that if you had the money
Speaker 1: you could buy it, and then if someone else had
Speaker 1: the money, they could buy it too. Well. I remember
Speaker 1: remember hearing about this one and again again Scouts owner.
Speaker 1: I did not do any research. And to be fair,
Speaker 1: they make a line of luxury phones, so you may
Speaker 1: have heard about one of them. This was the most
Speaker 1: expensive one I could find, right now. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I was going to say, because all I all I
Speaker 1: know is um that they look kind of ugly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm not gonna I want to be honest.
Speaker 1: I'm with you on that one. But there I'm gonna. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so bad at this. You know, watching prices right
Speaker 1: used to It's tough send me into anxiety attacks, it
Speaker 1: is it? Two dollars nowhere near that crazy? All right,
Speaker 1: go down by, go down by an order of magnitude.
Speaker 1: So yeah, very close. But still I'm you know, just
Speaker 1: for a second, that's that psychology of comparative pricing. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that's great, let's steel. I'm let's order
Speaker 1: him for the office. We should all have office very
Speaker 1: two pure pure jet red gold phones. Okay. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: there have been obviously some ridiculous like one off electronics
Speaker 1: devices where people have just like swarf ski crystals and
Speaker 1: diamonds and stuff. But this is this is one where
Speaker 1: you can actually like this is a line of phones. Like,
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go and get an iPhone, you
Speaker 1: get an iPhone. If you want to drop nineteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in the air, two pure jet red gold, you could.
Speaker 1: So I know you're all crying out. What makes this
Speaker 1: phone so special? Right? Ok? It's an Android phone, so
Speaker 1: obviously it's already worth way more than an iPhone, although
Speaker 1: it is running Lollipop and not marshmallow at least right now.
Speaker 1: It is made of titanium, and it has red gold
Speaker 1: detailing is an actual red gold on it. The power
Speaker 1: buttons red gold, the volume controls are red gold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the buttons themselves are made of gold. Um. It
Speaker 1: also has black ceramic as part one of the materials,
Speaker 1: and sapphire crystal screen and quilted jet calf leather on
Speaker 1: the back and sides of the phone. So when you
Speaker 1: say pure jet red gold, the red gold obviously for
Speaker 1: the the accents, and then the jet being the calf leather. Uh.
Speaker 1: That leather, by the way, is hand crafted and quote
Speaker 1: sourced from the European Alps. End quote from the European Alps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why it's so expensive. You gotta send people all
Speaker 1: the way to the European Alps to get the leathern Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: do you think that's worth it? Well, I mean, clearly,
Speaker 1: the cows and the European Alps are living a much
Speaker 1: better life than cows anywhere else. Right, so if you're
Speaker 1: gonna get leather, you definitely want to get them from
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it's worth it if you
Speaker 1: If I'd probably totally freak out and try and say, like,
Speaker 1: everyone needs to get like every mattress that's in a
Speaker 1: five mile at radius and place it around me so
Speaker 1: that if I do drop this, it's not gonna shatter
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna be out twenty k uh. So
Speaker 1: here's some other stuff it includes. Each handset is actually handmade.
Speaker 1: So while you could buy one and I could buy one,
Speaker 1: assuming we came across, uh, they might not be identical
Speaker 1: because they are handmade. And this way it's very similar
Speaker 1: to luxury items like a Bentley, Right. You know, that's
Speaker 1: one of the attractions of these luxury cars is that
Speaker 1: they're made by hand, so they're not identical one to
Speaker 1: the next. Um, the ring tones? All right, this is
Speaker 1: gonna make you roll your eyes. The ring tones were
Speaker 1: composed and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but seriously, is the Is the lso that
Speaker 1: hard up? Yeah? I guess so. I mean, like between
Speaker 1: doing stuff for John Williams and ring tones for the
Speaker 1: Bear two Pure Jet red Gold whatever they How do
Speaker 1: you get how do you con pose a ring tone?
Speaker 1: How do you don't know? How long is it? It's
Speaker 1: probably just the same ring tones that you hear on
Speaker 1: every other phone, just done by a full orchestra. Wow,
Speaker 1: do do do Do? Do Do? Do? Do Do Do? Do?
Speaker 1: You've seen thirty Rock of course, right, yes, it seems
Speaker 1: like a Tracy Jordan's Yeah, I got the London Sympody
Speaker 1: Orchestra to play my ring tone, Liz Lemon, that's real. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So beyond that, it also comes with an eighteen month
Speaker 1: subscription to a concierge service, which provides twenty four hour
Speaker 1: assistance and gets you things like recommendations for things you
Speaker 1: should do while you're in a city, as well as
Speaker 1: priority booking for different events, including sporting events, concerts, shows.
Speaker 1: This I had heard about, because apparently it's far beyond
Speaker 1: what you would typically think of as your hotel concierge
Speaker 1: or something, as in, they'll also get you into they'll
Speaker 1: shut down some luxury or oh yeah, yeah no, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can get completely like personalized exclusivity to two different
Speaker 1: events as well. And also it puts you into a
Speaker 1: list essentially of folks who get invited to exclusive events.
Speaker 1: So you might end up, like if you're if you're
Speaker 1: the kind of person who drops the sort of chatter
Speaker 1: on a on a phone, you might end up finding
Speaker 1: yourself on the invite list to some pretty fancy suares.
Speaker 1: So then if you're networking, okay, here I'm gonna I
Speaker 1: might not do this for everyone. I probably won't. It's
Speaker 1: maybe the only time I do this to justify the price.
Speaker 1: If you have a career that requires networking right with
Speaker 1: the in the rarefied air of the upper spheres of
Speaker 1: let's say you want to you know, you want to
Speaker 1: to charm some high level executives or producers of film
Speaker 1: or television or anything along those lines. Shore, Yeah, then
Speaker 1: then this would be a fairly reasonable investment if it
Speaker 1: gets you in the room. Yeah, it's an ugly phone,
Speaker 1: but it'll it'll get you, it'll get you in there.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, it's also it's also the text specs of
Speaker 1: the phone put it behind other more common smartphones on
Speaker 1: the market. Uh, that's not. It's not like top of
Speaker 1: the line performance. It's not. It's not. It's not flagging
Speaker 1: way behind, but it's nowhere close to Like if you
Speaker 1: went out and bought a brand new smartphone in the
Speaker 1: regular like four to six hundred dollar range Samsung Galaxy six, Yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that then, or the latest Nexus phone anything
Speaker 1: like that, because we're talking Android, you know it, that
Speaker 1: would actually outperform this phone. However, it doesn't come with
Speaker 1: that concierge service. So um. And also, you gotta keep
Speaker 1: in mind that that phone is totes common, whereas the
Speaker 1: fair two phone is a thing of luxury. We'll be
Speaker 1: back with more expensive consumer tech. But if I'm going
Speaker 1: to afford my expensive consumer tech, We're gonna need to
Speaker 1: take a quick commercial break. So good, so far. Let's
Speaker 1: try this one. No, this one's got a hint in
Speaker 1: the name. I love how your your eyes go up
Speaker 1: every time we get to a new one, Like it's
Speaker 1: like this is just gonna there's gonna be a point
Speaker 1: where this show just makes a turn for the worst
Speaker 1: turning back. Yeah. No, this was pretty easy because just
Speaker 1: think of the first word, acapella fair on Excalibur. Acapella yep,
Speaker 1: acapella fair on Excalibur. What what kind of tech would
Speaker 1: that be? A microphone speaker? Speaker, It's a speaker, actually,
Speaker 1: set of speakers. Uh, they're made by hand. Okay. They
Speaker 1: are seven ft tall and wait one thousand, three hundred
Speaker 1: sixty four pounds apiece, and they cost four hundred fifty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars, theas the ones that look like seashells
Speaker 1: if you were to strip away the outsides. Yes, really, yeah,
Speaker 1: okay yeah, why did they cost some because they supposedly
Speaker 1: have such amazing fidelity that it feels and this is
Speaker 1: from the manufacturer as if you're being caressed by the
Speaker 1: sound or or that's what I thought, or if you
Speaker 1: turn it up that it could knock you over with
Speaker 1: the intensity of the sound. Um. Yeah, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, and and this goes way back in
Speaker 1: tech stuff lore. Chris Pallette and I did an episode
Speaker 1: ages and ages ago about the myths of audio fidelity,
Speaker 1: and largely we were talking about cables in that sense
Speaker 1: us exactly, Yeah, the do those high price cables? Are
Speaker 1: they actually worth it? Do they have of greater performance?
