Money no object
We love to give practical buying advice on the latest gadgets here at TechRadar. But sometimes what we love even more is to indulge in the most outrageously high-end, cutting-edge, luxurious tech on the planet. That’s what we bring you in these Money No Object columns – you can read the whole series here.
Only recently, we discovered a pair of luxury speakers that look like something from Elton “Rocket Man” John’s house. And today we’ve got two pairs of luxury speakers that look like actual space rockets, or maybe robots that’d chase Doctor Who around a quarry, or maybe something Jony Ive would’ve designed in 2003.
These are the new Rhea and Theia Passive speakers from Swiss luxury audio brand Goldmund, and they’re yours for around $108,000 (£82,000 / AU$171,000) and $215,000 (£162,000 / AU$338,000).
If you’re a fan of mythology you’ll recognize the names: Theia and Rhea are Titan goddesses, and Goldmund also has an even more premium set of speakers named after their mythical mother, Gaia.
The Gaia speakers currently retail in the UK for £650,000 (about $860,000 / AU$1,354,338), so by comparison these are super-cheap budget buys.
Goldmund Theia and Rhea: key features
Goldmund already makes speakers called Theia and Rhea, but these are new, passive models that support mono, bi- and tri-wired setups. The firm warns that you’ll need very high-quality amplification to drive them, as lesser amps won’t be able to deliver the speed the speaker drivers need to perform at their best.
The speakers are three-way in the case of the Rhea and four-way with the Theia. The Rhea has a soft dome tweeter, a seven-inch mid-range driver and a 12-inch woofer, and the Theia has a soft dome tweeter, a four-inch high-mid driver, a six-inch low-medium driver and again, a 12-inch woofer.
Frequency response is 27Hz to 25kHz for the Rhea, and 20Hz to 25kHz for the Theia.
As you might expect, when you order a pair of these speakers Goldmund doesn’t just chuck some bubble wrap around them: each set comes packaged in a custom flight case. That adds to the already considerable weight: the Rhea is 123kg and the Thea is 197kg. Oh, and that’s per speaker.
Both sets of speakers are available today. If you’d like something a little more affordable, we have a list of the best stereo speakers.
