If you thought Denon’s 4,500-GBP player, the high-end DVD-A1 UD, was the most expensive Blu-ray player in the world, think again! The Goldmund Eidos Reference Blu will set you back a bone-chilling 135,000 USD — that’s around 85,000 GBP!

October 9, 2009 — 85,000 pounds is one serious heap of cash. In some towns, you’d comfortably spend the same on a three-bedroom, terraced house — that or a sports car, 15,000 packs of cigarettes, or 150,000 chocolate bars. Or a Blu-ray player — thanks to the Swiss high-end manufacturer Goldmund, which is releasing 50 limited-edition players, each costing 135,000 USD and weighing over 30 kilos.

Could players be more expensive? Why yes: welcome Goldmund’s Eidos Reference Blu, the player that costs the same as a small house.

Obviously, this elegant box of tricks looks a lot different from the masses of same-old, 300-pound players: It stands, for example, on monumental feet that make the sleek, aluminum casing seem to hover in thin air. Like a huge, elevated work of art, the Eidos Reference Blu sits enthroned on its solid stand (supplied as standard), which propels the total weight up to more than 80 kilos. This is supposed to make pesky vibrations a thing of the past.

The feature list, on the other hand, almost looks a bit scanty when you take the price into consideration: Blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs will play back, but the player lacks support for the DVD Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD) formats that HiFi freaks swear by. BD-Live is also missing, since the high-ender lacks the necessary internet connection. Given the limited production run, we’re unlikely to get a chance to test the picture and audio quality — we’ll just make do with the 150,000 chocolate bars.