If I had an unlimited tech budget for expensive gadgets, a rib-shaking home theater system would be near the top of my list. A screen big enough to get lost in a movie, a sound system to match, and a very comfortable chair would also be a good start.
However, there is much more to discover about the living room. You can buy a bath that makes its own ice, relax under a heated sauna dome, or even order a single-seat electric plane. Incidentally, this not-so-so wish list covers eight such extravagances, with some that would take considerably more nerve than settling down for a movie. On that note: Action!
A cinema-sized TV
Samsung’s Micro RGB MR95F measures 115 inches across the diagonal. It’s a huge TV, and I’d like to look at it Dune Part Two on it before many others do. An anti-reflection coating helps to reduce the glare of the image in a bright room.
The interesting part though is the lighting. It uses small red, green, and blue LEDs that can be individually controlled, allowing finer control over color. Samsung claims full coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut – a wider range of colors than most TVs can display. This does not automatically make every film more colorful, but appropriate content can benefit from the extra range.
This is Micro RGB, rather than MicroLED, so the image still relies on a backlight. It also supports 4K gaming up to 144Hz.
Speakers that are a work of art
A pair of Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 speakers cost £143,600, which is hard to get your head around even by the standards of high-end hi-fi.
Each speaker packs in 18 drivers that have different directions. Together they let you adjust where the sound goes and how far it spreads. You can focus it on your favorite chair when listening alone, then expand it when other people are in the room.
They also measure the acoustics of the room and adjust their output to account for the effects of placement and furniture. They also don’t look the part, which is the minimum you’d expect for this price.
A chair that moves you
DavidHugh’s Aiora promises the sensation of floating while moving, all, apparently, without the aid of psychedelic aids. Its mechanism keeps you balanced as you move, so you can settle into different angles without reaching for a lever to lock the chair in place.
There are no motors or springs, and nothing to plug. Your own movement controls it – with no electrical components to charge, replace or maintain. How refreshing.
Designed and made in Cambridge, the chair is available in a variety of finishes, with the leather signature priced at £9950, plus delivery. DavidHugh offers demonstrations – useful if the overall appeal is a sensation that is difficult to describe.
An ice bath without ice is running
If you enjoy cold immersion (all the more power to you), the appeal of Brass Monkey’s Ice Bath is pretty simple. You can schedule the temperature through an app and have it ready for you without having to buy bags of ice every time.
In fact, it makes its own. Below two degrees, thin sheets of ice form and break into the water. The cooling system can reduce the bath to zero degrees, while a filter and UV treatment help to keep the water clean. You still have to maintain it, of course, but it still takes most of the faff out of a regular dip.
The British-built bath starts at £12495 before delivery. Cold diving puts extra strain on the heart, and anyone with a heart condition (or a tight budget) should get medical advice before taking the plunge.
A sauna without spare room
A warm lie sounds rather more inviting. Bon Charge’s £1995 Sauna Dome lets you do this at home, with your body on a mat under a heated dome and your head left outside.
It combines infrared heat with red and near-infrared light, plus pulsed electromagnetic field technology, or PEMF. These functions can be used separately. The company also promotes sleep and recovery benefits, although evidence for other red light treatments doesn’t establish what this particular device can do.
The two dome sections fit inside each other for storage, so there is no need to permanently occupy a space. At 33kg and 180cm long when set up, it’s still an essential piece of kit to find a home for.
A racing simulator that you feel
Vesaro’s I Stage 5 adds physical movement to the familiar wheel-and-pedal setup. Four powered D-BOX supports lifting and tilting the cockpit, while vibrations make you feel inevitable details like running over a sidewalk. It won’t recreate the sustained powers of a real car, but the action still extends far beyond the screen.
Three curved 32in monitors fill the view, and a direct-drive steering wheel provides resistance and feedback through your hands. The PC, pedals and sound system are included in the £52591 listed price. Vesaro also assembles and calibrates it before delivery.
An electric Porsche
Porsche quotes 0–62mph in 2.2 seconds for the Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach package, with up to 1034PS briefly available through Launch Control. For the first time on a circuit, I would like someone who knew what they were doing in the driver’s seat.
The Weissach package removes the rear seats to cut weight and adds a fixed carbon rear wing. It’s still a four-door car, just a little less useful for taking the family out. UK prices start at £189,000.
A flying machine
The Jetson One is a single-seat electric plane with eight engines and propellers surrounding an open cockpit. You take off vertically and steer with a joystick, while a computer manages the stabilization.
Jetson quotes about 20 minutes of flight time and a software-limited top speed of 63mph. There’s hands-free hovering and radar-assisted landing, and the company reported its first Italian customer delivery.
You can order one, but new orders are for 2028. British buyers would also need to find out what permissions they would need to fly it here – the license exemption advertised by Jetson applies to the US.
Training in somewhere suitable to fly would have to come first. But the prospect of going off in one of these is enough to make the home theater stop.
