Today B&O announced another A1 color, “Beosound A1 DUNE – Crafted Edition” by Cecilie Manz. It’s listed at USD $500, which is a 79% premium over the $279 regular price, with only 100 pieces produced (number etched into the strap tag).
The only good thing about that price is that at least it’s more expensive for actual work, rather than simply silk-screening the word “Berluti” over it for $400. I like the 2-color fade in anodization, but find the light-grey base jarring. Maybe grey is what they have extra of from China? The press release’s emphasis on the difficulty of anodizing a gradient rather than painting makes me wonder how the New York Edition of the BeoSound 1 was done? (That wasn’t 79% more expensive than the regular colors.)
Cecilie Manz hand-painted the numbered cards that come with the units (as a batch of course), somewhat reminiscent of artist Inoue Kozo. This color isn’t up on the website yet, but if you scroll down and hit the Press area, you can download high-res photos to check out the combo.
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