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Stalk desktop speakers are actually designed to stand next to a crowded desk, rather than take up valuable desktop real estate. The two models (taller or shorter) are built with colored steel legs and a 3D-printed dome, both meant to be chosen by the owner to personalize the set. The designer, New Zealand-based Ella Bates-Hermans, developed the cone patterns by experimenting with 3D printing textures, and drew inspiration for the speaker's form by studying the shape of speaker drivers. [via NOTCOT]

Check out the Stalk speakers on Behance.







Neue Werkstatt isn't an audio company. Rather, it's a design studio with a focus on small scale manufacturing with environmentally sound materials and local German carpenters. The group previously designed a tool-less assembly bed frame, and a wall clock using materials from the Black Forest. The new NW3 speaker is its first electronics design. As a guarantee of quality, each carpenter involved signs the bottom of the speaker, and the wax finish was chosen with the health of those carpenters in mind. [via designboom]

Like a record label, Neue Werkstatt's products have catalog numbers. Head to their site to check out NW1 and NW2.






Decades back, home stereos were often proudly housed in handsome wood cabinets that kept power plugs out of sight, and often boasted their own built-in speakers. The new series from Gesa Hansen plays off those populist mid-century pieces, also keeps the wires under wraps, and offers high fidelity, all on a contemporary scale. The collaboration between The Hansen Family and Tivoli Audio offers two modern sound solutions for the home audio enthusiast. The first is the Radio Rack, a smaller piece in dark wood that doubles as a magazine display rack, while the second, the Sound Sideboard, is a substantial cabinet in sustainable wood with a special hinged back to conceal wires and room for two speakers. We'd have 'em both, if we could. 

I'm kind of a retro-look-loving, modern-sound-liking guy on some level. Aren't we all? Oh, how I would love to give a good home to one of these soundpauli. upcycled speakers—from the sleazy neighborhood where the Beatles cut their gigging teeth. The duo of Markus Rilling & Jan Kuntoff take old boxes, speaker cases, and radios and refurbish them by hand into portable, battery-powered active speakers, all in their studio in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, Germany. They also give them handles, so you can bring your Paul or Pauline anywhere you want, hook it up to your smartphone, computer, er, mini-disc player, and crank it up. Even better, if you have a box in mind (say one from Grandpa's attic), they'll give it the soundpauli. treatment—price negotiable.

Soundpauli on etsy