Ferrari Stereo Costs $3K, Sounds Like a Million

Editor's Note: Gary Krakow is an award-winning journalist whose columns help feed his personal passion for playing with gadgets of all types, shapes and sizes. Today's entry is the first in Gary's high-end holiday buying guide. Stay tuned to this space for more.

I'll bet you thought boom boxes died a well-deserved death around the same time that disco disappeared, the Iran hostages were released and Ronald Reagan was moving into the White House.

So, it might seem a bit anachronistic in this age of iPods for me to tell you that boom boxes still exist. They come in many shapes and forms -- from large, plug-in speakers for your portable device -- to the product under discussion here today, Meridian's amazing F80.

The F80 is a 2.1 channel (left, right plus built-in sub-woofer) home theater/sound system. It combines 80-watt digital amplifiers with an AM/FM tuner (plus alarm functions) and a CD/DVD/MP3/WMA disc drive -- all in a beautiful, compact enclosure designed by luxury auto maker Ferrari.

Ferrari Boom Box Purrs Like a Kitten

It's relatively small on the outside, 16 by 9 by 7 inches, but quite hefty at 14.3 pounds. This is not your father's portable stereo system. U.K.-based Meridian and Italy's Ferrari worked hard to co-develop the special composite materials used in the F80 -- making the enclosure surprisingly rigid and stable to maximize loudspeaker performance.

Fit and finish are near perfection. The available colors: Rosso Corsa (red), Giallo Moderna (yellow), Nero (black), Bianco Avis (white) and Argento Nurburging (silver) reflect Ferrari's racing heritage.

All the connections you'll need are located on the rear panel: an analog/digital mini-jack output (you can use it for headphones), composite and S-video inputs (NTSC and PAL), separate analog and digital mini-jack inputs, a mini-DIN input for an iPod docking station (additional cost) and two antenna input connections in addition to the built-in antenna system.