Even at over 2 million square feet, the Las Vegas Convention Center isn’t big enough to pack it all in during CES. With everyone around the world battling for a spot to hawk their wares at the world’s biggest electronics show, many showfloor “extensions” spring up around Vegas. Like some crazy geeked-out version of Diagon Alley, these extensions may not get as much foot traffic from the general public, but often contain some of the craziest stuff the show has to offer.
Located 31 floors above Vegas at the Venetian hotel was an entire suite dedicated solely to one thing: the Gemme Audio Phenix Green Gem Loudspeakers. This ain’t your Daddy’s speaker set, oh no. Well, unless your Dad is absurdly rich. In which case, stop reading this article and lets go hang out on your yacht.
Now, I’m just a lowly gadget blogger. On the spot in Vegas, I didn’t have time (or the hardware) to throw down a series of On-Axis and Off-Axis frequency response tests, or to measure the Impedance magnitude variation. In fact, I don’t even know what the hell that all means. What I do know, though, is that this set sounds incredible – and coming in at $37,500 and up (the one we demoed would set you back $50,000), they better.
Each set comes as a trio: the 12-cubic feet bass enclosure with 2 15-inch drivers (600 watts, rated at around 100 dB per watt), and a pair of Soprano mini-speakers, each with a 6-inch “ultra low mass” midrange driver and an Alnico (Aluminum/Nickel/Cobalt magnet) powered tweeter. The entire thing is built by hand in New York, order by order.
It’s easy to hate on premium products like these (“Wtf, is it held together by unicorn hair and dragon scales?”). It’s well out of my price range, but that in no way means I can’t drool over them. If you’ve got the cash to drop on these, hit up the company – at this price, I’d expect that they’d be down to set up a time to give you a demo of your own.
