Muro Box-N40 Resonance Box Sound Test; New N40 Metal Plate Designs
Hi everyone,
This is the inventor of Muro Box, Dr. Chen-Hsiang Feng. This N40 update will cover the following key points:
1. Let’s see the first prototype of N40 Resonance Box (made with pinewood) and hear its sound effect!
2. We design three new metal plate’s frames for you to choose which one you prefer.
The Test Result of Pine Wood Resonance Box
Due to the time required for obtaining the solid wood and receiving some revision feedback from the wood processing service provider, we only have the pinewood version of the resonance box product sample at hand. We plan to test four different wood materials for making prototypes to test their sound effects, including the Acacia wood option, and we will work closely with the wood box manufacturers in the following weeks.
The newly-made pine wood version of resonance boxes have been placed on the live streaming window of our website, and we welcome you to watch and listen to its live performance.
We are very satisfied with the newly designed Pinewood resonance box. Here are my observations after conducting tests:
The overall design of the resonance box is successful and effective. Moreover, due to its larger volume compared to the N20 resonance box, the sound effect is more pronounced. In other words, the sound is somewhat louder compared to the older model, and the acoustic characteristics of the wood itself are more distinct. Please refer to the following explanations.
1.The characteristics of pinewood include being lightweight and soft, resulting in loud volume and abundant resonance. The sound of the pinewood version resonance box, in my opinion, resembles the sound characteristics of traditional guitar’s resonance boxes. Personally, I find the sound to be slightly too loud. For instance, during our lunchtime, we tested the N40 pinewood version resonance box with the N20 as background music for our lunch break. Suddenly, we noticed a neighbor from the store across the street sneaking around and standing at our company’s entrance listening to the music box’s live performance. When we greeted him, he mentioned that during our previous music box tests, he couldn’t hear anything from across the street, but this time, upon hearing the music box playing, he couldn’t resist its charm anymore, so he came closer to watch it. Although our Muro Box-N20 product sample on this resonance box has intentionally adjusted the distance between the comb and the rolling pins to be closer in order to amplify the volume, it was our first-time to hear a neighbor coming from across-street store expressing his wish to enjoy the music box live performance with us.
Here is the comparison video we recorded; please take a listen first. Please note that we will have minor design adjustments, so the content of the video is not the final version for shipping your Muro Box-N40.
2. Regarding the abundant resonance, when testing the N40 standard version on two resonance boxes, I feel that, due to N40 Standard’s pure original sound, it has a more “rich” quality compared to the N20 zebrawood version in overall situations. Especially in the lower tones, there is a sense of lingering reverberation, while on the higher tones, I personally find the zebra wood version to be cleaner and more refreshing. Depending on the melody style, 2 resonance boxes may suit different melody styles.
3. However, with the Muro Box-N40 Sublime model, because of its -14 degree design of the two extra combs, and the use of pinewood, excessive resonance may create a perception of inaccurate tuning. Nevertheless, it seems to be closer to the thunderous sound of traditional large mechanical music boxes. Since traditional music boxes are not designed for sound effects similar to musical instruments, I believe collectors of mechanical music boxes may feel that this pinewood configuration is closer to the familiar sound characteristics they appreciate.
▲We extend our gratitude to Mr. Yeh, the owner of Ching Kung Wood Manufacturer in Wugu district, for providing detailed explanations on how the CNC machine works on our Muro Box-N40 Standard and Sublime models, as well as the cutting methods for the newly designed resonance box in the production process.
4. We believe that leaving the resonance box unfinished is also a good option. If anyone feels the need, they can purchase wood treatment oil similar to what IKEA sells (STOCKARYD – wood treatment oil, indoor use, 500 ml | IKEA Taiwan Online) and apply it themselves. Additionally, for those with graffiti preferences, the untreated version may be easier to work with. Of course, if you prefer not to handle this yourself, we are considering offering a painting service as an add-on option. This way, you can choose from a selection of colors (such as black walnut), and we will manually apply the wood paint for you.
5. It is highly likely that we won’t be able to offer the Acacia wood versions of N40 resonance boxes and will use “Millettia Laurentii” as a substitute for the add-on option. The reason is that our Acacia wood supplier is unable to provide us with a sufficient quantity of raw wood for processing at the moment. We already ordered a large amount of Acacia wood at once for the N40 Sublime music box, but their current stock of Acacia wood is insufficient. Therefore, we need to make sure that all of the available Acacia wood is reserved for making the wood box case of N40 Sublime. However, we have obtained the test samples for the resonance box, so we will proceed with the sound tests as planned before making the final decision on whether to adopt Millettia Laurentii as an add-on substitute.
Let’s Vote for the New Metal Plate Frame Design for Muro Box-N40 Music Box
Why redesign the metal plate?
Based on our everyone’s feedback in the form from N40 Update#12 Regarding the metal plate design, and our N20 customers’ suggestions on customized engraving design, many people prefer to reduce or remove the Muro Box logo. Hence, we asked our designer, Pen-Chen Chiu, to redesign the metal plate’s frame to leave more space for showing the customized design engraving content.
The new N40 metal plate’s size and screw holes are the same as the current N20’s metal plate, so in the future the new metal plate design that wins the most votes will also be applied in our N20 music box.
Please tell us which one of the three new metal plate designs you like via the form below.
