Symphonica all-wood natural acoustic speaker for iOS/Android devices

Whether its all leather bags or wooden iPhone cases, organic materials are more popular than ever. Manufacturers and designers are opting for these natural options on electronics products and accessories everyday. The folks over at Symphonica are tired of all the plastic Bluetooth speakers while looking to change things up with a retro-inspired gramophone aesthetic and sustainable wood design on its new natural acoustic speaker…

The speaker is accompanied by a line of other sustainable wood accessories including iPhone cases, a small wood Bluetooth remote, charger and more. But the real focus here is the natural speaker.

Much like the knops we featured yesterday, this passive horn speaker organically boosts the audio from your smartphone without the use of electricity. There are no buttons, power switches or batteries to charge. In fact, Symphonica claims it can raise the volume of your built-in iPhone speaker, for example, by as much as 6 decibels.

That cable you see extending from the back of the speaker setup is because the horn speaker doubles as a phone charging dock for both iPhone and Android users, (MFi or Micro-USB cable included).

The acoustic speaker will be available in a number of different wood stain colors and is compatible with iPhone 5 through iPhone 7 Plus. On the Android side of things, Samsung Galaxy S6 through S8+ are supported (more Android devices coming down the line).

The functionality is nice, but the design is clearly the main draw here. You’re going to get much better audio quality from just about any other plastic Bluetooth speaker/dock on the market, but that isn’t the point of the Symphonica passive horn speaker. The mix of natural materials makes for a classy living room/office set piece that will indeed boost the audio volume of your phone, albeit to a mostly marginal degree (judging by the audio examples on the Kickstarter campaign page). And it’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg to get it.

Symphonica has taken the new passive horn speaker, along with the rest of the wood accessory line to Kickstarter looking to raise $35,000 over the next 10 days. While it still has some ways to go, early backers can grab a speaker/dock for just $75 or a bundle with some other goodies, while supplies last. For $140, you’ll get the speaker and one of everything else including the mini wooden Bluetooth remote. If all goes to plan, Symphonica expects to begin shipping in June of this year.