Speaker 1: And the answer is not really detectable by human ears.
Speaker 1: Like you might be able to hook up some very
Speaker 1: supersensitive sensors and quantifiably say yes, I'm getting better performance,
Speaker 1: but it's not perceptible. The same sort of thing with
Speaker 1: these speakers really are not these speakers in particular, but
Speaker 1: speakers in general, is that once you get to a
Speaker 1: certain level of performance, it really is impossible for a
Speaker 1: person to tell. Like if you were to a double
Speaker 1: blinded test where you put a person in a room,
Speaker 1: the person ministering the test doesn't know which says speakers
Speaker 1: are in that room. The person taking the test has
Speaker 1: no idea which says speakers are in that room. And
Speaker 1: if you were to repeat that over and over, you
Speaker 1: would likely see that people would not be able to
Speaker 1: tell the difference beyond a certain level. Now that's not
Speaker 1: to say that there are there aren't bad speakers. There
Speaker 1: are and there are good speakers, but but the plateaus
Speaker 1: at a point, like at least as far as human
Speaker 1: experience goes, there's a diminishing return exactly, so okay in
Speaker 1: that case then, and not to I'm just being honest
Speaker 1: here again, and sometimes that will make me sound like
Speaker 1: a rude person. But are you telling me people are
Speaker 1: paying almost five hundred thousand dollars for something they literally
Speaker 1: are incapable of appreciating. It's quite possible and not unheard of.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, especially when it comes to speakers
Speaker 1: and sound systems. I would I see. I think some
Speaker 1: people pride themselves on the concept of being an audio file,
Speaker 1: that they appreciate sound, and somehow they appreciate it more
Speaker 1: than most people do, perhaps even the vast majority of people. Um,
Speaker 1: and as part of that, they want to cater to
Speaker 1: that that self image, you know, this idea of sound.
Speaker 1: I love the effective sound and I totally get this.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love music right, and I definitely understand
Speaker 1: people who said, uh, they preferred older means of of
Speaker 1: listening to music to m P three's because for a
Speaker 1: long time, first of all, MP three is a lossy format,
Speaker 1: mean you're you're losing some information whenever you make that
Speaker 1: type of file. But those those conversions have gotten better
Speaker 1: and better, plus their other lossless formats out there, where
Speaker 1: digital is no longer I think a meaningful distinction from analog.
Speaker 1: So saying so, I would go that far as to
Speaker 1: say if you if you do things correctly, you should
Speaker 1: not be able to tell the difference. And there's also
Speaker 1: a psychological aspect though two people. It's it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: some people will make to your coffee a certain way,
Speaker 1: and just because that there's something comforting about that, they
Speaker 1: feel that it is the superior method. I would argue
Speaker 1: very much that that things like listening to vinyl records
Speaker 1: has a bit of the ritual involved, right, and that
Speaker 1: ritualistic experience provides that sense of comfort and familiarity. So
Speaker 1: if and I do that, I mean, I've got a
Speaker 1: collection of vinyl at home. I'm I'm talking about this
Speaker 1: like as someone who I appreciate that experience, and that's
Speaker 1: part of it, right, It's not just the sound, it's
Speaker 1: not even not even necessarily related to whatever the record is.
Speaker 1: It's the experience of putting that all together. And I
Speaker 1: think there is a value to that. And obviously digital
Speaker 1: doesn't really I mean, there's not really a comparison where
Speaker 1: you push play on a touch screen and the music place.
Speaker 1: It's not the same thing as taking taking the sleeve
Speaker 1: out of a cover, and then the finalist of the
Speaker 1: sleeve and then placing that on the platter and moving
Speaker 1: the needle over. And if you guys don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, you need to look at a turntable.
Speaker 1: Although those have come back. I mean, everyone knows one
Speaker 1: of those technologies. I used to joke about. Ask your parents,
Speaker 1: but now a lot of people know about it. Thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: All right, well let's let's let's up the anti four
Speaker 1: and dollars. That's that's chicken feed. Yeah. So so the
Speaker 1: next one is going to be a television telling you
Speaker 1: straight out the name of the television is the Stewart
Speaker 1: Hughes Prestige HD Supreme Rose. Addition, what is that? Like
Speaker 1: a bad Google translations. Stewart Hughes would be the company.
Speaker 1: The Prestige HD Supreme Rose Edition is the name of
Speaker 1: the television. So it costs two point to five million dollars.
Speaker 1: It's a TV that cost two point five million dollars.
Speaker 1: Might as well just get the element that point that
Speaker 1: has two TVs in it. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Okay,
Speaker 1: so what do we get sell me on this? All right?
Speaker 1: It's a television. So it's not even not even it's
Speaker 1: not even ridiculously huge, right like you were expecting it. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's going to be like a hundred and seventy three
Speaker 1: TV and it's fifty in television. Um, it's got twenty
Speaker 1: eight ms of eighteen carrot gold in the frame and
Speaker 1: that's that's primarily Yeah, that eight kilograms. It's more than
Speaker 1: fifty pounds of gold. What is this obsession with putting
Speaker 1: gold on things that don't need gold? I guess it
Speaker 1: just means that your TV, even as it becomes obsolete,
Speaker 1: is still insanely valuable. The frame is studded with seventy
Speaker 1: two one carrot diamonds. Uh. They're also a sunstone and
Speaker 1: amethysts in that frame between the outer frame and the screen.
Speaker 1: So imagine you've got like a frame, like a picture frame.
