Looking like it was chiseled out of rock, the Obsidian speaker is what you get when art and audio collide. With an aesthetic that would put most smart speakers to shame, the Obsidian is the second speaker from Australian design firm Pantheone Audio. The speaker’s design is directly inspired by its namesake, a glass-like rock formed when lava cools down. With its shard-shaped design and chiseled edges, the Obsidian sits on countertops like a statement piece, but delivers exceptional audio thanks to its high-density resin cabinet with a powerful internal woofer and two silk dome tweeters under the hood. The elegant device also comes with Amazon’s Alexa built-in, responding to voice commands and letting you control music playback as well as smart home appliances.
Designer: Pantheone Audio
With its sharp, sculpted appearance, the Obsidian looks less like a speaker and more like a minimalist art piece that you can place on any tabletop or mantelpiece. Unlike most smart speakers, it comes with a front-firing speaker array as opposed to a 360° one and comes with a built-in battery that averages 15 hours of play-time on a full charge. The speaker’s designed to sound as incredible as it looks, with a 40W woofer and two 20W tweeters that give the Obsidian a stunning frequency range of 55–22000 Hz. The speaker connects to all leading streaming services and also supports popular file formats including lossless audio formats.
“With its unique shape and style, Obsidian calls out to be touched, sensed, and heard by everyone in the room,” say the folks at Pantheone Audio. “Its perfect sculpturing harmonizes with its surrounding environment using its natural design to discreetly sync into a room’s Feng Shui. Taking its design cues from nature, it is a stunning addition to any home.”
Although named Obsidian, the speaker comes in black as well as white variants with a hand-made polished resin outer shell. The front has an ABS plastic grill that’s clad with high-quality acoustic fabric, and four backlit buttons at the bottom let you switch on/off and manually navigate the speaker’s functions like controlling its volume and switching between WiFi (with support for AirPlay 2), Bluetooth, or Aux modes. The Obsidian also Amazon’s Alexa built-in, allowing for voice-based controls, and even ships with an accompanying Pantheone app (iOS and Android) that enables users to control the system through their phones or tablets, and access functions like a sleep-mode or even the ability to pair multiple Obsidian speakers together in a multi-room mode.
The Obsidian is Pantheone Audio’s sophomore speaker, following the release of the Pantheone I, the world’s largest and most elegantly designed Alexa speaker, and a winner of the Red Dot Design Award. Available in white and black variants, the Obsidian is priced at $1,399.
