Actually, my discovery of high-end music boxes was purely a coincidence. My previous impression of these things was stuck on “wind-up little toys that only tinkle for a dozen seconds, often play out of tune, and mostly appear in horror movies.” It wasn’t until one day when YouTube recommended a comparison video to me that I had a sudden realization: so a real music box can have such a sense of ritual, and the sound can be this pure!
After being thoroughly amazed, I originally planned to bite the bullet and buy a 72-note Sankyo music box. Because it certainly wasn’t cheap, I pulled my wife along to pick a melody together. They all sounded great, but it was incredibly hard to choose. At that moment, my wife couldn’t help but sigh: “A machine bought for several thousand dollars, no matter how beautiful the sound, can only play the same song over and over. Over time, we’ll definitely get tired of it. It feels like a bit of a pity; if only we could change the songs.”
My wife’s words really stumped me. The disc music boxes on the market that can change songs, in terms of both size and price, are far beyond the affordability of ordinary enthusiasts; as for the paper-strip ones, you have to crank frantically every time you want to listen, turning it into a pure “musical workout”… At the time, I even had a whimsical thought: Could there be a music box where you can easily swap the cylinder, just like changing a cassette tape? With a mindset of not holding out much hope, I casually searched online.
And then, the Muro Box appeared on my screen.
As a pure engineering guy, the moment I saw the internal mechanical structure, I instantly understood its ingenuity: equipping each tooth of the comb with an independent playing wheel so that any piece of music can be played through program control. I was completely blown away, exclaiming, “There’s actually a team determined enough to make this brilliant idea a reality!” After a quick look at the specs and demo videos, we immediately made the call: say no more, we must have this in our home!
Speaking of the laser engraving design on the machine body, we drew our whole family on it. Because I am a bit on the chubby side and my wife especially loves rabbits, the main characters are a bear and a rabbit. That adorable little “rabbit-bear combo” in the middle represents our nearly two-year-old son; of course, we couldn’t forget the two cats at home in the picture. This drawing is actually a miniature of our entire family. The funny thing is, both my wife and I come from pure engineering backgrounds with absolutely no artistic bone in our bodies. In order not to ruin the drawing, we decisively sought help from ChatGPT, and finally relied on AI to help us perfectly bring this heartfelt vision to life.
———–
When it came to choosing the song, my wife wasn’t involved, because I secretly hid the free custom arrangement quota that came with the N40 Sublime, wanting to give her a surprise. The song I picked is called Xiang Shou (Staying Together), from the game Sword and Fairy 7. This was originally a song written by the game production team to veteran players, thanking them for staying by their side for thirty years. The emotion I want to express through this song is exactly the same: from when we met in 2013 until now, my wife has always stayed by my side; now that we have a lovely child, we also hope to always stay by his side. This Muro Box is the best witness to our companionship.
After three weeks of anticipation, on July 24th, the Muro Box finally arrived at our home. I specially pulled my wife along to plug it in with a full sense of ritual.
To be honest, I was a little apprehensive while waiting for the delivery. Because the Sankyo videos I had watched before had absolutely zero mechanical noise, I was quite afraid our motor would be noticeably loud. But the exact second the melody of Xiang Shou rang out in our living room, I was completely relieved—the motor’s running sound was almost inaudible!
Moreover, the dual-comb harmony of the Sublime version is truly phenomenal; the layers and texture of the sound far exceeded expectations. Even though it is pricier, this overflowing auditory enjoyment is absolutely worth the extra cost, it’s really so worth it!
Of course, our little one who isn’t even two years old yet can’t understand the emotion in this song right now. To him, those spinning mechanical gears inside the glass cover are simply the coolest and most fun toy in the world. He has to lie next to it and watch eagerly for ages every single day.
Our whole family truly enjoys its sound.
Thanks again to the Muro Box team, thank you for bringing such a beautiful thing into our lives!
Finally, I’ve attached the video of the very first time the Muro Box played after officially settling into our home below.
Thank you to our American customer (Anonymous) for writing in to share his gift-giving story with us.
⮕ We invite you to read more stories from customers around the world who use customized laser-engraved music boxes to express their heartfelt gifting intentions:
https://murobox.com/en/our-users/read-the-stories-of-customized-laser-engraved-music-boxes-en/