Speaker 1: The screen is in set. So this would be almost
Speaker 1: like the mat of a of a if you were
Speaker 1: looking at a you know, a framed picture, you know
Speaker 1: that has the mat surrounding it. Well, the mat would
Speaker 1: be made out of alligator skin that is hands sown
Speaker 1: to the frame. Uh yeah, hands. So it just seems
Speaker 1: like such a left field the idea they're creating the
Speaker 1: TV it's Stuart Hughes and they say something, can you
Speaker 1: kill an alligator? Could that? Can we do that? Can
Speaker 1: we kill an alligator? UM? I my own personal opinion,
Speaker 1: I think it's hideous. I think it's hideous. I almost
Speaker 1: I wish now I what I really wish I had done,
Speaker 1: and it's a regret that I'm going to have to
Speaker 1: live with. I wish I had printed out pictures of
Speaker 1: each of these things so I could hand them to
Speaker 1: you after I explain what it is to get your
Speaker 1: reaction on those. But I mean, this is an audio podcast,
Speaker 1: so there would only be limited value in that anyway,
Speaker 1: right for the for for you guys listening, but also
Speaker 1: that would probably increase the likelihood of me cursy. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of bleeps in this episod. But
Speaker 1: the Stewart Hughes Prestige HD, which is Prestige HD, is
Speaker 1: altogether supreme Rose Edition. You go check that out, listeners
Speaker 1: and take a look, and you tell me if you
Speaker 1: think it looks beautiful. I said that it looks like
Speaker 1: the Hearst Castle of television. And if you've ever been
Speaker 1: to Hearst Castle, you know what I'm talking about William
Speaker 1: Randolph Hurst had way more money than he had taste.
Speaker 1: He just if he saw something that he liked, he
Speaker 1: bought it and he put it in a room. Whether
Speaker 1: it went with everything else or not. He would go
Speaker 1: for baroque. Okay, that's a terrible UM. One of the
Speaker 1: TVs I was going to mention, but I decided ultimately
Speaker 1: not to because if you do a search for most
Speaker 1: of television is one of the ones that pops up
Speaker 1: pretty consistently is a Panasonic television that's a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty two inches. But I didn't necessary. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to include it in this because I'm specifically talking about
Speaker 1: consumer technology. The Panasonic one fifty two inch plasma display
Speaker 1: is really intended for businesses. So for like a big
Speaker 1: company that wants to have a huge screen on a
Speaker 1: big wall, that kind of thing. Yeah, or or even
Speaker 1: just as a prestige thing for the company whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: but it was or maybe it's a media company and
Speaker 1: they want to be able to show off the stuff
Speaker 1: they do. Um, but it's a five hundred thousand dollar
Speaker 1: display that's a hundred fifty two inches. It's a plasma display.
Speaker 1: So I don't really think of that as a consumer product,
Speaker 1: which is why I didn't have it as an official
Speaker 1: one and it no, but here's here's an actual TV
Speaker 1: that you can buy as a consumer. Um. It is
Speaker 1: one of the most expensive consumer televisions out there that
Speaker 1: is not bedecked with jewels and is the Samsung you
Speaker 1: in one zero five S nine B. That's the way
Speaker 1: TVs are these days. The original m s r P
Speaker 1: for this was two hundred sixty thousand dollars, more than
Speaker 1: a quarter of a million dollars for this television when
Speaker 1: it when it first came out. Right now, though, if
Speaker 1: you go to Samsung's page, act quickly because it now
Speaker 1: lists the suggested retail at one dty nine thousand, nine
Speaker 1: nine cents. But you can scoop it up for a
Speaker 1: mirror one nineteen thousand dollars nine and so so just
Speaker 1: under one. Oh, we're back in the game, saving thirty
Speaker 1: thousand right there. And by saving that thirty thousand, you
Speaker 1: can go and then buy that Virtue red Gold phone.
Speaker 1: And I like, we can go. We'll have to take
Speaker 1: our TV with us to the exclusive party, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Just look, you know I'm rich because I also have
Speaker 1: this monstrosity. It's a hundred and five inch television, so
Speaker 1: this one is significantly larger. It's four K Ultra HD.
Speaker 1: It's a smart TV with built in WiFi. And this
Speaker 1: is the one that is a bendable screen where you
Speaker 1: you push a button and the and the screen bends inward.
Speaker 1: It curves inward. Yeah, it's pretty nifty. That explains to
Speaker 1: me some of the appeal. And then I have a
Speaker 1: question to I was wondering about this, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: you went to t VS. This is something that our
Speaker 1: listeners are probably wondering as well. Is there also a
Speaker 1: diminishing return with um, you know, four K with the
Speaker 1: quality of video. That's an excellent question, I would argue yes. However,
Speaker 1: it's dependent on a couple of different things. The size
Speaker 1: of the screen, because the larger you go, the higher
Speaker 1: the resolution you need in order to not have that
Speaker 1: quality degrade. So if I have a if I have
Speaker 1: at TV and it's at seven twenty, that might look
Speaker 1: great to me, and I might think, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to a much larger TV. Let's go,
Speaker 1: I'm going up to sixty inch television. But now I
Speaker 1: want to have uh, two K or four K screen,
Speaker 1: probably four KSE screen because two K really didn't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: but a four K screen you would be able to
Speaker 1: tell the difference because it's sharper, and it's bigger. And
Speaker 1: if you're especially if you don't change how far away
Speaker 1: you're sitting from the screen, like if you're seeing just
Speaker 1: as far away from your sixty inch as you were
Speaker 1: your forty inch, then uh, you know, the bigger it gets,
Speaker 1: the more likely you're going to detect any sort of
Speaker 1: problems with quality. Uh. But that being said, if you
Speaker 1: are looking at like or at least for me, I
Speaker 1: have found at c E s where you would presumably
Speaker 1: tune these televisions to be high performing, you know, so
Speaker 1: that you really attract people. I have looked at h
Speaker 1: D t vs next to two K, four K, eight
Speaker 1: K sets and at an equal distance and using equal sizes.
