Yamaha Design “Synapses” ISX-800

2011 / INTEGRATED AUDIO SYSTEM

GOOD DESIGN AWARD

A New Concept in Stand-alone All-In-One Audio.

Reconstruction

A stand-alone configuration for any location. The design represents a step away from conventional audio, re-evaluating the configurations, colors, and materials used in audio components to date.

Beloved

“Audio that you can hang on the wall.” The ISX-800 provides music in a way that lets people enjoy it aｓ part of their everyday lives.

Harmony

With a design that harmonizes with—and even accents—the feel of a room, the ISX-800 resonates with the "personality" of any interior, integrating itself into the overall feel of a room.

Well-Made

The speaker grill employs the expanded metal often used in buildings construction, and with a matt coating, the ISX-800 design uses a striped, non-woven material, resulting in a rich, textile-like surface.

Masaharu Ono: Designer; Yamaha Design Laboratory

Audio that you can hang on the wall.

The name "Restio" is a combination of "Audio" and "Rest," and reflects our goal of creating a product that delivers not only beautiful music, but also has a presence similar to that of a comfortable piece of furniture. The free-standing appearance and textured speaker grill of the design were key to this concept. Although most speaker grills are made of monotone material mesh or perforated metal, in the Restio, we used richly colored, textured material, out of a desire to create a speaker that could be mounted on the wall as a item of interior furniture.
Initially, we experimented with a wide range of fabrics, but encountered problems with limitations in elasticity and a lack of the precision needed to function in speaker grills. Finally, we returned our attention to metal, a material that we could process accurately and give any color as needed. Finally, we decided upon expanded metal, a material often associated with architecture. We utilized unique production methods to give the metal a three-dimensional form and applied a matt coating, which resulted in an innovative material that resembles loosely-woven fabric. The four colors we selected were chosen to match a range of interiors and situations, and add beauty to a broad spectrum of lifestyles.