You’re looking at conceptual speakers from Japan made entirely from recycled materials. Rubbish sound, in short. Material Record, a project by a large Japanese media group, have come up with an idea that may just fit with your meticulously assembled vinyl collection. Noon Speaker is a stackable set of speakers with a vacuum tube amplifier, all constructed from recycled materials - including food waste.
Statement speakers have long been part of the high end sound landscape. Fine polished wood casings - chosen to augment the sound and your decor - have long been a popular choice. Stand out colourways for speaker covers - bright red is a favourite - have also been a feature. Plastic or glass casings have been chosen to show off components. And we’ve written about brutalist speakers here before. The Noon Speaker takes all of this a step further.

Tall design is said to be inspired by architecture, as if the Noon Speaker is a scale model of a skyscraper. Six speakers take care of sound output, each with a different frequency range. Noon Speaker is modular, so the tower format can be taken apart and its components placed around your listening room, if that’s what your Ella Fitzgerald collection demands. Idea is that the use of recycled materials is not just about sustainability but that these materials help to produce a rich varied sound.


Noon Speaker: Nine sustainable materials
And it’s the recycled materials that mark out the Noon Speaker as something special. A team went beachcombing to gather marine litter. We're talking everything from discarded plastic and film cannisters to sweet wrappers and medication packaging. Together with food waste - the makers note wryly that there may be a rotting smell - this waste has been crushed to form a bespoke resin to make speaker cabinets. Other speakers are cased in recycled aluminium or even denim scraps sourced from Japanese jeans manufacture.



There’s more. Copper plate used for protruding speakers has been given an artificial patina, using unspecified processes to reduce the period required to gain the patina to a mere few hours rather than nature’s many years. Choice of valve amplifier is a nod to the highest end of analogue sound, with a richness that’s unmatched, say audio aficionados. Wool waste provides speaker coverings while discarded fuel tanks have been scavenged to provide metal for the Noon Speaker’s stand.

Like it? There’s no news yet on whether the Noon Speaker is destined for any sort of production run. It’s billed as a research and development project by Nomura Medias, the group behind Material Record. Keen on having one of these recycled speaker units in your living space? Unfortunately it's not going to be cheap. Expect to pay in the many thousands of pounds if you’re commissioning a set. Or perhaps just visit your second hand audio store. That way you can pick up a pair of vintage pre-owned speakers for a personal recycled sound. We’ll bring a favourite Ella record around to try them out.
Next up: The best bluetooth speakers in 2025.