You might need to be an internationally-touring DJ to buy one, at EUR750, but the Travelteq Trip Sound suitcase is awe-inspiring at least as a design gimmick. The aluminum roll-around is designed first and foremost as a suitcase, as in the things that hold your laptop and clothes when you’re on the road, and is even sold as such – no gimmicks, just an ultra-high-end way of toting luggage. But purchase the Trip Sound option, and you can fold an entire sound system into said suitcase.
What keeps it a gimmick is, unfortunately, power. The Trip Sound System isn’t the most powerful thing around — two 15W, 2.5-inch drivers make it too weak for busking or on-the-spot DJ sets. Think of it as boom box, not PA, and for that, it certainly beats most of the things you could drop into a carry-on. It’ll also play from batteries up to 12 hours, depending on playback volume, or can connect to power via a universal power supply. You can also dock mobile devices, or top off a laptop.
WIthout opening the entire suitcase, you can also get quick access to compartments for phones, newspapers, and such, as well as a padded laptop compartment. Fold out legs, and the suitcase doubles as a chair.
Check out the full specs on the dizzying Travelteq site, which itself seems to be designed for people resistant to motion sickness. (Scroooollling… augh!)
Presumably the price is covered by the construction, interchangeable textiles, rugged, ultra-premium… stuff. You can read their explanation. It’s nothing if not drool-worthy as fantasy. And apparently globe-trotting DJs do desire them – Gui Boratto, Andy Sherman, and – so say rumors – Armin van Buuren own one, says our tipster Brandon Carlyle. (Thanks!)
All in all, though, this serves as a painful reminder of certain laws of space, weight, and power that restrict a lot of what we might do with sound. Your shirts take up a certain amount of space, and so does anything that produces a certain amount of sound. It’s unquestionably a cool fashion accessory, at least. There’s something to which you can aspire, should you aim for a lucrative ascent to the top of DJing: design fetish travelware. (Hey, for some of us design nerds, it beats the better-known perks.)
