This numbers among the more unlikely uses for old whisky barrels.

This numbers among the more unlikely uses for old whisky barrels.

Japanese manufacturer Pioneer has crafted these speakers from white oak recycled from 50-year-old barrels used for ageing the popular tipple.

Is this just one for your whisky-quaffing uncle who wants a showpiece for his living room? Well, no. For one thing, he won’t be wanting to shell out £400 when he could spend that on the booze itself. This is for the real music lover, since the wood from whisky barrels has ‘natural musical characteristics’, resulting in a ‘richly expressive sound’, according to Pioneer.

Every pair of speakers is different, with nail marks and whisky stains in the wood. You can also impress your whisky-drinking chums by extolling the benefits of the speakers’ silk-soft dome tweeter and woofer with composite Aramid fibres.

How much the whisky has to do with the sound quality, though, is a moot point. Indeed, it may be the hi-fi equivalent of thinking you sing better after a few shots.