How to Best Showcase The Ikea Picture Frame WiFi Speakers
It’s all the rage to disguise audio gadgets with stylish designs that blend seamlessly into living spaces. Even Ikea has jumped on this trend: under the Symfonisk brand, the Swedish giant offers a „picture frame with WiFi speaker“ that delivers surprisingly good audio quality at an affordable price. Recently, the price of this device was even reduced.
The frame speakers are priced similarly to the Sonos One, and the sound quality is remarkably close too. Unsurprising, as it’s well known that Symfonisk products are powered by Sonos technology. Much like the One, the picture frame speaker sits a notch or two above average smart speakers in terms of audio quality. Sonos has placed a waveguide in front of the tweeter to distribute high frequencies more evenly throughout the room, and generally, the hardware is sufficient to fill medium-sized rooms with sound.
Two Symfonisk wall speakers can be configured as surround speakers for a Sonos Arc or Beam soundbar, and Sonos’s Trueplay function in the iOS app can also be used to fine-tune the speakers to the acoustics of a particular room. However, like other Symfonisk products, the picture frame speaker doesn’t have built-in microphones.
The main drawback of this speaker is its design. The standard speaker front isn’t to everyone’s taste. It resembles abstract art, which, according to designer Jennifer Idrizi, is inspired by the „structure“ of music. However, shortly after launch, the design faced ridicule on X (still Twitter at that time), described as fitting for chain hotels, dental surgeries, and kitschy Airbnb rooms at best. Ikea now offers a range of interchangeable fronts, but unfortunately, these too have attracted criticism: uninspired mass-market aesthetics that neither offend nor particularly excite.
A good smart speaker, but a weak aesthetic.
So how do you get a unique design on the Symfonisk panels? The solution is quite simple: remove the (often slightly saggy) fabric from the front frame and replace it with individually printed, high-quality acoustic fabric. This requires neither special craftsmanship nor excessive fiddling.
With a custom design or a fabric in the colour of your choice, the picture frame speakers can blend into your living space just as you want. Why not replace a photo hanging on the wall with a smart speaker, but keep the image unchanged? This easy customisation also opens up new design possibilities for shops or trade stands.
And why choose fabric from Akustikstoff.com? After all, several online printers now offer printed speaker fabric. The simple answer: Akustikstoff.com is the specialist in acoustically transparent fabrics, trusted by numerous speaker manufacturers. Ordering here means you get high-quality OEM-grade speaker fabric made in Europe, not cheap goods from the Far East. You can’t blindly trust non-specialist providers for fabric expertise and acoustic transparency.
Direct sublimation printing with Oeko-Tex certified inks guarantees top-quality, sharp prints with brilliant colours, without any loss in sound transparency. Elsewhere, printing often uses thermotransfer methods, which don’t deliver such vibrant colours, or flatbed and screen printing methods, where clogged pores can impair acoustic transparency.
The high quality of the speaker fabrics and printing process also ensures that the custom-printed fabric is safe to use and doesn’t smell of chemicals. The environment benefits too, as direct sublimation printing avoids solvent emissions and non-recyclable transfer paper waste.
With custom-printed acoustic fabric, even the wildest design ideas can be realised quickly and easily.
Conclusion: The Symfonisk picture frame speaker is a highly practical variant of a Sonos speaker, offering quality sound. With a custom-printed front, it can be personalised to also impress aesthetically. Wherever a standard speaker can’t be placed or shouldn’t be visible for design reasons, the combination of Symfonisk and a custom-designed front panel is the perfect solution.
The debate over whether to keep speaker grilles on or remove them is a longstanding one in the hi-fi community. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal preference, influenced by your priorities and the specifics of your listening environment.
Classic, but often more than a matter of taste among purists: speaker covers.
What Do Speaker Grilles Do? Speaker grilles, typically made of fabric, metal, or plastic and attached magnetically or with clips, serve two primary purposes: protection and design. They shield delicate components—like drivers and cones—from dust, accidental damage, and curious fingers. This makes grilles an obvious choice if your speakers are within reach of children or pets.
But speaker covers also have an aesthetic purpose. They complement the typically well-designed, understated look of the speakers by hiding the technical details. However, some prefer the opposite: exposed drivers showcase the technology and are often seen as a statement in high-end circles—a sign of passion for and knowledge of audio technology. But is this really the case, or is it more about personal beliefs?
Do covers change the sound? The central question is whether covers genuinely affect sound. The answer: it depends. The impact is often less significant than one might think, especially with high-quality acoustic cloth covers. Unlike metal covers, which inevitably reflect some sound, or foam materials, which dampen certain frequencies (and tend to disintegrate over time, becoming crumbly or sticky), speaker fronts made from specially designed acoustic fabric are sound transparent. When properly fitted, the fabric does not alter the sound. High-quality speaker fabric is, therefore, the best choice for restoration projects.
