These glass bowls are actually speakers

As anyone who’s ever been to a Circuit City (remember those?!) knows, not all speakers are created equal. But they are generally constructed similarly, large rectangles encased in plastic or wood. What they don’t usually resemble is glass bowls.

And yet, designer Casey Lin has created fully functioning speakers that look like nothing more than a pair of clear glass bowls, named Timbre Speakers.

Said “bowls” are placed on a wooden panel, which keeps all the electronic stuff out of sight. All that is visible is a small plastic volume knob. If you didn’t know you were looking at a speaker set, you’d probably never guess that’s what this is.

The wooden box has surface transducers that vibrate said box, turning it into a speaker itself.

Those vibrations then travel into the bowls, which have a concave shape to amplify the sound. They also work as physical equalizers. The bowls aren’t even all the way around, so by moving them slightly, you can alter both bass and tremble.

On top of all this, the speakers themselves resemble art pieces, which is certainly nicer than the boxes we’re used to hanging in the corner of the room.