Some speakers are designed to blend into your home’s decor, to be almost invisible — heard and not seen.
These are not such speakers. Artists and designers are joining forces with big-name audio brands to turn speakers into sculptural pieces that look just as statement-making as they sound.
Bang & Olufsen x Fragment
In the early 80s, a teenage Hiroshi Fujiwara was fascinated by punk rock. So he traveled from Tokyo to London and befriended Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren. Then, in the mid 80s, he went to New York City at McLaren’s suggestion. He got deep into hip-hop culture, taking records to spin back in Tokyo and introducing the genre to the city. Fuelled by his love of music, he went on to become an influential fashion designer, often referred to as ‘the godfather of streetwear.’
For three decades, Fujiwara has lived with Bang & Olufsen — his first piece was the Beocenter 2300, a CD and tuner system. Released in 1991, you’ll know it as the one with the touch-sensitive glass doors that slide open with a wave of your hand. Fujiwara has the advantage of a musician’s ear and a designer’s eye, so he, along with his studio, Fragment Design, have worked with the audio brand to recreate four of its products: the Besound A1 ($470), Beoplay H100 ($2,270), Beosound Shape ($7,075), and Beosystem 9000c ($70,750). The 9000c is made-to-order and is exclusive to Japan. Finished in black to align with the studio’s aesthetic, the pieces feature precision-milled aluminium; a high-gloss finish created by hand polishing; and Fragment’s signature double-lightning-bolt motif.
Lexon x Jeff Koons
In 2013, Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog (Orange) sold at a Christie’s auction for $58.4m, making it the fifth-most-expensive piece ever sold by a living artist at auction (Koons holds the second spot, too, with his stainless steel Rabbit selling for $91m).
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For this Lexon collaboration, Koons’s 10-ft-tall dog sculpture has been shrunk to 11 inches, and enhanced with six active speakers and four acoustic boosters. It can be connected to your phone via Bluetooth and has a mic for taking calls. The Balloon Dog Speaker Chromatic collection comes in four colors — white, gold, blue, and red — which are only available as part of a time-limited 2026 release. The speakers can be linked using True Wireless Stereo (TWS) technology, but be warned, you can only buy two of each color. It has a limited-edition run of 10,000 worldwide; each speaker is engraved with the artist’s signature and comes with a certificate of authenticity. No jokes about subwoofers, please.
Mike Han x Leon
A successful sushi chef, Mike Han was set to open an omakase restaurant in 2020 when the pandemic hit and derailed those plans. Unemployed for six months and with funds quickly dwindling, Han (who had been painting for a decade at that point), was commissioned to create a murual. Six years later, he’s created installations for Red Bull; had work purchased by Paramount Pictures; and held exhibitions in Seoul, LA, and Miami. His work mixes eighties and nineties-style graffiti with Korean calligraphy (he refers to himself as a ‘modern vandal’) — this signature style can be seen in his partnership with Leon speakers. The limited-edition Detroit Vibrations comprises three paintings; each covering an Ente SoundTile. The tile can be directly mounted to a wall, but behind the artwork is a two-channel audio speaker system with an amplifier hidden behind a perforated metal speaker grille.
Transparent Speakers
Stockholm-based Transparent has a “modular design philosophy,” meaning its products are built to be upgraded rather than replaced, using interchangeable tech modules. The brand takes its name from what audio engineers call “transparent sound” — neutral sound reproduction that stays true to the original — delivering the musician’s intention straight to the listener. Its signature speakers take the transparent concept quite literally; they are made with see-through tempered glass and aluminium frames, so you can see all the internal mechanisms. This Bluetooth-enabled speaker, though, is a little different. It has been hand-sculpted by the brand’s founder, Per Brickstad, in Jesmonite and is made on demand, with a lead time of four to six weeks.
