It listens.It bristles.

Urchin is a wireless speaker with a living centre: black magnetic fluid that rises into spines in time with your music.

UrchinFerrofluid, glass, electromagnet, soundAbout 20 × 13 × 13 cmState: Drawn

Press to start the music

How reserving worksReservations open soon. Price announced at launch.

Do this: Bring your cursor close to the glass. Then press Play.Press Play, then watch the glass.
Notice: The fluid leans toward you. When the music starts, it stands up on every beat.When the music starts, the fluid stands up on every beat.
What's going on: A magnet under the cell pulls on iron particles suspended in oil. More bass, more pull.A magnet under the cell pulls on iron particles suspended in oil. More bass, more pull.

What’s inside

Eight parts, one job each. Nothing in the cell moves by motor: the dashed lines are the magnetic field, and every spine you see stands up along it.

Glass cell

Sealed for life. The fluid never touches air.

Ferrofluid

Iron-oxide particles about 10 nm across, coated and suspended in oil.

Electromagnet

Its pull rises and falls with the bass.

Battery

Rechargeable over USB-C.

Carrier liquid

Clear, so the black fluid never smears the glass.

Light ring

Throws colour up through the glass from behind.

Speaker driver

Plays the music you hear; the fluid shows it.

Base housing

Weighted, so the cell sits perfectly still.

Glass cell: Sealed for life. The fluid never touches air.
Carrier liquid: Clear, so the black fluid never smears the glass.
Ferrofluid: Iron-oxide particles about 10 nm across, coated and suspended in oil.
Light ring: Throws colour up through the glass from behind.
Electromagnet: Its pull rises and falls with the bass.
Speaker driver: Plays the music you hear; the fluid shows it.
Battery: Rechargeable over USB-C.
Base housing: Weighted, so the cell sits perfectly still.

What you hear

Your phone
Wireless
Amplifier
Speaker driver

What you see

Low end of the music
Electromagnet
Magnetic field
Ferrofluid spines

Turn up the bass.

The dial does what a bass line does. Turn it slowly and watch the moment the smooth surface gives way.

RestingNo sound. The fluid settles into a dark, glossy bead.
DrawnA little pull. The surface lifts and leans toward the magnet.
BristlingMusic. Spines stand up on every beat and fall back between them.
SaturatedFull bass. The whole surface is spines, packed edge to edge.

What’s going on

Ferrofluid is a liquid that behaves like a magnet. Every drop is crowded with iron-oxide particles about ten nanometres across, each coated so they never clump together.

With no magnet nearby, surface tension keeps the fluid smooth and round. Switch a field on and the particles line up along it. Past a certain strength the smooth surface can’t hold, and it breaks into an even field of spines. Physicists call it the Rosensweig instability.

Urchin’s electromagnet turns the bass in your music into that field, many times a second.

Silence has a shape too.

With nothing playing, Urchin doesn’t blink, glow or pulse for attention. The fluid settles into a dark, glossy bead and holds still, like any other object on your shelf.

Press play and it wakes. Stop, and a moment later it is a bead again.

Three ways to feed it

Anything from your phone.

Pair your phone and play whatever you like. The low end of each track drives the magnet, so every song draws a shape of its own: a slow ballad breathes, a club track never sits still.

Wireless pairing, as on any portable speaker.

Try it with our track

Off the plinth.

Here it stands on a plinth. At home it gets a desk, a shelf or the end of a sideboard. At about 20 cm tall it needs no more room than a small plant, and with nothing playing it sits there just as quietly.

Urchin on a light oak desk in late-afternoon sun, its fluid standing in spines, beside a turntable and a row of record sleeves. — Desk, late afternoonBeside the turntable, playing the record on it.

Urchin on an oak shelf against a bottle-green wall at night, lit from above by a brass picture light, next to a stack of books. — Shelf, at nightUnder a picture light, between the books.

Urchin at the end of a walnut sideboard at dusk, with art books, a vase of olive branches and a lamp-lit living room behind. — Sideboard, duskAt the end of the sideboard, where a lamp might stand.

All three are renders. The rooms were made with an image model; the Urchin in each was drawn by the same engine as the live one on this page. There are no photographs of a finished unit yet.

Play with it before launch.

Urchin isn’t on sale yet: the price and reservations come at launch. Until then, the dark room is the nearest thing to having one on your shelf.

Enter the dark room Read the specs

About 20 × 13 × 13 cm, with around eight hours on a charge. Typical figures, confirmed before launch. All specifications