As 2023 comes to a close, we’re looking back at some of the more interesting and weirdest audio/visual and home theater gear that wowed us throughout the year.
This year has been full of some pretty excellent and innovative tech products, and that includes audio/video and home theater gear — from blisteringly bright TVs to headphones with Wi-Fi and earbud charging cases with LED screens to new-and-improved products from all the big shots like Apple, Sony, Amazon, and more.
But I’m here for the weird stuff. The interesting stuff. The stuff that made our eyes widen and our eyebrows do funny things. And throughout 2023, there have been a few good ones, including a fire-breathing $3,900 surround sound setup, a turntable you might want to eat with a side of fries, and a James Bond-worthy TV in a suitcase. Here, then, is some of the weirdest AV gear of 2023.Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 surround sound system
The smoke-and-fire puns were laid on thick, but you can’t fault our own Caleb Denison for that in his excellent video review because the Nakamichi Dragon surround system pretty much set our studio aflame (great, now I’m doing it). Denison called it “without a doubt the most over-the-top home theater-in-a-box I’ve ever seen” — and for good reason. The $3,900 system consists of a main soundbar unit that weighs 32 pounds, is made of stainless steel, and features 14 drivers, three tweeters, and seven amplifiers. Then there are two surround speakers (each with five drivers) and two subwoofers, each with two 8-inch woofers in them. The whole thing blasts out a total system power of 3,000 watts at a peak output of 125 decibels. And like Smaug laying waste to Lake-town, this Dolby Atmos system is just a face-melting home theater in a box.Audio-Technica Sound Burger
Would you like fries with that? Back in the mid-1980s when vinyl records ruled, the original Audio-Technica Sound Burger was sold as the iPod of its time — a compact, battery-powered record player that you could take anywhere … if you were willing to lug a milk crate full of LPs along with you. Its sandwich-like design and basic features were popular enough that Audio-Technica saw fit to reissue the Sound Burger this year, striking while the spatula’s hot (man, I’m hungry) to take advantage of vinyl’s still-sizzling nostalgia factor (someone please feed me).
