This is by no means a slam on the audio quality of the $4900 Muse Polyhymnia Universal Player -- it may sound awesome, who knows -- but I must take a moment and draw your attention to the remote control. Lord in heaven, I count 64 identical buttons on there. So either the buttons are normal size and the remote is a two feet long and weighs eight pounds or it's a normal sized remote but needs special tools to read and depress the buttons on the damn thing.

Being the annoying iPod/audiophile cheerleader I am, I must say this remote should never, ever, ever be put into production, let alone grace an advertising shot. Any non-audiophile who sees this will run for the hills and those audiophiles who have thumbs bigger than a Tic-Tac will hit the "next track" button along with a dozen other buttons in the immediate vicinity.

Go to the next page to see Muse's "Remote-1," a sane remote compared to the "Remote-2" above. Insanity via 6Moons.