Stockholm-based audio brand Transparent has a bit of a habit of making wireless speaker He rather stand out For the rest of the market. But its latest bold take on speaker design is somewhat different from its more famous and, well, not. transparent roots, and a venture into new shapes and materials for the brand.
Brutalist speakers refer to a style of architecture that originated in the UK in the 1950s, known for its simple, geometric lines and championing of raw materials over decorative excess.
Instead of the tempered glass used in many of its other products, Transparent's Brutalist speaker is made of 70 percent post-consumer recycled aluminum. With its 6.5-inch side-mounted woofer, along with dual 3-inch tweeters, placed at a rather impressive 90-degree elevation angle, it laughs in the face of conventional speaker design.
“Even though we're best known for our transparent collection of products, that's not the reason behind our name,” Per Brikstad, Transparent's creative director, tells WIRED. “It's about our overall approach to integrity in design, and how we want to be seen by our clients. So we're exploring different materials and different ways we can manifest that design philosophy in new projects.” Can do.
“We did a previous project on a limited release called Acoustic Sculpture, which is an organic sculptural speaker inspired by the human ear. We were keen to create another speaker in this range, but one that more closely related to our minimalist design approach.
“We were looking at Brutalism quite a bit because it is such a mesmerizing architectural style – you don't know whether these buildings are from another planet or from Earth. But it is also well suited to position components for acoustic performance.”