Speaker 1: It's I can't tell any Like I can't really distinguish
Speaker 1: between them. Like if you had covered up the labels
Speaker 1: and didn't tell me which one was which, I probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to identify them. If I got really close,
Speaker 1: I could because the closer you get, the more you
Speaker 1: can see what you can tell the how how good
Speaker 1: the resolution is. But again so it depends on screen size,
Speaker 1: how close you're sitting, and also just calibrating your TV. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you, if you have someone professionally calibrate your television
Speaker 1: so that it's going to give you the best experience
Speaker 1: in whatever environment you are in it, that makes a
Speaker 1: huge difference. I have not done that, but I did
Speaker 1: not mostly because my room I'm in. The light changes
Speaker 1: so dramatically because, uh, the where my cable hook up
Speaker 1: is is near a big window, like a floor to
Speaker 1: ceiling window, and even with window treatment on that some
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of sunlight will come through in
Speaker 1: the daytime and at night it's totally different. So it
Speaker 1: would be hard to calibrate it in a way that
Speaker 1: would be satisfying for both experiences. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of mediocreate. No, I hopefully this uh, this amazing piece
Speaker 1: of television technology will calibrate itself or have someone that
Speaker 1: I almost said someone that comes with it. Like you
Speaker 1: open up a box and some some poor person is
Speaker 1: just like you know, hunched over inside the box, like
Speaker 1: all right, I'm ready to calibrate your te exactly, and
Speaker 1: then you give Darby a sock and it goes off
Speaker 1: on his way. Um. Also, it can upscale images, so
Speaker 1: in other words, you can look at something like HD
Speaker 1: content and turn it into ultra HD content and it
Speaker 1: just does it by kind of interpreting what the missing
Speaker 1: pixels would be. So it's not perfect, right, Upscaling has
Speaker 1: never been perfect, but it can be very good. It
Speaker 1: seems interesting, Yeah, but I don't know if it I frankly,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not swayed think of it by
Speaker 1: it because it sounds like only the edges of the
Speaker 1: screen bend. It beens in towards you. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: like you can wrap it around a column or something
Speaker 1: and have like a circular television or something, in which
Speaker 1: case that would be a steel Yeah. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: not it. All right, Well, here's your next one. The
Speaker 1: like a M nine P edition Hermes Serie Limited Jean
Speaker 1: Louis Dumas or dum if you prefer, what kind of
Speaker 1: device do you think that might be? Will you say,
Speaker 1: we see the name like an M nine P edition
Speaker 1: Hermes Serie Limited Jean Louis duma Like a yeah Hermes,
Speaker 1: like I spelled that by the way, I may be
Speaker 1: mispronouncing that it's l E. I c A. I think
Speaker 1: you may have stopped me. This one's a tough one.
Speaker 1: Just Hermes made me what I guess if it was
Speaker 1: a bag, but it's it's not, which makes me think
Speaker 1: of the Saturday Night Life sketches exactly exactly. I'm brecky. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take a Probably it's probably her is
Speaker 1: actually so I'm so ghosh, I'll take a I'll take
Speaker 1: a shot. Ghost is such a weird word because people
Speaker 1: who know the word ghost are inherently not gosh. I like,
Speaker 1: I like where you're going. Okay, okay, so sorry, that's
Speaker 1: just some business for me to try to cold read you. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm not giving anything like I know it's not
Speaker 1: working very well. I'm gonna say a few things and
Speaker 1: see if you blink. Uh. Now, you just gonna have
Speaker 1: to give a guess, all right. Um? Is it a laptop? No,
Speaker 1: it is a point and shoot camera. I should have known,
Speaker 1: like I should have known. Yeah, it's a point of
Speaker 1: shoot camera. It's digital camera, so it's not not a
Speaker 1: film camera. Uh. And it costs fifty thousand dollars. It's
Speaker 1: a fifty dollar point and shoot digital camera. It has
Speaker 1: calf skin leather that has been handsome um comes with
Speaker 1: multiple lenses that are cased in analyzed silver. It's very
Speaker 1: very I mean it looks beautiful. You look at you
Speaker 1: look at and you're just like, well, that is a
Speaker 1: work of art. But still fifty thou dollars for a
Speaker 1: point and shoot can I'm just glad it doesn't have
Speaker 1: a bunch of gold on it. No, it does not
Speaker 1: have a bunch of gold on it. So, however, if
Speaker 1: you want to talk about a bunch of gold, how
Speaker 1: about the Nintendo WE Supreme which is covered in twenty
Speaker 1: two carried gold? Why two thousand, five hundred grams of
Speaker 1: twenty two carried gold? Why the front buttons are made
Speaker 1: out of diamond? Oh okay, oh that's different. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: It works, right, it does work. There are only three
Speaker 1: of them in existence, and it costs two pounds sterling,
Speaker 1: which if you if you were to convert to the
Speaker 1: U S dollars about four dred sixty five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for an into NOI also done by Stuart Hughes, the
Speaker 1: same company that did the Ridiculous Tea, So they switched
Speaker 1: the alligators. Get this is just for TVs. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: there's no alligator skin, which is weird because you know,
Speaker 1: you could have done like Yoshi's Revenge or something and
Speaker 1: packaged it an alligator skin. Yeah, you should be under
Speaker 1: I'm just seeing them now going this, we need something else?
Speaker 1: Can we kill an alligator? You know, we just meltdown
Speaker 1: some more gold. Someone go to the alps. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're actually um there. They've also done the same sort
Speaker 1: of thing with other consoles. But apparently, according to their website,
Speaker 1: this is the most expensive video game console in the world,
Speaker 1: the Nintendo we Subreme. You know what this This might
Speaker 1: date you and I, but do you remember, um, the
Speaker 1: Neo Geo, Yes, where the actual game cartridges were like
Speaker 1: several hundred dollars. Yeah, I was so. I was so
Speaker 1: envious that, and my parents let me try to pitch
Speaker 1: them on getting one, and I tried my best to
Speaker 1: justify how this would be an investment for our family.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, the Neo Geo console so like
Speaker 1: the original consoles cost you know, a hundred bucks or
Speaker 1: more depending on what you were looking at, but Neo
Speaker 1: g O was way more expensive and the the individual
Speaker 1: games were way more expensively. The individual games cost more
Speaker 1: than other video game consoles. Yeah, no, kidden, and they had.
Speaker 1: But it was that it was almost the same thing
Speaker 1: we're seeing now in microcosm, because it was the exclusivity
Speaker 1: of it over the actual the actual merit. Which makes
Speaker 1: me want to ask, is that with the with the WE,
Speaker 1: it's just the we, right, There's no nothing in the
Speaker 1: specs that's different. It can't. It doesn't like upscale it
Speaker 1: to HD, it's regular. I wonder it probably wouldn't be
Speaker 1: possible in this age, but what if there was some
Speaker 1: exclusive video game content that only came like the most
Speaker 1: the most rarefied Elite DLC, the Sextual. It makes me
Speaker 1: think I almost included it for this um this podcast,
Speaker 1: but I forgot. Actually, but when the iPhone first came out,
Speaker 1: in the app store first opened up, do you remember
Speaker 1: that there was an app where you could buy a
Speaker 1: jewel for like or something like. Yeah, it didn't do anything.
Speaker 1: It was just to show that you could blow a
Speaker 1: thousand bucks on on an app. Oh man, I was
Speaker 1: you know, I was wondering if that was going to
Speaker 1: come up in this podcast. I really I thought about
Speaker 1: doing it. I just forgot to add it to the list.
Speaker 1: Most these are the things I looked at were really
Speaker 1: consumer electronics as opposed to an app that gets added
Speaker 1: onto an existing product. Yeah, I see, well, well this
Speaker 1: is okay, so far, so far, right now, um, right now,
Speaker 1: I'm torn. I'm trying to think of what which of
Speaker 1: these things I would pick if I could only pick
Speaker 1: one to have, And I'd love to hear what you
Speaker 1: think about it too. At the end. Okay, yeah, it
Speaker 1: sounds great. Yeah, at the end, we'll we'll discuss which
Speaker 1: of these ridiculous or extravagant or luxurious items we would
Speaker 1: want for ourselves. That sounds good, all right. So the
Speaker 1: next one, this one you mentioned laptop, you guess laptop
Speaker 1: on the last one, this one is a PC, but
Speaker 1: a desktop PC, the Zeus Jupiter. It's a PC that
Speaker 1: costs It's a PC. Yeah, it's not even it's not
Speaker 1: even a really strong one, especially compared to today's standard.