There may be minimal damping effects at the highest frequencies, detectable with measuring equipment. However, for most listeners, this effect is barely noticeable as it lies outside the audible range. Interestingly, our high-quality speaker fabric allows even ultrasound signals well beyond human hearing to pass almost untouched, making it suitable for ultrasonic applications.
Many speakers look less aesthetic without a front cover. In cases like this, a good cover made of acoustic cloth is essential for visual reasons alone.
Do Grilles Alter Sound Quality? The impact of grilles on sound quality depends on the speaker’s design. Grille fabric is usually acoustically transparent, so its influence on sound is minimal. However, at the extreme upper end of the frequency spectrum, some slight attenuation may occur—though it’s unlikely to be perceptible in most cases.
Issues are more likely to arise from the grille’s frame. If the frame is too close to the drivers—particularly tweeters or midrange units—it can cause diffraction. This happens when sound waves bounce off the edges of the frame, interfering with the direct sound and potentially affecting dispersion or introducing slight coloration.
However, it’s worth noting that these effects are minor compared to those caused by poor speaker placement, such as placing speakers in recessed spaces or near reflective surfaces. If you’re curious about whether grilles are affecting your setup, a blind listening test can help clarify any differences.
Finding the Right Balance Whether to keep the grilles on or off ultimately depends on your priorities. By experimenting and listening critically, you’ll discover what works best for your setup. The key is to balance protection, aesthetics, and performance for an optimal listening experience. If protection is essential—especially in households with pets or children—grilles are a no-brainer. Conversely, if optimizing sound quality is your main concern and you appreciate the visual appeal of exposed drivers, removing the grilles might be preferable during dedicated listening sessions.
A pragmatic compromise is to use a hybrid approach: keep the grilles on for everyday use to protect your equipment, and remove them when you’re focusing on critical listening or impressing audiophile friends.
Even with this high-end system, the flawlessly crafted speaker cover made of high-quality speaker grille cloth does not affect the sound. Ultimately, the decision of yes or no depends solely on aesthetic preference.
How do we look back on the past year, and what do we hope for in the next?
The week from Christmas to New Year’s Eve is a time to pause and reflect, to give thanks. It is the time of year when we look back on what we have achieved together and, at the same time, set our sights on the road ahead.
What were the greatest opportunities and challenges for you in a year marked by constant change and uncertainty? What new tasks did you tackle, what creative solutions did you find, and what milestones did you reach? And how confident are you as you look towards the future?
For us, the most significant change this past year was setting up and launching our new printing facility. We are now able to offer our premium speaker fabrics with bespoke prints – even certified as non-flammable on request. This opens up a world of new design possibilities, from custom colours to graphics and photographs. Behind the scenes, we undertook extensive configuration work on our online shop to streamline workflows for our printed speaker cloth and make the ordering process as simple as possible for you. We also introduced the option to order up to eight completely free samples directly online.
A different take on festive decor – speaker fronts and acoustic panels featuring individually printed speaker cloth.
Last year, we also made a decisive break: we permanently withdrew from Amazon. Our products and our account are gone for good. At first glance, this might seem like a risky move. But in an environment increasingly dominated by sellers from overseas, often offering questionable quality and disregarding proper invoicing with VAT compliance or the requirements of the EU Packaging Directive, we simply didn’t feel it was the right place for us. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers about this decision confirms it was the right one.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your many positive messages about our products and services, and for the lively exchange of ideas about your projects. It is always a pleasure to help bring innovative concepts and exciting ventures to life. Your trust in our company, our expertise, and our products has been instrumental in helping us overcome every challenge and look to the future with confidence.
Our thanks also go to our suppliers, who have worked with dedication, teamwork, and flexibility to ensure we could deliver acoustic cloth of consistently high quality this year, as well as to the delivery service staff, whose tireless efforts and commitment have been crucial to our success every single day.
The entire team at Akustikstoff.com wishes you a peaceful, happy, and healthy New Year. May 2025 bring you success and open up countless new opportunities for growth and development. Let us approach the coming year with optimism, enthusiasm, and a clear focus on the future.
Why Speaker Cloth in Your Favourite Shade Is a Game-Changer
Is your home the cosy haven you’ve always dreamed of – thoughtfully decorated, with every detail just so? Brilliant. A well-designed living space isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the foundation of comfort and wellbeing. After all, home is where we relax, recharge, and show off a bit of personality.
