Sony surprised the crowd at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival (the biggest high-end audio festival in the US) when it unveiled a slew of premium audiophile products – including a massive pair of 70mm over-ear headphones and a $8,500 music player. 

The headphones, called the MDR-Z7M2, are a sequel to Sony’s previous premium cans, the Sony MDR-Z7. These premium cans have a claimed frequency response between 4 Hz – 100,000 Hz (you know, only five times what the human ear is capable of hearing) thanks to an aluminum-coated liquid crystal polymer diaphragm.  

They’re also going to cost you $899 (around £685, AU$1,275). 

Of course, great headphones are only half the battle – the other half is having a great player and great source material. Thankfully, Sony also unveiled a new $8,500 (around £6,500, AU$12,000) music player that is, perhaps, the very definition of the word overkill. 

Gold-plated perfection

The Sony DMP-Z1 Digital Music Player supports DSD native playback up to 11.2 MHz and PCM playback up to 384 kHz/32-bit and sports two independent AK4497EQ mono Digital-Analog Convertors (DACs). To store your (hopefully) pristine collection of lossless music, the DMP-Z1 has a 256 GB hard drive and two microSD slots.

And yes, the volume knob is gold-plated.

While the headphones will be available starting in November 2018, the DMP-Z1 won’t be available until January 2019 and only then through authorized Sony dealers. 

We’d better start saving now…