If you’re looking for an iPhone speaker that’s different from all the others out there, and you have $500 to spend, then you might like this cool Steampunk iPhone Victrola.
Will Rockwell, a New York City-based artist, creates and sells steampunk-inspired artifacts and sells them on his Etsy store, the iPhone speaker being one of them.
The best part of this beautiful design is that it doesn’t require any electricity to amplify the sound, so you can still rock out if the power goes out. Since it uses passive amplification it probably won’t sound as good as it would if you plugged it into your stereo, but it sure looks cool, and that’s what matters. Its creator says that trumpet parts sound realistic, though. Given that it’s made out of a real trumpet, it doesn’t sound that surprising. You can also adjust the tone with a handle in the base, which is made out of an old spittoon. (Yes, the kind people used to spit tobacco juice in. That’s even grosser than cigarette smoke.)
Rockwell’s also made a demo video to show how it works. You have to love a guy whose “assistant” is a cat.
Since this speaker is made out of recycled parts, that means fewer resources taken out of the Earth and fewer things ending up on landfills.
The design is similar to the Steampunk iPhonograph we recently covered. You might also love the Tworse Key. Like the iPhone Victrola, it’s a retro take on a modern technology, letting you tweet in Morse code.
