Genius soundshelf concept keeps speakers out of corners

You know the deal -- unless you buy some $50,000 loudspeaker, chances are you'll be doing your best to hide those front towers in the corner. Designers Witek Stefaniak and Anielka Zdanowicz from Poland have a better idea, and it has come to life (or to render, anyway) as the soundshelf. Put simply, these speakers have hollowed out innards where DVD / Blu-ray racks can be installed, giving them dual purpose in life. Imaginative souls could even envision a bookshelf or a rack for components, all ideas which sound infinitely better than just draping a shroud over the thing and pretending it's not there. Commercialization, please?

[Via CyberTheater]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2009 10:31PM]

I personally enjoy the sight of nice front towers; many people have to force speakers out far to get a proper listening position...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2009 10:40PM]

niceee..love the design..

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2009 11:16PM]

Those holes/slots are going to awfully big when SD cards take over the disc mantle!................:-)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2009 11:27PM]

At first I thought.. this is ridiculous!

Then I realized my Blu-Rays and DVDs (which i'll be honest, i have a hard time watching since HD movies came to market) are stored in the other room because I don't have space to put them by my TV.... If these things sound as good as my martin logans then I'm all for it!

Uh, i'm not gonna hold my breath though.

[Slarity Posted Feb 20th 2009 8:44AM]

My speakers are Infinity Alpha series, not great but I like them. I dont "hide" them in the corners, I place them in the corners to broaden my sound field.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 20th 2009 12:11PM]

isnt this a recipe for a plastic rattling sound to accompany your music????

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 20th 2009 1:34PM]

I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it. I guess I will just sit back and twiddle my thumbs.

Ladaladaladadeedoo

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 20th 2009 1:19PM]

I love the idea and have reservations similar to yours, Nipsey. To delve further, how much might the sound change between a shelf/speaker that holds 5 dvd cases opposed to one that is full of cases? In the end, pricepoint would be key and for a casual listener (especially those that stay in a relatively low volume range) these might cure storage and sound issues at the same time.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 20th 2009 8:30PM]

Most of my concerns have already been voiced, but what about the fact that they've only got room for about 2" cones in that outer box... unless there's another cone behind the DVDs at the bottom, but that'd really suck, especially if the number of discs in each side were different.

Overall, looks pretty terrible to me.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2009 1:58AM]

This product is just so ugly, worse than any regular looking tower or bookshelf speakers on stands out there. It looks so cheap and tacky! As far as function, there are much better designed and better looking shelves for physical mediums such as CDs, DVDs, and Bluray discs. I also doubt it sounds any good as speakers. So why bother? The designer of this product is really out of touch...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:08PM]

Neat idea, but they probably don't sound that great. Front speakers in the corners of a room will not sound as good as moving them a few feet away from the sides of the room. Also, bookshelf speakers placed in an actual bookshelf will sound hollow and cave-like.