Visonaire x MINI: Sound

Sections: Best of the Web Nov 11th, 2007 17 Comments

Something for those of you that are old enough to remember vinyl albums and miss the old-timey cracklin’ goodness you get from playing those records.

With “Sound” a collaboration between Visionaire and MINI, the album is the artâ€¦The 4,000 limited edition case issue contains five vinyls, imprinted with customized images and 100 minutes of audio, from unreleased songs to spoken word recordings. The albums feature music from artists like U2 and Courtney Love and boasts design work from such luminaries as Karl Lagerfeld and Alexander McQueenâ€¦but that’s not all.

You won’t have to go to the attic and get out your old Technics turntable because the records come with their very own player in the form of a little MINI Clubman car. That’s right a little miniature battery operated car drives around the record to act as both the player and the sound system.

Clever to say the least, but I can’t imagine it sounding any better than those old LP’s did.

[ Visonaire X-MINI:sound ] Joshspear.com

You can the entire set at Amazon below (thanks Mark):

[ Visionaire No. 53 ] Amazon.com

Written By: DB

17 Comments

Mark R Nov 11th, 2007 Link

Available here as well:

Amazon link

Newdl Nov 11th, 2007 Link

$250!?!?!?…..OUCH!

AN Nov 11th, 2007 Link

Yet another example of Europeans thinking they understand the American MINI buyer.

gkp Nov 11th, 2007 Link

I am plenty old enough to remember vinyl albums and it is my firm belief that the records should do the turning, not the sound system. :)

Gabe Nov 11th, 2007 Link

I am plenty old enough to remember vinyl albums and it is my firm belief that the records should do the turning, not the sound system. :)

I agree – and it’s not just the older generations. I’ve proudly never purchased a tape in my lifetime but I have plenty of records I like to get our from time to time. Okay, half of them are my dad’s but I still love playing them and the process of playing them.

robble Nov 11th, 2007 Link

Beyond all this, the issue also includes two CDs with all of the sound content gathered digitally

whew!

RB Nov 11th, 2007 Link

Oh boy, do they sometimes … SKIP!

Ugh, you can can have all that old vinyl crap. I’m glad they are gone and I don’t have to store all those gazillions of records anymore. When an album was new the sound was terrific but after a few weeks, months just bad unless you owned one of those very expensive turn tables, which most of us didn’t. I had nearly 300 “Albums”. One whole section of my living room was used to store that mess. I had friends that had whole rooms dedicated to Album storage. I lived it, you can have it.

That said, I do wish I still had some of the great cover art and do still have a few Miles Davis and Hugh Masakela covers like Kinda Blue and The Americanization of Ooga Booga hanging around.

Long live the iPod!

Jeez, maybe they could bring back 8 track also… or maybe the old 78 breakable records…. not. LOL

Todd Nov 11th, 2007 Link

You mean the little Mini drives around the record and plays it? That is so cool!

AlwaysOpenCharlie05 Nov 11th, 2007 Link

Agreed… gotta give ‘em credit for being funky, once again.

zm Nov 12th, 2007 Link

was looking over this thinking, ‘hey, some good music, some not so good. pretty cool, but $250 cool? almost…’.

then i saw the car is a clubman. no thanks. maybe if it were a stage 2 w/ all the exclusive details we haven’t heard from gabe, yet. :)

Gabe Nov 12th, 2007 Link

maybe if it were a stage 2 w/ all the exclusive details we havenâ€™t heard from gabe, yet. :)

It would go around too fast :)

YuccaPatrol Nov 12th, 2007 Link

For $20, it would be cool to have a little MINI that drives around while playing a record.

ValparaisoExpress Nov 12th, 2007 Link

Most hardcore audiophiles will tell you that for sound quality reproduction and fidelity, vinyl can’t be beat. In the UK and most of Europe you can still buy vinyl versions of most new recordings.

But as for me personally, the Digital Compact Disk and subsequently, the iPod brought about an incredible revolution as to the way we purchase, listen and store our favorite recordings. I dislike the high maintenance and wear of vinyl recordings and turntables, but there is something really special about it.

Most audiophiles dismiss the iPod’s sound quality as too processed and digitized. Amid criticisms from the audiophile community, Apple came up with the Ã„pple Lossless”audio format that is supposed to substantially reduce the immediate loss of recording quality when ripping apart CDs. For most people, an MP3 or AAC sound file doesn’t make that much of a difference, but for someone with “Trained” ears, the Apple Lossless format is a much more acceptable compromise than the high compression sound formats, so popular with digital portable devices.

Dave Mac Mini Nov 12th, 2007 Link

Well, I love vinyl, but the iPod is a much better choice for in car use. At home, I usually play records rather than CDs, as I think they sound better. However, $250.00 for this set is a bit much, even for a vinyl lover, even with the unique player included.

ValparaisoExpress Nov 12th, 2007 Link

The Compact Disc and then the iPod finally brought high quality sound to the car environment. Was was there before in terms of car audio? 8 tracks and Compact Cassette tapes (Gasp!). That was it. I agree that vinyl is restricted for home use, it is not practical, nor truly portable. But one reason vinyl still survives 20+ years after the compact disc revolution is that it still offers the edge in high fidelity sound reproduction. But as better and improved technology is being introduced to solve the issues of digital audio recording sampling rates, we can all expect to hear and enjoy even better digital audio recordings in years to come.

RB Nov 13th, 2007 Link

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip to my Lou my darling!

Unless you are using a Bang Olufsen, AR, Forsell, Verdier, Rockport, J.A. Michell ($5,000+) or a Technics turntable or even better you got crappy sound. Since my hearing has been destroyed by Led Zeppelin and the Doors a long time ago I hear so poorly now that even the 12 Stone Toddlers and Weedy Factory sound good on my iPod.

The cute little gimmicky set shown here is just that cute and gimmicky. As far as turntables and all that, as I said before, I lived it, you can have it!

MotoringFile » Archive » Clubman Pre-Promotions begin Jan 8th, 2008 Link

[...] of the gifts will be the Visonaire xMINI Sound System we should you back in November. It will be a set of five 12″ picture discs that play through [...]

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