Speaker 1: I suppose it's handmade. Uh close. It's plated with platinum,
Speaker 1: but it's a pecatum and studded with diamonds and light
Speaker 1: can come through and the studded diamonds make make constellations
Speaker 1: on the case. So when you turn the computer on
Speaker 1: and the light comes through, it looks like there's like
Speaker 1: a Ryan there, that kind of thing. That's yeah. So
Speaker 1: it's has an until three giga hurts E six eighty
Speaker 1: uh fifty core two duo CPU, only two gigabytes of
Speaker 1: d d R two memory, a terrabyte hard drive. So
Speaker 1: obviously if you were to compare this to like a
Speaker 1: A A even a lower upper tier gaming rig, it
Speaker 1: that would blow this thing out of the water. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was originally announced prior around two thousand nine like that,
Speaker 1: but as far as I can tell, there has not
Speaker 1: been another computer announced personal computer mind you announced that
Speaker 1: is more expensive. Now, That's why I wanted to say, like,
Speaker 1: these are expensive toys, they may not be the most expensive,
Speaker 1: because honestly, trying to track that down and verify it
Speaker 1: is really tricky. For all of these, I wanted to
Speaker 1: go to multiple sources to make sure, preferably going to
Speaker 1: the the primary source, which is where I found out
Speaker 1: about the fair two phone, because the original one I
Speaker 1: had on that list was only ten thousand, two hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and then I found there was a model that was
Speaker 1: more expensive than that. We've got more to say in
Speaker 1: this classic episode of tech stuff. After these quick message
Speaker 1: is here's one that that I actually knew about before
Speaker 1: I did this list, And it's not It's nowhere near
Speaker 1: It's not in the same ballpark as the other stuff
Speaker 1: we've talked about. Okay, so not thousands of dollars. But
Speaker 1: did you hear about the game Steel Battalion? Yes, for
Speaker 1: the Xbox I may be thinking of a battle me thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's it. It was. It was a max simulator. You
Speaker 1: had a and the reason why it was expensive, by
Speaker 1: the way, it was it was two D dollars, which
Speaker 1: actually today you look at video games like say Rock Band,
Speaker 1: not that expensive. But if you were to look at
Speaker 1: Steal Battalion, it was a two game for the Xbox.
Speaker 1: It was the most expensive game for the Xbox. And
Speaker 1: the reason was it came with this controller that had
Speaker 1: forty buttons, so it was like it was like a
Speaker 1: panel that had two joysticks on it, plus a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of buttons and switches and three pedals that you
Speaker 1: would control with your feet. And it was a mech
Speaker 1: simulation game where you were simulating being the pilot of
Speaker 1: a mech. And uh I never got to play it.
Speaker 1: I never saw it. I don't know anyone who had it.
Speaker 1: I'm so jealous envious of the people who have that. Though.
Speaker 1: I wanted to play that so bad. When I heard
Speaker 1: about it, I thought, well, that sounds really cool. And
Speaker 1: they also reminded me of h I think there was
Speaker 1: like a virtual reality um video game arcade type experience
Speaker 1: where you could go and and do mech battles like
Speaker 1: it was like it was like six on six type
Speaker 1: MEC battles or whatever, but it was a custom made
Speaker 1: experience where you went into the you know, you had
Speaker 1: to actually go to a place and play it. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like a home game thing, but this was something
Speaker 1: that made me think, this is about close to that
Speaker 1: experiences you could have in your own home. Uh. For comparison, though,
Speaker 1: the rock Band three complete set, if you wanted to
Speaker 1: have everything from rock Band three was three sixty dollars,
Speaker 1: and that's because you had the game, the drums, two guitars,
Speaker 1: a microphone, plus the keyboard controller. The current version of
Speaker 1: rock Band rock Band four that just came out, is
Speaker 1: less than that. They don't have the keyboard controller anymore.
Speaker 1: It's still more than two hundred dollars, but it's not
Speaker 1: three D sixty and still the time when it came out,
Speaker 1: it was the It's set the precedent for something like that. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with video games. Talk about we're gonna
Speaker 1: go up another notch to a very expensive game, a
Speaker 1: Resident Evil six Platinum Edition. This was only available in Japan. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: it's more than three D sixty dollars. That's D dollars
Speaker 1: for a game. Does it please tell me the box
Speaker 1: is not made of platinum. No, but it comes with
Speaker 1: a leather jacket replica of the character Leon Kennedy's jacket
Speaker 1: in the game. Yeah, so it came with a leather jacket,
Speaker 1: but I won't I won't spend D dollars on a
Speaker 1: leather jacket either, unless the leather jacket is actually made
Speaker 1: out of gold. I mean, I am overjoyed. Yeah, after
Speaker 1: all we've been through together that it is not coded
Speaker 1: in precious gems or metals. Man, you're gonna hate the
Speaker 1: next one. Well. Well, one other thing I have to
Speaker 1: mention about the Platinum edition is that it also came
Speaker 1: with four phone cases modeled after Resident Evil characters. So,
Speaker 1: I mean there's where you make up the value all right,
Speaker 1: so we're getting to the most expensive video game of
Speaker 1: all time, although it's only because of the packaging. I
Speaker 1: don't know this the grid to Mono. Addition, it's a
Speaker 1: racing game for the PlayStation three. It cost one thousand
Speaker 1: pounds sterling, which is just under two hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Because it came with a supercar. Oh. The supercar was
Speaker 1: a custom made b a C Mono back Mono and
Speaker 1: had a max speed of a hundred seventy miles per
Speaker 1: hour and it went zero to sixty miles and two
Speaker 1: point eight seconds. Okay, that I feel like it's worth it. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna if you're gonna drop a hundred ninety
Speaker 1: three thousand bucks on a video game, at least it
Speaker 1: came with a supercar. It also included a p S
Speaker 1: three just in case you didn't have one, So that
Speaker 1: was also added, and you got you got custom made
Speaker 1: racing gear that you could work. Yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is one of my favorites so far. Okay, good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's because it's not just the game, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a great deal. It's a package deal. Now now I'm
Speaker 1: going to kind of move on into because you know,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about consumer tech with like entertainment
Speaker 1: and stuff. I wanted to finish out with something a
Speaker 1: little more down to earth. I thought we'd talked about
Speaker 1: something like kitchen gadgets, kitchen kitchen stuff, kitchen consumer tech.
