Charles & Marie

Brace yourself, we've got our most amazing product so far ready for you, but before we get ahead of ourselves here, let us start at the beginning:

In 2006, designer Tristan Zimmermann of science and sons set out to design something groundbreaking, like modesty. But modesty was already invented, so Tristan Zimmermann invented the Phonofone. The Phonophone is even better than modesty because it comes in a box and plays music.

What is the Phonofone you ask? In short, it's like a speaker for your iPod, only it uses no power. Through passive amplification alone, these unique pieces instantly transform any personal music player + earbuds into a sculptural audio console. Without the use of external power or batteries, the Phonofone II inventively exploits the virtues of horn acoustics to boost the audio output of standard earphones to up to 55 decibels. Now let's make this clear, 55 decibels is not going to entertain your party, but it's fine for the office or next to the bed or or for a dinner party. But honestly, if you want to get a great sounding set of speakers that you can crank up and rock out to, get a set of Bose.

Truly an amazing object, the Phonofone is clever piece of applied science, a beautiful icon of nostalgia, and an ironic twist on the insular nature of personal listening devices. It is not intended to be used as home stereo system. The Phonofone II is constructed entirely from ceramic. Not only environmentally low impact, ceramics are inherently rigid and resonant, lending themselves well to this application.

Material: Ceramic
Dimensions: 11" x 9.5" x 20" (28 x 25 x 51 cm)

The fine print on Phonofone:

To fully exploit the amplification potential of your Phonofone the following considerations are strongly urged:

1) MP3 player – The output power of full size Apple brand iPods and iPod minis (HD size non specific) is ideally suited for powering a Phonofone. iPod nanos and shuffles are only recommended if used with an inline headphone amplifier (see point #5). It is also recommended to override your iPod volume restriction settings before hooking it up to a Phonofone.

2) Headphones - Only Apple Brand earbuds (with the adapters provided with your Phonofone) are recommended for this application. Be aware that after prolonged use at loud volumes, the earbuds can start to degrade in audio quality.

3) Types of music – The phonofone is excellent for amplifying Blues, Classical and Folk music, but is less ideal for Electronic music and Rock. This is because the heavy bass associated with both Rock and Techno can result in clipping (buzzing) when played at its loudest volume. If clipping is occurring in a song, it can be overridden by selecting the 'bass reduction' equalizer setting in your iPod or by playing the song at a slightly lower volume.

4) MP3 Quality – Not all music is mastered the same. That is, the baseline volume of each song can differ from each other significantly especially if your music library consist of illegally downloaded material (which we hope it isn't). If you are experiencing a large degree of variation in the listening volume of your MP3s try adjusting the gain (volume) of each file accordingly by using free 3rd party software. We will not assume responsibility for any damages that this software might incur.

5) Headphone Preamplifiers - If you plan on using your Phonofone with an iPod shuffle or nano, or are simply seeking more volume from this device, you can purchase a headphone amplifier. A headphone amplifier is small battery operated device that is placed in-line between your MP3 player and your earbuds. This device will increase the power of the signal to the headphones which will result in a higher volume (and actually makes the Phonofone sound rather loud). Please note that using a preamplifier can significantly limit the life of your earbuds and should be used with discretion. If you hear the earbuds 'crackling' then it's time to turn the volume down.