Behind the sound: Monitor, a speaker designed and made in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn

For too long, high-fidelity audio has forced a compromise: you could have world-class sound, or you could have a beautiful living room. Most high-end speakers are unapologetic "black boxes"—imposing, industrial, and often at odds with the textures and warmth of a modern home.

The MONITOR was born from a different "North Star." We started with the belief that a speaker should be a furniture object first. It should be something that feels at home next to a well-loved lounge chair or atop a hand-crafted credenza. Our goal wasn't just to build a playback device, but to create a sculptural element that disappears into your environment while the music takes center stage.

But "Furniture First" doesn't mean "Audio Second." By leveraging the storied heritage of JBL engineering and the precision of Brooklyn-based manufacturing, we’ve bridged the gap between aesthetic minimalism and acoustic transparency. Housed within 0.75” of White Oak cabinet, the MONITOR is a masterclass in balance: it’s a 0.7 cubic foot powerhouse that honors the craftsmanship of the past.

In this post, we’re pulling back the curtain on the design choices that define the MONITOR—from the unique physics of its coaxial driver to the sustainable, hand-rubbed finish that makes every unit a one-of-a-kind piece.

Architecture: Brooklyn Craft Meets CNC Precision

A speaker cabinet is more than just a box; it is the "instrument" that houses the technology. For the MONITOR, we chose 0.75” White Oak as our primary medium. White Oak isn't just prized for its tight grain and timeless aesthetic; it is an incredibly dense hardwood. This density is a functional requirement—at 0.75” thickness, the cabinet provides a rigid, high-mass structure that resists the internal air pressure of the driver. This ensures that the energy you hear is coming from the speaker cone, not the vibrating walls of the cabinet.

The soul of the MONITOR lies in its construction—a marriage of digital precision and human touch. Each cabinet is CNC machined right here in Brooklyn. This allows us to achieve tolerances within fractions of a millimeter, ensuring the 0.7 cubic ft internal volume is exact and every joint is airtight. But the machine is only the first step. After the parts are cut, they are handed over to local wood craft workers who assemble, sand, and hand-finish each unit.

To protect the wood without masking its natural character, we use Rubio Monocoat. This Non-VOC finish is a favorite among high-end furniture makers because it bonds with the wood fibers on a molecular level. It provides a durable, matte elegance that is safe for your home environment, free from the harsh chemicals of traditional lacquers.

Finally, the architecture serves the bass. We integrated a front-facing subwoofer port, a choice that allows the MONITOR to be tucked into bookshelves or placed close to walls without the "muddiness" typically caused by rear-ported speakers. The result is a structure that feels like a piece of heirloom furniture, but performs with the mechanical integrity of a studio-grade monitor.

The Heart: The Coaxial Advantage

When designing a speaker intended to blend into a modern interior, footprint is everything. Traditional speakers often require a "tower" or a tall baffle to accommodate multiple drivers stacked vertically, which can feel imposing in a living room. To achieve a compact, furniture-like silhouette without sacrificing scale, we centered the MONITOR around a coaxial driver configuration.

By placing the JBL 328C’s titanium dome tweeter directly in the center of the 8” woofer, we create a "point source" of sound. In a standard setup, sound reaches your ears from two different heights; in the MONITOR, the highs and lows radiate from the exact same axis. This results in incredible "imaging"—the ability to close your eyes and pinpoint exactly where a guitar string was plucked or where a vocalist stood in the studio.

The 8” driver size was a deliberate choice for versatility. It provides enough surface area to move air in larger residential rooms or high-ceilinged public spaces, yet it’s responsive enough to feel intimate in a small home office. We focused heavily on the "speed" of the woofer; the cone material is engineered to be exceptionally light yet rigid. This allows it to stop and start instantaneously, capturing the "snap" of a drum hit with a transparency that rivals much larger, more cumbersome studio monitors. It isn’t just a speaker that fits your furniture—it’s a driver that respects the physics of the music.