Speaker 1: Now we know that appliances and major kitchen purchases can
Speaker 1: be pretty expensive. For example, the lack Corn New Grand
Speaker 1: Palais stove range costs a starting price for one is
Speaker 1: three dollars for the cooking range, just for the It
Speaker 1: includes both a gas oven and an electric oven, so
Speaker 1: this is why it's like two of these. It's like
Speaker 1: two regular range stoves like next to each other. It
Speaker 1: has a lava rock grill, electric plates, stovetop, and it's
Speaker 1: made by hand from cast iron, steel and brass with
Speaker 1: porcelain enamel. It looks it looks very uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: it looks very fancy. I wouldn't want it doesn't appeal
Speaker 1: to me. It's not my my style. But the one
Speaker 1: that that that was in the picture was like this,
Speaker 1: this beautiful color of red with gold embellishment and like
Speaker 1: the like the handles for the range top or a
Speaker 1: gold and that kind of thing. And I've it was pretty,
Speaker 1: but actually I guess it was technically brass not gold,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was pretty, but I I it
Speaker 1: wasn't the kind of style that appeals to me. Is
Speaker 1: it a French company? Yes? Is it? You know? Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just a very very brief thing. But a
Speaker 1: side note. One of my friends when she was living
Speaker 1: in New York I she was doing well, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's not that easy when you move into New York
Speaker 1: as a young person to make enough money to live there.
Speaker 1: So she tried a couple of different jobs and the
Speaker 1: jobs she ended up working at for a very long
Speaker 1: time was a place that only sold bespoke door knobs.
Speaker 1: That was their entire business. That's that blows my mind.
Speaker 1: And then there could be an entire business around that. Yep, yeah,
Speaker 1: talk about cottage industry. I mean apparently it worked well.
Speaker 1: So she would just ride the trade in the Manhattan
Speaker 1: every day. It's sell these door or project manage whatever.
Speaker 1: So it's just strange because this this company, it sounds
Speaker 1: like they might just be artists, and yeah, yeah they
Speaker 1: they They focus on making the sort of luxury high
Speaker 1: end kitchen appliance of specifically ranges. And though you could
Speaker 1: do so much other stuff. Well, how about a refrigerator.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm okay. There's a different company though, is the
Speaker 1: Mennghini at Adamanti refrigerator? Actually I guess it's at a
Speaker 1: Deminty at a Deminty. Okay, I'll buy. What does it do?
Speaker 1: It keeps food cold. It's a regerator. It actually looks
Speaker 1: like an armoire. It doesn't look like a refrigerator. It
Speaker 1: looks like a big piece of furniture and has three
Speaker 1: three um doors and a couple of porthole cabinet type things.
Speaker 1: So there's actually a pantry, a refrigerator, and icebox all
Speaker 1: incorporated in this thing. So when you look and it
Speaker 1: looks like you know, you know, like cabinets that have
Speaker 1: the kind of slatted doors. Okay, it looks like one
Speaker 1: of those, except when you open it, it's a refrigerator
Speaker 1: insight as opposed to a closet or wardrobe or something.
Speaker 1: But it definitely looks more like a piece of furniture
Speaker 1: than your typical refrigerator does. And obviously this was more
Speaker 1: about creating a sense of style for someone's luxury home.
Speaker 1: Sure for someone who doesn't who wants to look as
Speaker 1: though they are above the common for someone who I
Speaker 1: think I can almost certainly guarantee you has never cooked
Speaker 1: a darn thing in their lives. They have people to
Speaker 1: do that for them. Yeah, Or how about the Hammocker
Speaker 1: double espresso machine that's only eight thousand dollars dollars? Okay?
Speaker 1: So why this is the thing that I've noticed there?
Speaker 1: And this goes back. It's strange that there's a common
Speaker 1: theme here about comparative happiness or perception, because I didn't
Speaker 1: know that there is this niche of incredibly expensive espresso machine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I um, it's funny, well just incredibly expensive anything, right,
Speaker 1: Like you'll find versions of stuff that the price is
Speaker 1: ten times or more what you would find in the
Speaker 1: general consumer version of that thing. And often, like you
Speaker 1: start looking at you think, are what sort of stuff
Speaker 1: sets this apart from the consumer version, like the regular
Speaker 1: consumer version where you would go to like a best
Speaker 1: Buy to go and purchase this or buy it off
Speaker 1: online off Amazon or something. Often it's the handmade part
Speaker 1: that tends to be one thing that because it becomes
Speaker 1: this thing that's made by artists as opposed to made
Speaker 1: by a machine. And there's there's a definitely definite perceived
Speaker 1: value in that someone someone dedicated their time and skill
Speaker 1: into creating this thing. Um. Whether or not that makes
Speaker 1: it valuable to you another question. But it shows that
Speaker 1: there was care given to the creation of whatever it was. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think, I think again, status is a big deal.
Speaker 1: I don't think that most of the things we're talking
Speaker 1: about here are working at a level, uh, noticeably higher
Speaker 1: than what you would get in the normal consumer market.
Speaker 1: Like their objective performance is not superior exactly. I would
Speaker 1: say some of them, maybe you know some of them.
Speaker 1: You're talking about stuff where it's on the cutting edge
Speaker 1: of technology, sure, right, like the supercar gonna go faster
Speaker 1: than your general car does. Though you can buy one
Speaker 1: of those separately without the game for significantly less. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean like twenty dollars less. That's significant. That's a
Speaker 1: very two phone right there. So this espresso machine in
Speaker 1: particular is topped with a copper dome on top of
Speaker 1: which purchase a brass eagle uh and it includes that
Speaker 1: this one. Okay, I I love coffee, alright, I'm not
Speaker 1: an espresso snob. I don't like I'm not a big
Speaker 1: espresso fan, but I do like coffee. But there's certain
Speaker 1: things in this that really appealed to me as a
Speaker 1: tech nerd and as someone who likes coffee. Has a
Speaker 1: microprocessor and it that controls exactly how much water is
Speaker 1: allowed to flow through the grind, so you can you
Speaker 1: can tailor make the strength of your espresso through a
Speaker 1: touch pad two exactly what you want, and it controls
Speaker 1: it to the drop. So that sort of precision. Now
Speaker 1: you can argue that making coffee is not like precise chemistry, right,
Speaker 1: it's not because the quality of the bean is going
Speaker 1: to change, and how old the bean is that's going
Speaker 1: to affect it as well. So it's not like chemistry
Speaker 1: experiment where you're going to get the exact same result
Speaker 1: every time, assuming that you follow the right protocols. But
Speaker 1: I like the idea that you can at least have
Speaker 1: the illusion of control in your life. I need that.
Speaker 1: Then I need the illusion of control. I hope, I hope.
Speaker 1: That's their motto. Yea. Also it's it's a little hefty.
