Our 10 Favorite Things From the 2014 Luxury Tech Show

Our 10 Favorite Things From the 2014 Luxury Tech Show

Posted by maghestra on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 0

The Luxury Technology Show caters to New York's most affluent technology lovers, showcasing high-end gadgets and home theater products. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The Luxury Technology Show caters to New York's most affluent technology lovers, showcasing high-end gadgets and home theater products. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED At $7000 to $15,000, Krell Illusion pre-amplifiers are premium home-audio components. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

If you’re going to buy a $15,000 preamp, you sure as hell don’t want its power supply introducing noise to the signal. To combat this scenario, Krell’s top-of-the-line Illusion preamp includes a power supply in an entirely separate box, keeping the preamp’s circuits clear of any electrical interference. The Krell preamp in this picture is the step-down Illusion II, which costs $7,000. Unlike the Illusion, it has a built-in power supply, but it sweetens the deal with a built-in digital audio converter. That makes it a better fit if you want to listen to music from a digital-music player or a streaming device, thanks to five digital inputs. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The Kickstarter-funded Avegant Glyph video goggles project movies and video games directly onto your retinas. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

The Glyph is a pair of headphones. But it’s also an immersive retina-projection display that can be used with HDMI-connected sources. To use the video features, you flip the headband down 90 degrees in front of your eyes, adjust the diopter wheels that line up the picture with your eyeballs, and watch as the headphones project a wide-view 720p image straight into your retinas. Yes, you are not looking at a screen when these are on; they’re actually projecting images directly onto your retina. 3D video and playing games on an iPhone looked impressive during the in-show demo, and Avegant’s Grant Martin and Edward Tang says the technology and ergonomics should improve by the time the Glyph hits the wider market later this year. It costs $500 for the beta version, which you can preorder now.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The futuristic MWE Emperor workstation surrounds the user with five computer monitors in a touchscreen-controlled globe. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED
If you have trouble focusing at work, the Emperor LX will help you block everything out. It’s equal parts massage service, ottoman, tilting-and-swiveling armchair, multiple-monitor workstation, surround-sound system, keyboard tray, and cup holder. You sit in it, surround your front field of view with up to five monitors hooked up to your own computer, and control adjustments such as the seat tilt and lighting color by using a 7-inch touchscreen built into Emperor. The version pictured here is the mid-range model of the workstation, and it costs $21,500. The high-end one -- the Emperor 200, which clocks in at $49,150 -- comes with its own computer and three monitors as part of the package.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The Kaleidescape Cinema One can store 100 Blu-ray discs and lets you download movies directly from its online service. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

Kaleidescape’s $4,000 Cinema One box is both a DVD- and Blu-ray library consolidator and a content-delivery service of its own. You can digitize your movie library by inserting your DVD and Blu-ray discs, which creates a bit-for-bit digital copy on the device. Your films then show up in Kaleidescape’s deep-searchable on-screen index, which lets you find things to watch based on titles, actors, and directors. The company’s services also let you skip all the disc’s previews and provide skippable track-by-track listings for concert films. Using the company’s on-screen interface and iPad app, you can also download films directly to your box and upgrade your standard-def DVD content to Blu-ray quality for a fee. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The Android SmartWatch connects to both iPhone and Android phones, and it comes with interchangeable bands. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

Don’t confuse this watch with the mobile OS of the same name, although both will interact in a limited fashion. The $200 Android SmartWatch connects to iOS and Android mobile devices via Bluetooth, allowing you to use the watch’s touchscreen as a remote control for the music player on your phone and use its onboard microphone/speaker combo to field phone calls from your wrist. If you have an Android phone, it will also display incoming text messages. The watch’s interchangeable bands are available in several flavors, including different colored leather straps and a ceramic band.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The LCD-X is the latest open-backed model from high-end headphone makers Audeze. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

The $1,700 Audeze LCD-X headphones are designed for at-home listening. They’re open-backed -- sound won’t just “leak,” it’ll pour out of them -- and you wouldn’t want to draw that much attention to your $1,700 headphones on the subway, anyway. What the open-back design, Audeze’s planar-magnetic driver design, and the high price tag get you is a high-quality listening experience that sounds a lot more expansive than your normal closed-back or in-ear headphones. There’s a closed-back version of the LCD-Xs called the LCD-XCs that features wooden ear cups. Those go for a cool $1,800.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The iWallet can only be opened by the owner's fingerprint. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED
A chain wallet won’t deter a thief if they also steal your pants. Opening the iWallet would require them to also cut off your finger. These wallets have a fingerprint scanner on the top of them that’s programmed to a single fingerprint. Only that fingerprint can open each wallet. According to iWallet, the devices also protect your cards from RF skimmers, and they can be set up to sound an alarm when they are outside of a specified proximity to your phone. Prices on the iWallet range from $270/$370 for aluminum or carbon-fiber versions of a simple billfold/credit card holder to $300/$400 for larger aluminum or carbon-fiber versions with all the usual wallet compartments.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED The vTrue Studio Headphones made from forged aluminum are Velodyne's leading model. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

Amid some of the $2,000-range headphones and $15,000 pre-amplifiers at the show, the $40
0 Velodyne vTrue studio headphones looked and sounded like a nice “lower-end” option -- especially if you want to listen to “Brass Monkey” on repeat. With 50mm drivers encased in a forged aluminum headset with comfy leather earcups and a leather-wrapped headband, these headphones are tuned to deliver deep low-end without distortion.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED Opulus iPhone and iPad cases protect your Apple stuff with high-end materials such as Alcantara suede. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED
These smartphone and iPad cases are the most-affordable things in this gallery -- and they might also be the most practical. Pictured here are the Alcantara-suede versions of the Opulus iPhone and iPad cases, which feature the same plush, delicious material as the seats in your Maserati. The iPad cases come in versions for the Air and Mini, and they unzip/unsnap on the sides and fold into stands for the tablets. In addition to the flat-back alcantara versions, there are also leather, woven fabric, and stitched leather/suede styles of each case. Prices run from $50 for the iPhone cases to $100 for the iPad cases.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

The McLaren 12C Spider is one of the fastest consumer cars on earth. Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

McLaren’s 12C Spider looks so fast, it even begs for a speeding ticket while standing still. Powered by a mid-mounted 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine that delivers 616 horses, the car clocks in at a mere $265,750 for the base configuration. This “Volcano Red” model is loaded with carbon-fiber interior details, a satellite navigation system, and a surround-sound system that pushes the total asking price up to $311,880. Everything is relative: Even that sounds reasonable compared to the $1.3 million McLaren P1, which unfortunately wasn’t at the show.Photos by Jeff Enlow/WIRED

Wandering around the Luxury Technology Show is like window-shopping in a VIP mall. The unifying factor connecting all the interesting stuff packed into New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion? It’s all really, really, really expensive.
You walk through the front door, and the first thing you see (after being offered a glass of champagne) is a $300,000 supercar. The headphones on display cost upwards of $1,500, the wallets have fingerprint scanners on them, and there’s a Hasselblad camera that’s been to space just sitting there. Also, there’s some seriously delicious ice cream.

While most people could never afford this stuff, it was still free to look at (I think). Between bites of complimentary jumbo shrimp and swigs of complimentary Voss, here’s what stood out among all the high-priced items on display.

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