Many stringed, wind or percussion instruments are made of wood and produce an incredible sonority. What if the instruments used to make and listen to music nowadays, smartphones, also relied on wood to amplify their sound? A Madrid-based company called Ecophonic allows us to listen to our favourite Spotify playlists or the most exciting moments of Neftlix series amplified through this material.

Ecophonic is a speaker made of wood without cables or batteries. Thanks to its morphology and design, Ecophonic not only amplifies the sound of the phone, but also improves it, providing sound nuances in the mids and bass that are totally lost in the 1W speakers of mobile phones.

Ecophonic was founded in 2014, when nobody had heard of ecological speakers or ecophones. From the beginning, the company decided to go for native wood from sustainable forests with FSC certification which cares for and maintain the natural environment. They manufacture in Spain in a sustainable way, adding value to their products and differentiating themselves from Asian-made products.

Step by step they found the key promoting their products at trade fairs and design markets. They currently have a catalogue of 8 different models with prices ranging from 15 to 120 euros. Their products are mainly made in chestnut and walnut, but also in cherry, beech and wenge. However, they are constantly researching new materials, designs and concepts. The Uno Universal is their most successful model. It was the first one they launched and is compatible with 99% of smartphones.

Ecophonic speakers offer immediate amplification, without complications, for specific moments, but with sufficient sound quality. You can use them when travelling, having a coffee, a shower or a relaxing bath at home, in situations where it is not worth connecting a Bluetooth speaker. There is no other company that focuses its efforts exclusively on this type of loudspeaker. There are some bamboo models that amplify the sound by chance and, in addition, they are imported from Indonesia and China, leaving a huge CO2 footprint.

Ecophonic speakers do not intend to compete with quality electronic speakers, but rather with those cheap models manufactured in China that last very little, sound bad and end up in landfills generating waste. However, the company has a high-end line called Ecophonic Luthier Series that offers a superior sound and for which they have used luthier techniques.