Those £54,000 BeoLab 90 speakers are available right now

Has there ever been a better time to remortgage the house to buy a pair of high-end loudspeakers?

Normally when you celebrate a birthday you expect everyone else to give you presents. Bang and Olufsen though has always liked to do things a little differently and to celebrate its 90th anniversary it's offering its own gift to the audio world: the BeoLab 90 loudspeaker.

Well, when we say 'gift' obviously by that we mean the opportunity to give B&O £53,990 to celebrate the classic audio company's birthday. Those ultra high-end speakers have finally launched today in select stores across the world.

The brilliantly bizarre-looking BeoLab 90s are being called 'the most innovative loudspeaker to date', including state-of-the-art technologies like Active Room Compensation and Beam Width Control.

The future of sound

“BeoLab 90 is the future of sound. This intelligent loudspeaker measures the acoustical effects of its surroundings and directs superb sound to your favourite listening position. You do not have to be close to the speaker or even in front of it to get an excellent sound experience,” says B&O CEO Tue Mantoni.

Now, realistically few of us are ever going to get a chance to own a pair of speakers which cost more than an Audi R8, but if you can get yourself down to your nearest Bang and Olufsen store the BeoLab 90s are well worth a listen.

And, like Sennheiser's £40K Orpheus headphones (with free valve amp, don't forget!) the idea of these 'halo' products is to get people talking and to provide a development platform with which grow advanced technologies which will filter down to future, more affordable, products.

Anyone spending the money on a pair of BeoLab 90 speakers then is paying to make sure that your next speakers sound better than ever.