But for music lovers, pulling this off can feel like juggling plates. It’s not just about taste – there are practicalities to navigate too. Room acoustics, for one, often need a nudge in the right direction with absorbers and diffusers. Speakers demand the perfect positioning, standing proud to deliver peak audio performance. Meanwhile, turntables and amps cry out for AV furniture that’s both functional and visually appealing, offering storage and easy access without looking like you raided a 90s hi-fi store.
Off-the-shelf solutions? They’re decent up to a point. But when you’re after something truly bespoke, compromises creep in fast. Speaker grilles and AV furniture, for example, usually come in black, white, or grey. Fine if you’re going for “recording studio chic,” but not exactly ideal for a home that’s more hygge than hardware showroom.
For a polished home interior, AV furniture should blend seamlessly into the overall aesthetic. The fabric’s colour is a key element in creating harmony.
The same issue pops up in retail or exhibition design. Carefully coordinated colours and textures create an atmosphere, but the magic is easily undone by clunky, visible sound equipment. It’s not exactly the look you want when you’re selling cutting-edge innovation or the season’s must-have trends.
Here’s where speaker cloth in a shade that ties the whole space together comes to the rescue. Whether it’s covering AV furniture, speaker grilles, or acoustic panels, the transformation is quick, simple, and stylish. Even three-dimensional diffusers can be hidden behind suspended ceilings or walls clad in acoustic fabric – a trick borrowed from professional studio designers who won’t sacrifice style for sound. Some of our more enthusiastic hi-fi customers have pulled off the same at home, transforming their spaces into acoustic sanctuaries without an absorber or diffusor in sight.
In one standout living room, nearly everything was optimised with acoustic elements. Thanks to a full covering of Akustkstoff.com speker cloth in white and grey, unsightly absorbers and diffusors are hidden away, creating a clean, inviting space.
With over 40 standard colours in our range, your options are already vast. But what about those moments when only a very specific shade will do – perhaps a precise teal to finish off a modern flat, or Pantone® “Mocha Mousse” to round out an on-trend shop interior? Enter bespoke printed acoustic cloth in any colour you fancy.
This isn’t just any speaker cloth, mind. We’re talking premium Akustikstoff.com speaker fabric trusted by leading speaker manufacturers and used as their OEM equipment. Unlike the slapdash offerings from online print shops dabbling in speaker grille fabric, we guarantee consistent quality, vibrant colour reproduction with advanced direct sublimation printing, and expert advice every step of the way.
Printing Akustikstoff.com acoustic cloth in your dream colour opens up practically limitless design possibilities.
You can choose between water-repellent or non-flammable fabric, depending on your needs. And for public spaces, our material doesn’t just meet fire safety regulations – exceeding German DIN 4102 B1 and EN 13773, it surpasses them, acing standards like France’s notoriously strict NFP 92503 M1.
The direct sublimation printing process itself is worth a nod. With Oeko-Tex-certified inks, it delivers unparalleled vibrancy and accuracy that are simply out of reach with standard transfer sublimation methods. And unlike other traditional fabric printing methods such as flatbed or silk-screen printing, it doesn’t compromise sound transparency. It doesn’t clog the fabric’s pores or plaster the surface. Instead, the dye seeps into the fibres, keeping everything breathable. It’s eco-friendly too – no solvents, no wasteful transfer paper. For total peace of mind, we can even provide a colour proof on the original material before the main print run.
Direct sublimation printing ensures that Akustikstoff.com speaker cloth in custom colours comes in unbeatable colour quality.
So, when your vision calls for seamless design and impeccable sound quality, our custom-printed acoustic fabrics are the ultimate answer. Available from just one metre, they suit projects of any size, from intimate home spaces to large-scale commercial installations. So, why settle for functional when you can have flawless?
How modern speaker fabric is giving vintage speakers a new lease of life
Do you ever catch yourself thinking that everything used to be better? If we’re honest, it’s often nostalgia – that rose-tinted haze of emotions and memories – that makes the past seem more appealing than it really was. But sometimes, just sometimes, things truly were better. Or at least more beautiful and impressive.
Take audio equipment, for example. These days, we’re surrounded by compact, app-controlled, “smart” speakers delivering digitally “optimised” sound. Sure, it’s amazing what these pint-sized gadgets can produce in terms of sound volume, but let’s face it: HomePods, Sonos Ones, and Ikea Symfonisks are more about booming bass for the casual MP3 listener than delivering the kind of sound that gets audiophiles genuinely excited.
Sure to make HiFi enthusiasts‘ hearts race: A complete, well-preserved Sansui ‘Intelligent Super Compo’ with restored speaker grilles.
