Yamaha Design “Synapses” PDX-11

2012 / PORTABLE PLAYER DOCK


A portable player dock that lets you take music anywhere.

Revolutionary

Listen to quality sound any time, any place. The concept of filling a space with sound led to the idea of turning a speaker over on the floor. Simply constructed from just the front and rear parts, the PDX-11 is easy to carry and features a body with both presence and stability.

Pride

Like an object of art that transcends mere functionality, the PDX-11 inspires you to want to keep it close by, and the robust, tough-looking body almost asks you to pick it up.

Minimal

Flat surfaces clustered around a central speaker offer a site to place an iPhone or iPod and a point of contact with the ground, while the remaining faces connect naturally in the shape of an octagon. With a body so distinctive, the details have been kept extremely simple.

Instantly-usable

Inserting an iPhone/iPod is all that is required for intuitive enjoyment of music. The controls on the operations panel have been limited to just power and volume, while the handle, which encourages you to want to take the PDX-11 with you everywhere, also acts as a guard for the iPhone in the event of a mishap.


Satoshi Yoshiizumi
Satoshi Yoshiizumi
Designer
Yamaha Design Laboratory

A clear-cut design that evokes images of how it could be used.

The initial theme behind the design of the PDX-11 was "Clarity that can be understood in an instant." Since web-based sales now constitute a large proportion of the iPhone/iPod speaker dock market, it was important that the design be eye-catching, and that the features and uniqueness of the product be instantly recognizable.
What kind of product would appeal to Internet shoppers? Our development team and designers began their planning by pooling a range of suggestions, without giving any consideration to existing preconceptions. The proposal finally chosen from more than one hundred suggestions offered by the design team was an idea to place the speaker itself on the floor like a floor monitor. In contrast to the conventional approach to audio of "confronting" music to listen to it, the PDX-11 is intended to provide a more casual connection with listening, filling spaces with sound in the same way that speakers embedded in the ceiling do. The body of the PDX-11 has been given a distinctive octagonal shape that provides a physical image for its powerful sound. And because it is battery-powered, you can enjoy music in open spaces outdoors, as well as indoors, any time you want.
Our search to create a unique and distinctive design led to the concept of filling a space with sound, and enabled us to create a design that conveys how it is used the instant you see it.

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