Speaker 1: It weighs eight three pounds. So then I wonder, so
Speaker 1: this is really for I guess these people will be
Speaker 1: pro sumers at this point. Yeah. It actually said, well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because it's it's really designed to make like
Speaker 1: high volume amount of espresso. So you would imagine that
Speaker 1: you would see this more in like a high end
Speaker 1: coffee shop, like a boutique coffee shop type place. But
Speaker 1: as I was looking at it, because I was talking
Speaker 1: about it can make, you know, I forget how many
Speaker 1: cups of espresso within a couple of minutes it was.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. It was a lot more than any
Speaker 1: human would need to drink. But it said it also
Speaker 1: could do uh uh one cup serving deals like the
Speaker 1: little um pods espresso pod. So with the scales, Yeah,
Speaker 1: with that, you'd say, well, I guess if you if
Speaker 1: you really wanted this, you could get it. But I
Speaker 1: almost didn't include it because I thought it was a
Speaker 1: little closer to pro sumer than consumer. But uh but
Speaker 1: you know, as a coffee lever, I had to add something.
Speaker 1: And you know, I remember somebody talking about this, this
Speaker 1: art of coffee tasting just a stranger when I was
Speaker 1: out on on Thursdays. I go to the bar across
Speaker 1: the street from here and do the cross word because
Speaker 1: I'm living on the edge, and there was some guy
Speaker 1: who was an expert in coffee and he was telling
Speaker 1: me about how how difficult it is to control those variables,
Speaker 1: and I really I think there's a market. We had
Speaker 1: we we hear it how stuff works. That one time
Speaker 1: had a guy from bat Doorphin Bronson. Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: came in and did the whole thing on coffee tasting
Speaker 1: as well. That's a local roaster here in Atlanta that
Speaker 1: makes crazy good coffee. Um final item on the list
Speaker 1: not not huge. I didn't I didn't want to do
Speaker 1: like the build up to the biggest, biggest, biggest. This
Speaker 1: is actually comparative, comparatively speaking to most of the things
Speaker 1: modestly expensive. The Blend Tech Stealth blender. This is one
Speaker 1: of the latest blenders on the market. Okay, it does
Speaker 1: not have any like platinum case or diamonds, none of that,
Speaker 1: none of that stuff. So it's based upon its design
Speaker 1: and performance alone. It is priced at two thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for a blender. Does the sound of a blender bother
Speaker 1: someone that much? It in fact does have the sound
Speaker 1: control enclosure so that you don't hear the blender sound.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, it's actually called a sound enclosure. That's what
Speaker 1: they call the sound enclosure. Has a fifteen amp motor
Speaker 1: touchpad controls and as a USB port, so you can
Speaker 1: upload or download up to thirty six custom blend cycles.
Speaker 1: So if you want to make something by first like
Speaker 1: going super fast and then slowing down or whatever you can,
Speaker 1: you can you can tinker to your heart's content. That
Speaker 1: just seems so unnecessary. It seems like it would take
Speaker 1: more time to do that than to just hit a
Speaker 1: button for a second then hit a different But it
Speaker 1: seems like you wouldn't really see any results from that
Speaker 1: for the first five years. Then if if you, if
Speaker 1: you make enough money where a two thousand dollar blender
Speaker 1: seems like a prudent expense, you don't have time to
Speaker 1: push buttons. You know what, This should be my opening
Speaker 1: to ask for a raise. I should go, guys, we
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time pushing buttons. Yeah, or you
Speaker 1: or you go and say, listen, I can't even afford
Speaker 1: to buy a blender, don't you just you don't say
Speaker 1: which blender? All I want is a watch, exactly. I
Speaker 1: have my eye on this one watch. Well, still got
Speaker 1: some more expensive consumer tech to talk about, I suppose,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna do that after we take this quick break.
Speaker 1: What's funny is when I started looking at this. I
Speaker 1: also looked at things like the most expensive smart watch
Speaker 1: on there, which is nothing. It's like six hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: seven hundred bucks something like that. When when after you've
Speaker 1: been looking at that antique watches or luxury watches that
Speaker 1: have super rare materials worked into them, a lot of
Speaker 1: the electronics just doesn't even come close to the same expense.
Speaker 1: Because well, I mean, you think figure it, You're like, well,
Speaker 1: the unless you've got something crazy going on inside, those
Speaker 1: electronics are going to be very much the same from
Speaker 1: device to device. So that's not going to dictate how
Speaker 1: expensive your your gadget can be. You have to look
Speaker 1: at other things, like the actual material it's made from, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's an interesting thing too because although clearly I'm
Speaker 1: not on board with this put gold on everything movement,
Speaker 1: I understand that in some parts of the world that's
Speaker 1: very very popular just because of the entrance value of
Speaker 1: the material. Yeah. Well, we've covered everything that was on
Speaker 1: my list. Obviously there's tons more we could talk about,
Speaker 1: but I'm having trouble picking one. Yeah, you gotta pick
Speaker 1: one that was your idea, I know, man, I'm cursing
Speaker 1: past it also doesn't help, but you as much because
Speaker 1: you haven't seen pictures of these things, maybe one or
Speaker 1: two you might say pictures. Um, is the element ugly?
Speaker 1: That's my first question on the outside, the element Palazzo. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not crazy about it, but you guys, I'm watching
Speaker 1: Joona did across the table trying to be fair. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to I'm trying to pull up an image
Speaker 1: of it. One thing is that whenever I see images
Speaker 1: of this thing, they all look like artists renderings. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen an actual picture of the
Speaker 1: thing itself. Um. But here, I'll turn this around. It
Speaker 1: looks kind of what a little weird and futuristic, right yeah? No,
Speaker 1: um yeah, I Uh, Like I said, I've only seen
Speaker 1: artists renderings or like, uh like these little c g
Speaker 1: I computer graphics style things. Wow, that's um. If you
Speaker 1: want to look this up, by the way, folks, in
Speaker 1: order to do it, you need to know how it's spelled,
Speaker 1: because it's it's spelled in a jerk way. Element is
Speaker 1: spelled with two m's. It's E L E M M
Speaker 1: E N T and then palazzo P A L A
Speaker 1: Z Z. Oh. Um. Yeah, I don't find the design
Speaker 1: to be that appealing. But if if that's if it
Speaker 1: meets your desire for the r V of your dreams,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I just I need I need to have. Basically,
Speaker 1: I want the idea of the house without the commitment
Speaker 1: the house. Right. Also, if you know, if the po
Speaker 1: po are interested in you, you can pick up and
Speaker 1: move to a different jertiction that's true and and blend
Speaker 1: in seamlessly. Yeah, okay, um yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: know damn it, you know what. I know what I'm
Speaker 1: leaning toward. But go ahead, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 1: double down. I will take the element. Okay, alright, so
Speaker 1: three point one million dollars we will charge you on
Speaker 1: your way out. Um. I you know, I've reached a
Speaker 1: point in my life where I don't really want to
Speaker 1: acquire more things necessarily, Like the idea of buying more
Speaker 1: stuff doesn't have a lot of appeal to me. In fact,
Speaker 1: my wife and I we tend to save our money
Speaker 1: for experiences like a trip to someplace or well, we
Speaker 1: did something that was fantastic. We rented a a small cabin,
Speaker 1: modest cabin, not super expensive that was multiple bedrooms and