No wonder, then, that those of us old enough to remember can’t help but feel a pang of joy when we see a proper vintage HiFi system with its classic tower of components and serious speakers – especially if we actually listen. That’s when we crave the richer, more spacious, and lifelike sound that only a physical audio source and a quality setup with well-positioned speakers can deliver. Sorry, but no „sound-optimised“ smart speaker tucked into the corner of a room can replicate that magic.
It’s been decades now since the HiFi world was all-analogue. Cast your mind back to the early 1980s, for instance, when Sansui was marketing its “Intelligent Super Compo” system. The setup included servo amp, tuner, turntable, dual cassette deck, an optional equalizer, and even a “program timer” – all housed in a glass-door rack on wheels. A pair of S930 three-way speakers completed the package, and you had a state-of-the-art HiFi system that made your friends eat their hearts out. It wasn’t cheap, of course – Sansui was a top-quality brand, not a budget option – but it was worth it. No wonder Sansui’s vintage gems are highly prized by collectors and audiophiles alike nowadays.
Anyone lucky enough to own such a complete HiFi system in good condition knows they have a treasure on their hands. Take Emanuel Lakoutsis from Thessaloniki, Greece, for example. In his living room, you’ll find a well-preserved Sansui “Intelligent Super Compo.” But after 40 years, the speaker grilles on his S930s were looking worse for wear – a common weak point for vintage speakers. Back then, manufacturers often skimped on the fabric, meaning many speakers that still sound fantastic now look anything but, with sagging, torn, or threadbare grilles spoiling the aesthetic.
Not so appealing: The aged grilles of Sansui S930 speakers.
Sure, you could just remove the grilles entirely, but that would compromise the original look and leave the delicate speaker cones exposed to dust and damage. So, Emanuel decided to restore them with our Standard speaker fabric. After a quick consultation, he found the perfect choice, and within days, he was ready to get to work.
Mounting of the new speaker cloth with spray adhesive.
Using spray adhesive and following our YouTube tutorial, Emanuel carefully replaced the old fabric with a high-quality acoustic cloth. He then reattached the original red trim and Sansui logos. The result? A Sansui “Intelligent Super Compo” that looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor – a testament to the value of investing in OEM-quality speaker cloth when restoring beloved vintage gear.
Perfect down to the last detail: Refurbished Sansui S930 grilles with Akustikstoff.com speaker fabric.
As always, our speaker fabrics don’t just look the part. They offer outstanding acoustic transparency, excellent opacity, and flawless texture, while their elasticity makes them easy to install without wrinkles or stretching. With the right speaker fabric, even decades-old HiFi equipment can be spruced up for the digital age – and with minimal effort and cost.
And the cherry on top? Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can now browse those old Sansui brochures online and relive a golden era of audio. Sometimes, the past really does have its charms.
Why customers from many EU countries can no longer shop on our website.
Unfortunately, we’re no longer able to ship our technical textiles to every EU country. We know this particularly affects our private customers, who have come to know akustikstoff.com as the go-to place for high-quality speaker cloth across Europe.
The reason for this decision is the EU Packaging Regulation, which each EU country has implemented into national law. The result? A bureaucratic nightmare that’s not only impenetrable but also ridiculously expensive.
A mess of rules and red tape Let’s say a manufacturer, importer, or retailer wants to operate across all EU countries. It doesn’t matter whether they’re selling to private customers, business customers, or even just resellers – they must meet complex national regulations in each of the 27 EU countries. This means joining a waste recovery scheme and submitting two annual reports: one on the planned amount of packaging, and another on the actual amount of packaging they’ve put into circulation. And that’s not all. In some countries, they also have to: • See a local notary • Register in a packaging register • Appoint a local representative • Apply for a national tax number
Of course, there are now plenty of clever agencies that can handle all this for you in each member state – for a hefty annual fee. According to our research, the cost per country ranges between €150 and €400 a year, depending on the service package. On top of that, you’ve got the system fees for each country’s specific waste recovery scheme, which can often result in four-figure annual costs even if you just ship a single parcel to that country within a year.
National rules are skewing the market For small companies like ours, it’s becoming almost impossible to continue selling in many EU countries. The environmental and climate protection goals behind the EU’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging are undoubtedly important. But these regulations need to be uniform and fair for everyone.
That’s where the current rules, and those laid out in the new EU Packaging Regulation, completely fall short. Larger players in the market are clearly favoured by both the existing and upcoming regulations, with all their associated national bureaucratic hurdles. Only businesses of a certain size can afford the teams of specialists needed to meet the different requirements in each EU country. And only they can absorb the massive system costs because of their higher shipping volumes.
