The hi-def disc war is over, and the Blu-Ray disc is destined to become our next standard format, which can only mean one thing: it's time to begin the parade of nichey Blu-Ray tie-ins. After all, now that you know that you won't be throwing your money away on a soon-to-be-obsolete format, now is the perfect time to dump a cool five digits on a new player, right?

The press release sent out this morning by Swiss audio manufacturer, Goldmund, claims that their new player is, "the first Blu-ray player from a high-end AV manufacturer." It also bandies about the word "coveted," but heck, for $16,900, someone somewhere better be coveting the thing. So, what does one get for just under $17k? According to Goldmund, the new Eidos BD features:

The "AC-Curator" power supply circuit which dramatically improves picture and sound stability and dynamics, and the "Mechanical Grounding" construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the video signal and increasing jitter. In addition, the new Eidos 20 BD uses the Goldmund "Magnetic Damper," a device lowering the reading errors, a feature that previously was exclusive to Goldmund's highest end devices.

If that sounds like a good enough reason to part with someone's yearly paycheck, Goldmund is current taking orders on their site.