This elite new amp stack looks like it was ripped straight from WALL-E, and it costs half a million dollars

Elite Swiss audio specialist Goldmund launches Telos 9800 amplifier Looks like Eve from Wall-E Costs $500,000 / £370,000 (around AU$705,000) You can get Wall-E toys for about $10, but if you want a huge-scale prototype model of Eve (which also plays your music), it'll cost you a little bit more… I j

<![CDATA[ <article> <ul><li><strong>Elite Swiss audio specialist Goldmund launches Telos 9800 amplifier</strong></li><li><strong>Looks like Eve from Wall-E</strong></li><li><strong>Costs $500,000 / £370,000 (around AU$705,000) </strong></li></ul><p>You can get Wall-E toys for about $10, but if you want a huge-scale prototype model of Eve (which also plays your music), it'll cost you a little bit more… </p><p>I jest, of course. Swiss home audio company Goldmund has unveiled the Telos 9800, a new amplifier which looks inspired by the Pixar movie — or, to my eyes, one of the robots from Love, Death & Robots' <em>Three Robots</em> episodes.</p><p>This amplifier costs $500,00 / £370,000 (about AU$700,000), so it's a lot more expensive than a toy — and let me be clear, this is no toy. It's a serious product for hi-fi enthusiasts-slash-audiophiles and a luxury item, to be sure.</p><p>What does Telos mean? According to a brief Wikipedia search (after a brief Google search, in which AI Overview gave me something totally irrelevant), it's a term Aristotle used to refer to the intended end state of a natural creature. Deep.</p><h2 id="the-power-tower">The power tower</h2><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:2440px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.27%;"><img id="h4i4i3srDPJ9YWPEZwJ4VP" name="Telos 9800 2" alt="The Goldmund Telos 9800 on a gray background." src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/h4i4i3srDPJ9YWPEZwJ4VP.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="2440" height="1373" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Goldmund )</span></figcaption></figure><p>In our case, the Goldmund Telos 9800 is the end state of your home hi-fi set-up, and not just because it'll blow every last penny out of your budget.</p><p>It offers a whopping 1,560W of power at 8 ohms, with a built-in transformer (9.7kVA capacity), to avoid frying your hi-fi kit. </p><p>As you'll see in the images, there are two stages of the Telos: one is a power supply and the other is the amplifier, connected but not pressed up against each other.</p><p>It connects via XLR or RCA, with S/PDIF input and output too. </p><p>As you can imagine from the pictures, this thing is pretty huge. It's 1.367 meters tall, with a base of 50 x 50cm. The unit weighs 360kg too, so if you're ordering one, you really do need to factor in shipping and delivery costs. </p><p>Ultimately, it's not built for the average home hi-fi set-up. It's built for the "money no object" buyer, and for those of us unburdened by delivery costs. That is not this writer. But one can still dream… </p> </article> ]]>