The Product Development Journey of Muro Box N20

Welcome to read our product development journey stage by stage!

The founder of programmable music box Muro Box - Dr. Feng

This story shows why we decided to move back to Taiwan after having a startup dream in the US, and how we found the market potential of innovating a mechanical music box with modern technology.

Dr. Feng shares his maker’s story, which records how a firmware engineer, without any prior knowledge in mechanics, designed Muro Box from scratch. This story focuses on the design process of the mechanical part of Muro Box from zero to one.

After the mechanical design was settled down, we spent a lot of time designing the prototypes to preserve the unique resonance of the traditional music box. This story demonstrates how constructive feedback from potential customers helped us design the prototypes of Muro Box in 2017-2018.

We have studied users’ needs and habits carefully when designing our mobile app for Muro Box, the world’s first “app-controlled” music box. This story explains how our UI designer and music composers helped us define and refine the features in developing our app.

After the first crowdfunding success, we have collaborated with  factories to refine each part of Muro Box in order to enhance its sound quality. This story records the various obstacles we overcame when producing Muro Box, a smart but sophisticated music box.

The comb of Muro Box was an upgraded version based on the existing comb produced in Kyooh Precision Industry Co., Ltd. Our team has spent a lot of time refining this thin damper in order to enhance its durability without sacrificing its great sound quality. This story presents what we have invested in improving this tiny but vital component.

We designed a secret device, “the pin stopper,” to maintain the sustaining sound effect of Muro Box. With this special device, Muro Box can play unlimited fast melodies and keep each note sound longer. This story explains why designing a good pin stopper is a great challenge.

Muro Box, the world’s first app-controlled music box, is developed and produced in Taiwan.

You may not know that, in the past, about 40 percent of music box movements in the world were actually made in Taiwan.

The function of the metal base in Muro Box is to “conduct” the vibration from the comb to the wooden box. It significantly affects the sound quality, therefore, the material, size, shape, and thickness of the metal base went through a series of experiments.

The following story tells you the dilemma that the Muro Box team was facing between 2018, when Muro Box had the first ZecZec crowdfunding campaign in Taiwan, till 2021 the last batch of Muro Box was shipped to our Indiegogo backers.

Our music arranger, Ms. Hung-Yin Liu, has produced more than one hundred melodies for Muro Box customers, with challenges and emotional moments along the way. After receiving feedback from the customers, and reading the stories behind their customized melodies, Ms. Liu then realized that what she did was not just arranging music, but recreating the special memories to help customers convey their love for their loved ones.

In our Kickstarter campaign coming soon in Oct. 2023, we will introduce a new version “Muro Box-N20 Lite Battery Version”. It will incorporate the experimental results of various materials and techniques and crystallize the hard work of many Taiwanese pioneers in manufacturing to fulfill your ultimate dream of playing precious memories for the whole family with one music box.

The Muro Box N40 will have 40 notes on a chromatic scale to become your ideal music box instrument! Check out our  previous and latest updates about Muro Box N40 to understand how we designed it based on our customers’ suggestions.

This new model is expected to start its Kickstarter campaign in 2023! Welcome to sign up its news from the box below.