Core77

The Making of Joon & Jung's Natural Speaker

By Rain Noe - May 25, 2011

in Materials | Object Culture

Joon & Jung is an Eindhoven-based conceptual product design studio comprised of South Korean expats Joonsoo Kim and Jungyou Choi, who met while studying at a certain local Design Academy. Here's a nice in-studio making-of vid from J&J showing the construction of their Natural Speaker:

Like Joey Roth, the pair have discovered porcelain's beneficent acoustic properties and have incorporated it into the design:

Whereas a lot of speakers are constructed to produce a rather fat bass and sharp high tones, we felt the sound was kind of stuck inside the speakers, missing a natural vibe and ambiance. During the development of the 'the natural speaker' we discovered the great properties of porcelain as a speaker casing, providing a clear resonance and mellow sound.

Amplified inside the ceramic and wood transmission construction, the sound gains a slight echo, creating a natural feeling of resonance, resembling the distinct flair of an acoustic instrument right in front of you.

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Nate

13 years ago

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This is more functional sculpture than a mass-production ready viable product, and that in and of itself is special. It's time to start moving away from mass uniformity and embrace small scale ingenuity.
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Amy

13 years ago

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Great share! Koreans are coming up with amazing designs for all kinds of products. I shared this with the audience of project Advanced Technology and Design Korea through the facebook (www.facebook.com/advancedtechKOR) and twitter (www.twitter.com/advancedtechkr). For more pictures and other design rd elatenews, browse through the blog (www.advancedtechnologykorea.com) when you can! Keep up the great posts and happy Friday from Korea!

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shane

13 years ago

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you may not like the form and material use (i don't) but it strikes me as quintessential Korean or modern Japanese design. The hard-crafted nature + unusual form and materials. If I was a betting man I'd say this would go down well in those parts of the world.
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Jane

13 years ago

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Sjakie, it seems have own amp inside. Look at their website.

Somehow, I'm quiet curios and interesting on it.
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Loveit!

13 years ago

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This is lovely speaker! I want one.
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SPN

13 years ago

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I just wasted 2 minutes of my life watching this...
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Lady C

13 years ago

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On most musicians albums there are fillers... some of which you grow to appreciate. This is a reasonably good quality article for a general design blog but for an industrial product design mag like core77, for me this is simply a filler. A filler which I appreciate. I agree that its value is in the experimentation of materials and aesthetics, none of which are 'groundbreaking' but things which may yet feed the more 'serious, hardcore design' that certain of viewers of Core77 seem to expect and respect .

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Sjakie

13 years ago

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Who on earth is going to attach small speakers like this to an expensive amplifier?

And since when is making things look crappy on purpose good design...

I guess core77 was fooled by the fact that they used an expensive DSLR and 'cool filter' to make the video and pictures
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Nick

13 years ago

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Blue, I can understand why you may not find this special. However, no one should tell you why you should appreciate this design. It is an exploration which some enjoy more than others.

I for one love the speakers, but I wouldn't dare to listen to them. Clearly, all laws of physics and sound have been discarded. But it sure looks lovely, very natural indeed.

PS
Design academy of Eindhoven is on the fringe between art and craftsmanship. It is clear to me that you should try and study more about the different forms within design before making such a blunt statement

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Siddhartha Joshi

13 years ago

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I actually like these speakers...though more in the explorative sense! Do they also market these?

It would be quite something to buy handcrafted speakers :)
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Blue

13 years ago

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i am sorry, whats special in these speakers? looks like core77 is out of topics or just that designers are getting too dis-joint from reality. can you also tell why i should appreciate this design.
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