There are a lot of devices that look the same: phones that are basically a slab of screen, headphones that simply cover the ears in black, and earbuds with a stem in white.
You know the drill. It’s fine, and many of us do not care. Go for the gadget that suits you and your wallet (and read the reviews along the way).
However not everyone fancies the same old same old. Some people prefer to have something that stands out and really does look different. That could be where companies such as Nothing have found a niche.
A brand that typically does transparent technology, or at least technology designed to look transparent (because it’s not truly see-through), Nothing’s smaller sub-brand named for the pillars of industrial design — colour, material, and finish — CMF is readying a couple of speakers made for that sense of individuality.
They’re not boxes like most speakers, or not quite, and they’re certainly not the cylinders made famous by the many Bluetooth speakers doing that shape. At the same time, they seem more out there than the simplicity offered by the CMF Headphone Pro and afforded by the company’s Buds 2 Plus.
Rather, they’re milk cartons.
CMF’s aptly-named “Speaker” models will come in thinner versions of a milk carton, but there’s no milk involved. Each comes in one of our colours, supports stereo with the help of an extra speaker, can do the whole “party” mode concept if you happen to have more than one, and even supports adaptive tuning to shift the sound using the app.
A night mode is also supported, which limits the loudness and dampens the lows, at least in comparison to turning the volume up for a party mode.
They also support 3D printing, something that is becoming a bit more of a norm these days, and will let you print your own front panel and volume knob, really letting you customise and tweak the speaker to your own liking.
That’s going even further than a standard limited edition, which can sometimes mean purple paint jobs or just special colours for a month or so (usually until they run out).
Regardless of how the speaker looks, it’ll support up to 18 hours of battery life and IP68 water resistance, making it ideal for parties outdoors, working with Bluetooth and USB-C audio, and coming in two sizes: a small carton of sound in the CMF Speaker S with a single driver, and a taller CMF Speaker M with woofer and tweeter, sized roughly to a small milk carton and taller 1 litre respectively.
Australia does appear to be on the release list for these cartons of sound, with the CMF Speaker S set for $119 locally, while the taller Speaker M will cost $199.
