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. ...