When taking a glance at his past projects including the Who’s There Chair, Cargo Containers and Power Lines, it becomes clear that industrial designer Daniel Ballou not only finds joy in solving everyday design problems, but he likes to provide a somewhat humorous experience for the end user as well.
His most recent project, Cinder Speakers, finds him bringing a healthy dose of DIY into the mix this time around.
The pair of wood speakers, which each include a pre-assembled and pre-wired front panel featuring a 5″ driver, tweeter, crossover and input jack, are designed to be assembled using cheap and readily-available cinder blocks found at hardware stores and abandoned construction sites. Also included is a back panel that includes mounting hardware for sealing the enclosure.
The DIY (or more accurately, a BYO) design is well-considered in that it is relatively cheap to ship while the finished design relies on a more localized manufacturing approach to bring the overall shipping costs down. While concrete is a low resonance material that minimizes vibrations and reduces coloration of pure sound delivered by the drivers, it is substantially expensive to ship if it were included in the final, deliverable design.
With over a year in development, Ballou is currently in the process of finalizing the last stages to bring the Cinder Speaker to market for approximately $150/set.
Those interested can contact Ballou directly for updates here.
