No one does whiskey like the Japanese (well, except the Scots, Irish, hockey-landers and yanks) so it only makes sense to build speaker cabinets out of 50 year old whiskey barrels from sushi house legend Suntory. $419 gets you Pioneer's new S-A4SPT-VP bookshelves with frequency of 50Hz-40kHz. Seriously, Pioneer, that name. Gimme a call, I'll set ya straight.

The interesting part of the Japanese press release is the claim of "trickle down" technology from TAD and the Pioneer EX speakers, both under the direction of Brit Andrew Jones. We covered the TAD/Pioneer EX explosion at HE2006 so go check it out to see why Pioneer is trotting out the TAD banner to sell novelty speakers. It was one thing for $40k worth of tech from the TAD Model 1 to find its way into the $9k Pioneer EX speakers. But to get $40k worth of tech for $419? It's a new world, folks.

Of course, what would Japanese product releases be without Google translations? Enjoy:

"4th with feature, for the professional brand “TAD (Technical Audio Devices)” technology was thrown."

"...the pure board of the barrel material which makes the playback of the bass whose material feeling is good possible you start shaving the duct adopting."

"...although with the trees and shrubs which are grown at arctic area, you are brought up to diameter 10cm about 60 years the rare pulp which was made from the lumber which has the annual ring where the density which is required is high is used for subject in this pulp. The case where the pulp which possesses this fine cell is processed, you considered to the water which influences the quality sufficiently."

Good times. Interestingly, JVC engineers had a similar epiphany during a drinking binge and created speaker drivers made out of solid wood soaked in sake. Read our coverage. Let's hope this inspires American manufacturers to start getting creative with their cabinets. Let's see...Wild Turkey and Wilson? Jack Daniels and DeVore? Budweiser and Bose? The mind boggles.

Big speaker pic next page. (Thanks, Fred)