Tech Eye: Trust us and your wife, you can't afford it
Over the years flitting between borders has always proven deeply appealing and has thrown down the kind of law-breaking gauntlet that makes us break out in a sweat. International forces of law, such as Interpol, always present us with more of a challenge, than the plebeians of the local village constabulary.
That said, the village boys in blue are fairly thorough in doing their job. They never fail to make their weekly rounds to collect their 'bonus payments' from the local business community. Word on the street is that they've been hiking charges of late, and Honest Mick the Removals Man says his "you pick it, we nick it" service is barely profitable anymore. Jimmy the Nose, who runs the local adult entertainment emporiums, is also rumored to be asking his Italian friends to swing by the copshop for a friendly chat, and Jim the Undertaker and part-time wrestler says that if his payments don't drop he will have to start charging for actually interring people in the ground, and end his cut-price funerals where he ceremoniously dumps the newly dead off the local bridge, which has proved very popular with the villagers of late and lent the whole place a nice festival atmosphere of a Saturday evening.
However, we digress - international shores is where we started, and we can think of few nicer shores than the ample sandy bosoms of Sweden. From the people who brought us a liberal attitude to all things disapproved of by the church comes this week's choice techno offering - the Swedish Statement. Like all TechEye's favorite filthy Swedish film exports, this one is a group effort. Five Swedish high-end manufacturers have come up with what they say is the most spectacular two-channel audio system ever assembled. The cheeky chappies involved include Bladelius, Jorma Design, Marten, Nordic Concept and Woo Design.
Between them you get: loudspeakers made with gold, copper, transparent Teflon and walnut; Beowulf monoblock amplifiers, with two separate amplifiers; the new Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker, including a 2000-watt amplifier; a turntable with two tonearms; and 100kg of furniture to keep it all looking bling. High-end the companies may be, but TechEye suspects they were high on something when they came up with the price - the whole lot will set you back a terrifying $402,300 (zł.1,233,050). Weapons of Mass Destruction could prove cheaper, though maybe not as loud.
