By Adrian Justins
Bowers and Wilkins Nautilus speaker, from £90,000 a pair
Bowers and Wilkins’ Nautilus loudspeaker is a rare example of a tech product that has not been replaced or upgraded after a year or two of going on sale. The model’s spiral-shaped design took five years to develop and eliminates aspects of traditional square cabinet speakers that can negatively affect the sound such as internal reflections. Each 121cm-high speaker is handmade and comes in midnight blue, black, silver or a special 30th-anniversary finish called abalone pearl, which is now available.
C SEED N1 fold-out TV, from $190,000
High-end televisions are continuing to increase in size, meaning the challenge of hiding the vast expanse of black screen when switched off has also grown. The solution from Austrian home entertainment brand C SEED, which makes the world’s largest residential TV screens, is the N1 (also main picture, above) — a television that at first appears to be a modern minimalist sculpture, only to fold out to form a 103in, 137in or 165in screen at the touch of a button. The 4K-resolution micro-LED screen can be rotated 180 degrees and is coated to prevent glare and optimise the picture.
Steinway Spirio R Model D grand piano, £244,745
Unlike an ordinary grand piano, the Steinway Spirio R Model D can record the precise movements of its hammers and pedals and play your performance back to you. The German-made piano also has a built-in single-track recorder and comes with an iPad Pro and the Spirio app, which allows users to edit and play recordings back through the piano. The app also has online access to a library of recordings and fortnightly live streams called Spiriocasts, performed by renowned professional musicians — all of which can be played by the piano, as if the artist was there in the room, tickling the ivories themselves.
Gaggia Accademia coffee maker, £1,799
Both automation and personalisation are offered by Gaggia’s metal-and-glass finish Accademia bean-to-cup coffee maker. The machine has 16 coffee and hot milk options and up to four users can save their preferences. Coffee strength, intensity, body and crema can be tweaked using the touch-operated screen, even while drinks are being made. The system can also produce hot water at precise temperatures for green or black tea; budding baristas can opt to use the steam wand rather than the automatic froth dispenser.
Unistellar eVscope 2 telescope, £3,999
Unlike traditional astronomy telescopes that have optical eyepieces, the Unistellar eVscope 2 uses an electronic eyepiece and a smartphone app (iOS and Android) that can identify 5,000 objects including constellations, planets and nebulae. Its Explore mode labels celestial entities on the screen, which can automatically be zoomed in on and the image shared with other users of the app or photographed and stored in the built-in memory.