Small companies left behind, big players benefit It’s the smaller businesses that are left behind, including many niche product manufacturers like us. We simply can’t deal with the administrative burden, and shipping to other EU countries isn’t remotely feasible without reasonable de minimis thresholds.
The bottom line? Huge market distortions in favour of big companies and international marketplace giants, who have been lobbying heavily in Brussels for years. It’s already noticeable: there’s a clear thinning out of offerings in local markets, which means fewer choices for consumers across the EU. And let’s not forget, the past few years of COVID-19 and disrupted supply chains have shown just how important a stable, cross-border market with many different players is.
A real-world example – no joke! Here’s an example to make it clearer: A hospital in Portugal urgently needs medical masks. They’re sold out in Portugal, and with supply chains to China or other non-EU countries disrupted, they can’t get them quickly from outside the EU. But a highly specialised manufacturer of filter fleece and masks in another EU country could deliver them fast. However, under current laws, this manufacturer would first have to: • Appoint a local representative in Portugal • Register with the Portuguese authority in Portuguese • Sign up with a local system provider • Pay upfront licensing fees (without any de minimis threshold) • Submit annual reports on the packaging of the masks they’ve sold.
No wonder that the manufacturer decided not to bother with the deal in the end. The administrative costs were completely disproportionate to the potential profit. The hospital was then forced to buy from one of the international marketplace giants.
Crazy, isn’t it? Some EU countries have already recognised the absurdity of the situation and exempted medical items and packaging from these rules. However, the example still serves to highlight the madness, as similar situations are now commonplace for many products and customers in multiple EU countries. This deranged state of affairs completely contradicts the European ideal and the fundamental principle of free trade.
Isn’t there a better way to tackle packaging waste? Please don’t get us wrong – environmental protection is of the utmost importance, and reducing packaging waste should be close to everyone’s heart. At akustikstoff.com, we’ve been avoiding plastic packaging for years, we ship all orders in nothing but recyclable cardboard and we optimise all shipments to require as little shipping volume as possible.
We fully support tackling packaging waste, and we live up to this principle every day. We also believe that businesses should pay a fair price for the natural resources they use and the environmental damage they cause. But why not just tax the source of the problem?
Every piece of packaging made within or imported into the EU could easily be taxed at the point of manufacture or importation. This would only require tracking the movement of goods – something that’s already done in most cases – and then distribute the collected fees to the countries where the packaging is ultimately transferred to. Why create such a bureaucratic monster instead? Especially in view of the fact that the reform of the EU VAT system in 2022 already proved that the whole shebang could be handled in a different and much simpler manner. Sure, that took 25 years, but at least they got there in the end.
Why restoring Magnepan MG3.6R speakers and updating the speaker cloth is totally worth it
Let’s be honest: have you ever listened to music from a recording that truly captures the spatial depth and precision of a live concert? In today’s world of immersive audio and Dolby Surround, that might sound like an odd question. But think about it—this isn’t about digital tweaks that “optimise” sound and put you in the middle of the stage, where, frankly, the audience would never sit. The real question is: how do you recreate the sound from the front row, where every detail is razor-sharp, and the soundstage feels genuinely three-dimensional?
Most audio purists will agree that traditional speakers just can’t get you there. Speaker cabinets always influence the sound, and conventional speakers are unidirectional: They project sound mostly forward, making the listening experience a bit flat. The room doesn’t “breathe”, and even with perfect phase alignment, there’s usually only one “sweet spot” where everything sounds just right—the much-quoted apex of the stereo triangle.
The advantages of planar speakers If you’re after a truly spatial and precise listening experience, you’ll want to explore alternative designs, like open-baffle systems or planar speakers—specifically ESLs and full-range magnetostats. These speakers, with their figure-eight sound dispersion pattern, allow the room’s acoustics to become part of the music. They also offer phenomenal transient response, fantastic detail, and minimal distortion.
Magnepan MG3.6R planar speakers
So why aren’t there planar speakers in every living room? For starters, they’re technically demanding to make, so they’re pricier—and they’re also delicate. They’ve got limited membrane excursion, so they tend to be large. And to deliver their spatial magic, they need space. You can’t just tuck them into the corners of your bookshelf. In short, these high-end hi-fi speakers don’t come cheap or compact. But if you’ve got the room and the budget, you might find yourself dreaming about them until you own a pair—perhaps the revered Quad electrostats, which often come equipped with our speaker fabrics, by the way.
The legendary Magnepan magnetostats If you’ve got even more space, consider Magnepan’s massive magnetostatic speakers. Since the 1970s, they’ve been celebrated for their neutral, detailed sound, incredible inner detail and focus, brilliant transient response, and massive soundstage. The catch? A brand-new pair of Magnepan 3.7i speakers will easily set you back five figures.
