China-born, New Zealand-based industrial design student Casey Lin reimagines the speaker by striping away all the superfluous details and letting the materials themselves be the core of the design. The Timbre Speaker takes a wooden box and two glass vessels, along with power ports and a volume dial, and turns them into a standalone speaker to blast your tunes.
The required audio and power ports are hidden in the back and when you’re ready, you simply plug your device in to play your music. Mounted on the inside of the wood box are surface transducers that vibrate the surface and turn the box into a speaker. The sound than transfers to the glass vessels and changes the timbre of the sound. You can move the glass to change the sound according to your tastes.
The box is made from Black American Walnut, which adds a warmth to the tone, whereas the glass brings a reverberant quality to the music. Both work well due to their acoustic qualities.