Acoustic Shaping: The Conical Horn

The Conical Horn: Engineering for the "Real World" Room

Most high-end speakers are designed for the "perfect" room—acoustically treated spaces with foam panels and heavy rugs. But the MONITOR was designed for the real world. In a modern home, hard surfaces like glass windows and hardwood floors act like acoustic mirrors, creating a chaotic "hall of mirrors" effect known as unwanted reflections. By utilizing a Conical Horn, we’ve engineered a way to control the dispersion of sound before it ever hits your walls.

The horn acts as a physical guide, focusing the titanium dome’s high-frequency energy into a controlled "sweet spot" while allowing the sound to expand naturally in the directions we intended. This creates a fascinating balance: it minimizes the muddying effects of a room that isn't soundproofed, yet maintains a wide, audiophile-grade soundstage. We paired this with a partial covering of the woofer to physically limit the "splash" of sound waves, ensuring that what you hear is the direct, pure output of the JBL driver, not the distorted echo of your living room. It’s a design choice that prioritizes manufacturability without sacrificing the surgical precision required for high-fidelity audio.

The Brain: The Seamless Hand-off

If the cabinet is the body and the drivers are the heart, the crossover is the brain of the MONITOR. In a two-way system, there is a critical moment where the woofer reaches the upper limit of its comfort zone and must "hand off" the signal to the tweeter. If this transition isn't perfect, you lose the "presence" of a vocal or the bite of a snare drum.

We spent extensive time perfecting this hand-off to ensure the transition is sonically invisible. Because the MONITOR uses a titanium dome, which is incredibly rigid and efficient at high frequencies, we were able to set a crossover point that allows the tweeter to take over exactly where the 8” woofer begins to lose its directional focus.

This precision is what creates Phase Alignment. Because the drivers are physically aligned on the same axis (the coaxial advantage) and electronically synced by the crossover, the sound waves from both the woofer and tweeter reach your ears at the exact same microsecond. In many home speakers, these waves can interfere with each other, creating "dips" in the sound. By engineering a seamless hand-off, the MONITOR maintains a flat, honest frequency response. Whether you’re listening to a deep bass synth or a soaring violin, the speaker acts as a single, cohesive voice rather than a collection of parts.

Conclusion: A New Standard for the Living Space

The MONITOR is a response to the "black box" era of audio—a rejection of the idea that high-performance sound must be hidden away or look like a piece of industrial machinery. By marrying 0.75” White Oak cabinet with the surgical precision of the JBL 328C, we’ve created something that feels as permanent and intentional as the architecture it sits within.

The result is a listening experience that is both expansive and intimate. Whether it’s providing the atmospheric backdrop for a busy public space or serving as the centerpiece of a dedicated home listening room, the MONITOR delivers a soundstage that belies its 0.7 cubic ft volume. It offers the "speed" and accuracy required by audiophiles, wrapped in the tactile, warm soul of Brooklyn woodcraft.

Ultimately, these design choices were made to serve the music. By controlling reflections with the conical horn and ensuring a seamless hand-off through the crossover, we’ve removed the "noise" of the environment. What’s left is just the sound—pure, uncolored, and housed in a form that looks just as good in the light of day as it sounds in the dark.

 

Technical Specifications: THE MONITOR

Category	Specification
Speaker Type	2-Way Coaxial Monitor
Internal Volume	0.7 cubic feet / ~20 liters
Cabinet Material	0.75” White Oak (CNC Machined)
Driver	8” Coaxial (JBL 328C)
Tweeter	1” Titanium Dome
High-Frequency Waveguide	Integrated Conical Horn
Low-Frequency Port	Front-Facing (Baffle Integrated)
Finish	Rubio Monocoat (Non-VOC / Plant-based)
Manufacturing	Designed & Assembled in Brooklyn, NY

 

The goal was to create a speaker that blends into modern living environments as a furniture object.