The hidden gem: MG3.6R That’s where the MG3.6R comes in. As the predecessor to the 3.7i, it’s available on the second-hand market for far less. Yet many of these legendary speakers are sitting neglected in storage, suffering from issues like buzzing and rattling due to loose or oxidised wiring on the Mylar membrane or somewhat torn and tired-looking speaker fabric. So, are they better left in the attic as dusty relics? Absolutely not!
The interior of an ageing MG3.6R: oxidation, dirt and detached conductor wires cause trouble.
Breathing new life into the MG3.6R Restoring a pair of MG3.6Rs is more than worth your time. The sound is still top-notch, and replacement parts, along with – admittedly very succinct – restoration guides, are still available directly from the manufacturer. In our online shop, you can choose from a wide range of acoustic fabrics to refresh your speakers’ look. With a bit of time and DIY effort, you can bring back that magical Magnepan sound on a budget. There are amazingly detailed step-by-step guides online, including video tutorials on YouTube, that show how to reattach or replace the wiring. Once that’s done, covering them with new speaker fabric is a simple finishing touch.
Restoration of an MG3.6R: Cleaned Mylar film with conductor wires.
From MG3.6R to 3.7: A restoration success story Take it from Guillaume Schmidt, a customer from Castelnau de Medoc near Bordeaux in France. He recently restored his MG3.6R and shared the process with us—many thanks, Guillaume! Not only did he revive the sound, but he also gave the speakers a visual update, swapping the somewhat dated natural wood and beige fabric design for a sleek, timelessly elegant look based on the current 3.7i with black speaker cloth and corresponding wooden elements. Now his speakers don’t just sound fantastic—they look the part too. Hats off!
Covered with new speaker cloth and almost finished:
One of the MG3.6Rs restored by Guillaume Schmidt.
Why our new custom-printed speaker fabrics can complete your audiovisual experience.
Remember that holiday in your favourite country, where almost everything was perfect? Even the simplest dishes were at least twice as delicious as usual, right
No wonder. We know from numerous scientific studies that an experience such as a meal is always influenced by all our senses, especially visual perception. “You eat with your eyes, “ as a German proverb goes, meaning that food is more enjoyable when it is attractively presented and served in an appealing setting.
It’s all about the setting – even when it comes to listening pleasure And guess what: The same applies to our listening experience. Strangely enough, things sound subjectively better to a certain extent in an acoustically-questionable but impressively furnished baroque hall that smells of precious wood and fresh roses than in an acoustically optimised, but smelly and shabbily furnished room.
Believe it or not, perfect musical enjoyment is not so far from the perfect dinner: every detail matters. Needless to say that the performance of each element in the audio signal chain needs to be flawless, but the aesthetics of your setup and even the interior design of your listening environment also play a crucial role in creating a truly immersive experience.
That’s where our custom-printed speaker grille fabrics come into play, offering you the perfect blend of design flexibility and uncompromising acoustic performance.
Whether photo, graphic, or individual colour: Our individually printed speaker fabric opens up completely new design possibilities for you.
Customisation without limits At Akustikstoff.com, we understand that creative vision knows almost no bounds. And we do everything we can to support you in implementing your individual creative vision.
Whether you require a custom color,photo, graphic, or logo printed on our speaker cloth, we’ve got you covered. Our fabrics along with our new printing service allow you to create a unique product that sets you apart from the crowd. From high-end loudspeakers to acoustic panels and beyond, our fabrics enable you to unleash your design ideas and make a lasting impression.
Unmatched quality, unbeatable value As you may already know, we never compromise when it comes to quality. Our speaker fabrics are crafted using premium materials that ensure exceptional sound transparency, perfect workability, and stand the test of time.
With more than 2,000 colors readily available and the ability to reproduce any other color within the CMYK color space, the design possibilities are endless. Plus, our state-of-the-art printing technology ensures unparalleled image rendition, bringing your designs to life with stunning clarity and vibrancy.
Simple and easy ordering Obtaining your personalised acoustic cloth is easier than ever. Simply follow a straightforward process: select your desired fabric and size, define your color preferences using our color charts or by providing a sample, and approve the proof before production begins. And if you need assistance along the way, our dedicated team is always here to help.
Customised printing on acoustic cloth creates new creative scope in countless applications, for example for acoustic panels, loudspeaker design, and room decoration.
Stay ahead of the curve! While other sellers may offer custom-printed speaker fabrics, they can hardly match the level of quality and value that we provide, because they usually don’t have the entire production chain from fabric manufacture all the way to printing in their own hands.
