ross lovegrove unveils MUO speaker for KEF at london design festival

ross lovegrove unveils MUO speaker for KEF at london design festival
all images courtesy of john ross

at 2015 london design festival, KEF launches ‘MUO’, a wireless bluetooth speaker by ross lovegrove. under the british creative’s direction, the sculpted sound device inherits a unique visual style and draws its formal language directly from his previous work with the company. the audio engineers worked with lovegrove to make a strong modeled internal enclosure to house the drivers, the digital-to-analogue converter, and other internal components. these are encased in an acoustically inert outer shell of extruded aluminum; and have soft rubber bottoms that are optimally positioned for ‘MUO’ to be sat at exactly the right angle for desktop use.

ross lovegrove discusses the developed of the ‘MUO’ speaker with KEF
video courtesy of KEF

the materials effectively eliminate unwanted cabinet vibration throughout so listeners can hear rich, undistorted sound. ‘MUO’ also boasts advanced functionality, with a pairing option by either bluetooth or 3.5 mm input. the contours design complemented by a choice of five finishes – horizon gold, storm grey, light silver, neptune blue, and sunset orange. ‘MUO’ bluetooth speaker streams full bandwidth CD-quality music wirelessly with bluetooth aptX®

drawing synchronously between audio and visual art, the sound system debuts to the public in a large-scale installation at the somerset house during the london design festival. composed of 100 multi-colored speakers, it is an intersection between art, design and technology. the launch edition of the speaker has been realized along side alex rasmussen at neal feay who made it possible to create multi-variant coloured casings made in small batch production runs for this occasion. five batches of 20 variants were made, resulting in 100 different individual products which ‘optimize and celebrate the use of pure aluminium and its art value in the field of volume production,’ concludes ross lovegrove.

the control buttons on the side

KEF marketing director, grace lo adds: ‘our partnership with the london design festival is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our art and design heritage. we’ve been creating state-of-the-art, award-winning designs for more than half a century and it’s great to be unveiling MUO amongst the great and the good of the design world.’