What do you get when you cross a patio heater, a toy light saber and one of those machines that pops out numbered balls in a lottery draw? If you happen to be electronistical artist Jean-Michel Jarre, then you get this rather odd looking iPod dock/speaker combo.

The AeroSystem (even the name is from the 1980s) is currently available only in France, and costs €450 ($580), complete with iPod-inspired remote control.

Jarre is on a mission to improve music. Not the music he plays, but the music we listen to. He thinks that our MP3 player and notebook computers sound terrible:

In recent years, there has been, particularly for music, a growing gap between the high quality hi-fi systems sophisticated and expensive audiophile speakers and often poor for laptops to listen to music as mp3. I am convinced that because of the remoteness of growing public support for some physical music (and sometimes the image) is because people have forgotten what the quality of reproduction should be.

How has he remedied this? By making yet another set of iPod speakers, ready to amplify the same crappy MP3 files he was just complaining about. At least he's not trying to get us to return to the Compact Disc. This is, after all, the man whose music was made for the shiny silver platters, back when they were a sparkling glimpse into the future.

Product page [JMJarre Technologies via the Giz]