As a discerning audiophile, a passionate home theater enthusiast, or a design-conscious professional, you already know that our fabrics offer an unbeatable price-performance ratio – a philosophy we continue with our printed products. With countless possibilities for personalisation and flawless sound transparency, our fabrics empower you to elevate audiovisual experience like never before.
Whether you’re looking to personalise speakers, acoustic panels, furniture, or rooms, our fabrics offer the perfect solution. Embrace the power of customisation with our custom-printed sound-transparent fabrics and take your audiovisual experience to the next level. Don’t hesitate to order free fabric samples through our online sample service.
Why we don’t deliver our speaker fabric to all countries and why it’s becoming fewer.
A few days ago, I once again found an incredibly cheap flight ticket promising to take me to the destination of my next dream vacation for a mere 29 euros from an airport near me. But, of course, upon closer inspection, it was anything but a bargain: Various service fees, flight safety charges, fuel surcharges, insurance costs, airport fees – and of course, hefty additional costs for any luggage larger than a lunchbox drove the actual ticket price up to a hefty triple-digit amount.
You’re wondering what this has to do with speaker fabric? Quite simply: as an operator of an online shop for speaker fabric, you can experience similar surprises on your shipping service providers‘ monthly invoices – with the fine but unpleasant difference that all additional costs are incurred long after the shipment has been dispatched. Once a package is on its way, there’s no turning back. Especially for deliveries abroad, this can quickly spoil your entire budgeting, with surcharges for islands, peculiar extra fees for deliveries to »remote areas«, or exorbitant return costs for undeliverable shipments. If a shipment is returned from a non-EU country, you’ll also be charged double customs duties for export and re-import. And all of this is rarely foreseeable when you ship an order.
So, you’ll do everything in your power to prevent such surprises from getting out of hand: First, you rely exclusively on shipping service providers that are proven to be reliable, work as transparently as possible, and whose delivery drivers don’t return every other shipment as undeliverable. Next, you choose only shipping methods that allow for precise tracking, and you tweak your IT systems so that your customers receive an automatic email with the tracking number of their shipment in advance. Then, you exclude countries for which there are no clearly calculable shipping costs from the option for easy online ordering. And, after the third undeliverable shipment returned from outside the EU, you decide to serve only private customers within the EU.
All of this, of course, contradicts the spontaneous impulse to make all customers around the world happy with your high-quality speaker fabric. It means additional effort and potentially loss of revenue, so it initially hurts. However, it contributes to the long-term survival of your business because it puts an end to pointlessly burning significant amounts of money every month on shipping your speaker fabrics. With this in mind, you can easily brush off occasional remarks from prospective customers in countries you don’t deliver to, as well as the complaints of some penny-pinchers who argue that shipping as an (unfortunately untraceable) merchandise shipment would be much cheaper. Knowing that it is ultimately your free choice to whom you sell, you finally lean back and think that everything is now well sorted.
However, your sense of contentment doesn’t last long because you didn’t account for the endless ingenuity of administrative bureaucracy. It keeps coming up with new antics, especially in the national implementation of EU directives. The latest example is the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This term encompasses, among other things, the obligations for environmentally responsible collection and recycling of sales and shipping packaging and the recyclability of products.
As an end customer, you have little to do with EPR. You simply dispose of all packaging and products according to the instructions in the designated collection containers and, if necessary, at the recycling center. You may occasionally be annoyed that products with a certain recycling system marking have become slightly more expensive because manufacturers and retailers pass on the costs of mandatory participation in the corresponding recycling programs to the products.
In principle, extended producer responsibility is, in our opinion, an important and welcome development – especially since at Akustikstoff.com, we have been actively working to continuously reduce the ecological footprint in the production and shipping of speaker fabric for years. However, each EU member state develops its own procedures based on the very broadly defined EPR guidelines of the EU, and that’s where the bureaucratic madness begins.
In some EU countries, realistic small-scale limits keep the costs for licensing and the effort for reporting the packaging placed on the market low. In other countries, however, there are no such small-scale limits. In such cases, full-scale contribution to a national recycling system is mandatory even for a single delivery to that country, with costs regularly amounting to several hundred euros per year. And the documentation requirements create considerable internal costs on top of that. Even people with pronounced difficulty in math can easily imagine that, for our business not to become completely uneconomical, we’d have to deliver nearly absurd quantities of speaker fabric to these countries. The beneficiaries of such models are at best internationally operating large companies, which have probably also conducted intensive lobbying efforts beforehand. And unlike small businesses, they can afford such lobbying.
