With all the fuss about "Avatar" and 3D movies, the audio geeks at Smyth Research are offering the equivalent of 3D sound in a pair of very expensive headphones.

The Smyth Realiser, which we discovered on a recent trip to Industrial Light & Magic, creates a new "virtual reality of sound."

The device works with that specially designed set of headphones to re-create the surround-sound acoustics of any room, hall or concert space with exact, digital precision -- an audio feat never before accomplished in a consumer product.

For example, if you wanted to listen to U2 or Metallica as it would sound in Wembley Stadium, first you would bring the headphones inside the space. Admittedly, it might be an expensive stunt to get to London just to sweeten your music, but play along.

Two small microphone sensors on the headphones would then "read" and store every detail of the stadium's surrounding acoustics in three dimensions. You could then select the stadium at your leisure anytime -- along with any other acoustic space you visit -- to hear your music literally anywhere you go on Earth. Red Rock Canyon? Yankee Stadium? Your mom's bathroom? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination and your travel schedule.

If a historic concert hall or club is torn down, the acoustics within it can live forever in the Realiser library. We've all heard legends of Jimi Hendrix playing the Fillmore. The Fillmore's original dimensions could've lived on forever if the Realiser would've existed in 1968. Get on the stick, Smyth.

The Realiser also packs other revolutionary functions. Its headphones include a Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF).The HRTF in the Realiser offers biological memory and personalized head tracking that not only precisely alters the surround sound depending on how we move our heads, but also how our heads, ears and torsos are shaped. In other words, it not only remembers what a space sounds like -- it re-creates how your body would interact inside it.

It's the kind of personalized technology that gadget nerds and audiophiles live for these days. But if you want one, you need to come up with $3,045. I think a Smyth Realiser could've just recorded what a living room sounds like when a music lover looks in his wallet and says, "Damn."