Vinyl records have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years as music lovers old and young tire of the homogenous nature of streaming services and yearn once more for physical media.
Buying an LP was and is a formative experience for budding music fans, though despite the growing interest in buying vinyl, prices have crept up as demand will never be as high as it once was, and the records themselves have become more expensive to produce.
The good news is that the turntables to play vinyl on aren’t too expensive, with solid options coming in at under £200 (including the one used in the home of this writer). But that doesn’t mean that all options are affordable for most people, and that’s certainly true of the latest turntable collaboration between luxury tech brand Bang & Olufsen and fashion house Saint Laurent.
The project has seen the brands take ten original units of B&O’s classic Beogram 4000 series turntable that was a hit in the 1970s, complete with a brushed metal and wood look that screams classy vintage, and restore them to perfect working use with new parts and full restoration.
That’s right, there are only ten of these awesome-looking turntables available for sale, making them an instant collector’s item. Then again, these units might not fly off the shelves given the asking price, which you might want to sit down before reading.
If you want to be a proud owner of the, to give it its full name, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000C Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition by Anthony Vaccarello, you’ll have to fork out USD $35,000. That’s not a typo I’m afraid – thirty-five thousand US dollars.
Quite why the firms think that’s a reasonable price we’ll never know, and there isn’t a buy button on the website. Much like enquiring about a Rolex or Patek Phillipe watch, you have to contact the company directly to show interest in what is one of the biggest purchases you might ever make. It’s enough to put down a deposit on a house, pay off a student loan or snap up a pretty decent brand new family car.
The project has been overseen by Belgian-Italian fashion designer Vaccarello who is the current creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, the famed fashion house who has partnered with B&O for this ultra-rare, ultra-high-end vinyl project.
In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if these units end up not being used for their intended purpose. It all screams statement piece, to be bought as a work of art rather than a way to blast Led Zeppelin IV at the weekend.
If vinyl isn’t your thing but you have a stack of CDs begging to be played again, Express.co.uk recently reviewed the FiiO DM13 CD player that adds modern smarts to a classic Discman-like design.