Speaker 1: invited some of our friends to just hang out for
Speaker 1: a weekend in the Georgia Woods. That was great, Like,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is what I want to spend
Speaker 1: my money on. Our these kind of experien aarance is
Speaker 1: because stuff doesn't really bring me joy anymore. I reached
Speaker 1: I just reached the point where I'm like, well, where
Speaker 1: am I gonna put it? But if I had a
Speaker 1: house that could accommodate it, I have to admit that
Speaker 1: the the refrigerator I mentioned is pretty nifty. Like I
Speaker 1: I like that the design actually did appeal to me,
Speaker 1: so um, that one would be the one that I
Speaker 1: would probably go with. It's not like it's um, it's
Speaker 1: not like it's it's uh super like jaw dropping lee fancy,
Speaker 1: but um, I like it. So I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: a picture here, and that part of it too is yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what the outside looks like. So right, so that's
Speaker 1: the outside. Let me show you what looks like when
Speaker 1: it's all over. You're about this because I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty Oh whoa, that's pretty right. Just got a sense
Speaker 1: of scale there too, Yeah, it's huge, that's fantastic. It's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's like, folks. Since you can't see for
Speaker 1: this one, if you want to look it up, let
Speaker 1: me spell it out for you. The menonghini is m
Speaker 1: E n E g h I n I and the
Speaker 1: era demni is a r R E d A M
Speaker 1: E n T. I look that up. It's about the
Speaker 1: width of like three regular refrigerators next to each other. Um,
Speaker 1: and the doors open outward. Uh, and you've got you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's gorgeous. It looks very nice, And that's
Speaker 1: something that appeals to me on a level where I'd say,
Speaker 1: all right, I could go in for that if I
Speaker 1: had crazy amounts of money and a house that could
Speaker 1: hold it. My house is not of a size where
Speaker 1: that that would not fit anywhere in my house. So
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, I don't know, when we go
Speaker 1: on a road trip, I'm not sure if it will
Speaker 1: fit in the element. Yeah, we might just have to
Speaker 1: strap it to the rooftop deck all of class. That's
Speaker 1: what our vanity license plate will say. Yeah. So this
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun. I mean, it was one
Speaker 1: of those things where I just thought, let's do something
Speaker 1: kind of silly for the upcoming holiday season and look
Speaker 1: at some of the some of the excess that you
Speaker 1: can find in consumer electronics. I wish that people more
Speaker 1: people could go to c E s to see the
Speaker 1: ridiculous stuff. You see a lot of. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: the stuff that's fun to either make fun of or
Speaker 1: to just you know, kind of gawk at or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it's it's one of those deals where you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot of stuff that's all going to kind
Speaker 1: of blend together, right, like lots of lots of legitimately
Speaker 1: gorgeous electronics. But they there's tons of them, like tons
Speaker 1: of TVs, tons of stereo systems, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's when you come across something really unusual that you realize, well,
Speaker 1: this is special. It may not be something that appeals
Speaker 1: to me directly, but it's different enough. And maybe it's
Speaker 1: crazy expensive, which is always fun. So uh wait, wait, wait, wait, yeah,
Speaker 1: when are you getting the fridge? Sure? Well, when when
Speaker 1: you and I are on that Forbes list of highest
Speaker 1: paid YouTubers, then maybe at that point I'll start looking around. Oh,
Speaker 1: in the meantime, can I just want to make a
Speaker 1: suggestion you don't want to talk over with you, but uh,
Speaker 1: listeners as always thanks thanks for having me over as well.
Speaker 1: I just want you guys to know no pressure. I
Speaker 1: think I can speak for uh for both of us here,
Speaker 1: Johnson Um, if you have a used copy of Steel
Speaker 1: Battalion and you would like our mailing address, we will
Speaker 1: give it to you. I mean cool. We'd have to
Speaker 1: track down an Xbox, but apart from that, I'd be
Speaker 1: totally down with it. Like I don't have my Xbox anymore.
Speaker 1: I got rid of that. I've got the three sixty
Speaker 1: and I've got the Xbox one, but I don't have
Speaker 1: the original either. We should have held onto those, but
Speaker 1: we we had one for the office. I have no
Speaker 1: idea where that one went. I think someone took it. Probably. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We our office before we moved to where we are now.
Speaker 1: We had an area called Area fifty one in the office,
Speaker 1: and that's where all of our games and goodies and
Speaker 1: toys and stuff were. Here's the thing, folks peak, behind
Speaker 1: the curtain it was there was like a ninety nine
Speaker 1: nine chance that you would not see anyone from the
Speaker 1: editorial side of the business in that room unless there
Speaker 1: was a meeting. The sales and marketing people, however, broke
Speaker 1: that football table at least twice. I always felt like
Speaker 1: that kind of thing was a trap. Yeah, exactly, like
Speaker 1: this is here for you. And then if you actually
Speaker 1: went into all right, let's just uh did not meet expectations.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that that was cool though, But yes, seriously,
Speaker 1: if you're not using Steel Battalion, it's been one of
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you said when one of my childhood
Speaker 1: dreams to play that game. I would love to hear
Speaker 1: from our listeners if if any of you have played
Speaker 1: that game, if you owned it, what your what your
Speaker 1: perspective was on it. Was it a good game? Was it?
Speaker 1: Was it worth the two? I would argue that if
Speaker 1: you have really fun groups of friends, that something like
Speaker 1: rock band is certainly worth the money because of the
Speaker 1: experience you have, the shared experience you have with your
Speaker 1: friends playing together, Like there's there's something really compelling about that.
Speaker 1: And I don't have people over at my house, so
Speaker 1: I have never I've gone to other places where they've
Speaker 1: had it, and I've had fun playing rock band, but
Speaker 1: I never have anyone over at my house. I've never
Speaker 1: bought it. I just love how you've made your house
Speaker 1: sound like the Forbidden City or something. Don't come to
Speaker 1: my house. And that wraps up this classic episode about
Speaker 1: expensive consumer tech. Obviously, since twenty fifteen, there have been
Speaker 1: plenty of other examples of expensive technology, some of which were,
Speaker 1: you know, gimmicks, some of which are just pure status
Speaker 1: symbols that don't really have any inherent value. We could
Speaker 1: do a whole subsection on the n f T phenomenon
Speaker 1: connected to this, but yeah, maybe I'll save that for
Speaker 1: an upcoming episode, maybe maybe around the holidays, to uh
Speaker 1: talk about new expensive consumer technology stories that I either
Speaker 1: find fascinating or aspirating, or maybe some mixture of the two.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you have suggestions for topics I
Speaker 1: should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, please reach
Speaker 1: out and let me know. One way to do that
Speaker 1: is to download the I Heart radio app is free
Speaker 1: to download, free to use. You just navigate to the
Speaker 1: tech Stuff portion using the search bar. Then you can
Speaker 1: leave a message using the little microphone icon. It's a
Speaker 1: voice message up to thirty seconds in linth letting me
Speaker 1: know what you would like to hear on the show.
Speaker 1: Or you can reach out to me on Twitter the
Speaker 1: handle we use as tech stuff h s W and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again, really soon. Text Stuff is
Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from i
Speaker 1: Heeart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.