Avantgarde Acoustic appear to have thought very hard about who will be the next generation of audiophiles and concluded that it is Apple fanboys. I have some sympathy with the logic. Audiophiles are famous for spending money on expensive gold plugs and monster cables which are supposed to enhance the sound quality but do not. Apple fanboys are famous for paying shedloads for gear which is supposed to be innovative and good quality, but is not.

AA have knocked up a speaker which they say will work brilliantly with the iPhone. Dubbed the Zero 1 it is nicely designed floor standing speaker integrated with XA amplifier technology usually worth $20,000. It has a 50 Watt horns (using recessed spherical waves to give as smooth a sound possible) and a 400 Watt bass woofer. Of course it is pricey, but excellent value for an audiophone who would think that $10,000 was fair enough.

But then the logic falls flat on its face. Which Apple fanboy who is used to listening to compressed rubbish on his iPhone is going to want to buy something which can reveal all the flaws in his Coldplay collection?

The other thing that an Audiophile will tell you is that the transport is extremely important to get any decent sound out speakers. Apple, for all the will in the world, can’t have a player which costs more than $40. So you would be playing compressed rubbish, on a sound machine which gives new meaning to tinny on an amp and speaker set which is shit hot. Avantgarde Acoustic is going to make rubbish music sound louder and better and you can reach a ceiling of what you can do with that with $150 active speakers.

Still there will be Apple fanboys who are stupid to fall for it, after all how many thought there was a significant difference between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4.