But that’s not all. Some other countries now even require a national representative and notarization on-site to register with their respective recycling systems. It’s hard to imagine a better example of protectionism through the back door and the deliberate undermining of the idea of EU-wide free trade.
Smaller, specialised online retailers are increasingly being pushed out of some national markets due to such constructs around EPR, because violations of the requirements can lead to significant fines and penalties. A single delivery in improperly licensed packaging already constitutes such a violation. Some companies are currently taking this risk, probably in ignorance of the authorities‘ resourcefulness. Since the introduction of the so-called One-Stop Shop (OSS) for EU VAT reporting, it has become easy to identify shipments to every single EU country. And we don’t want to be criminalised and penalised. So, regretfully, we can’t deliver our speaker fabric to several EU states any longer, as frustrating as this may be for both our customers and ourselves.
A few years ago, I was in Malta at this time of year. One day I visited the Gaia Foundation and their Peace Grove above Għajn Tuffieħa Bay. It was a windy day, and the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard all around, while the bright, already somewhat warm sun made everything feel more alive. I noticed several beautiful olive trees standing in the midst of all the greenery. The vibrant green hue of the leaves caught my attention, and I couldn’t help but think how great this colour would look in our acoustic fabrics.
And now, it gives me great pleasure to announce the introduction of the new colour Olive to our extensive range of standard colours for acoustic fabrics. Olive is a warm, inviting colour that exudes a sense of calmness and serenity while adding new, spring-fresh Mediterranean accents.
Olive trees at the Gaia Foundation Peace Grove ner Għajn Tuffieħa, Malta
We’ve carefully crafted Olive to perfectly complement a wide variety of other colours. It pairs well with wood and with earthy tones such as browns and beiges, and it also goes well with lighter shades such as blues and greys. It also creates a beautiful and harmonious contrast when combined with black. This versatility makes our sound-transparent fabric in Olive an ideal choice for designers and architects looking for a colour that can work with almost any palette.
Inspired by the natural beauty of the olive tree, our Olive colour captures the essence of the qualities associated with this tree: it’s beautiful to look at, enormously adaptable, and stands for timeless elegance in our fast-moving world. The olive tree is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and growth, and the richness of the colour adds a touch of sophistication to any space and is a perfect representation of the modern aesthetic.
Mediterranean freshness: Akustikstoff.com speaker cloth in Olive
With the introduction of the new olive colour, we are excited to offer our clients our speaker fabrics in a new colour that opens up new aesthetic opportunities. Whether you are looking for a bold statement or a subtle accent, Akustikstoff.com speaker cloth in Olive will help you achieve your desired look. So, why not embrace the natural beauty of olive and give your creations a fresh new look with a calming yet aesthetically sophisticated aura? Olive is available as Standard Acoustic Cloth, as water-repellent Acoustic Cloth 2.0, and as nonflammable Acoustic Cloth FR. Best use our individual sample service to obtain samples of the new colour right away.
Surprisingly compact, powerful, audiophile, and almost limitlessly scalable: the "Pixi" speaker developed by Dutch company HornAudio with black speaker fabric from Akustikstoff.com
Stage performers such as musicians, cabaret artists, readers, and lecturers are usually confronted with a fundamental question before any live performance: Will the PA system provided on site meet the requirements? At the end of the day, the PA system is key to the success of a live event – even in the long run. Poor sound prevents the proverbial spark from striking during the performance, no matter how hard an artist tries on stage. Much more serious, however, is the fact that audiences usually blame poor live sound on the artists themselves, which means that inadequate PA systems can be a real career obstacle.
To minimise this risk, most performing artists rely on a so-called tech rider, a contract addendum that specifies the required features and performance data of the PA system and the lighting equipment. But in daily practice, even precise specifications in a tech rider do not protect artists from unpleasant surprises, and hardly any artist will cancel a show shortly before the venue opens because the PA system does not meet the agreed specifications.
That’s why the Dutch band Rapalje takes a completely different approach: The famous Celtic folk artists are usually using their own PA system, which is tailored exactly to their requirements and delivers excellent sound. Even at festivals, Rapalje like to set up their own system instead of the equipment available on site. This provides the musicians with the invaluable advantage of being able to fully focus on their performance because they can be be sure that the audience can hear exactly what is happening on stage.
The Dutch Celtic folk band Rapalje at the Zomerfolk Festival 2022 in Groningen.
However, there is a secret behind Rapalje’s excellent sound: The PA system does not consist of off-the-shelf components but is custom-built and optimally balanced in terms of acoustic behaviour. Undoubtedly, not every band can afford this luxury, because profound knowledge of acoustics and loudspeaker technology is required to design such a high-performance PA system. It’s precisely this knowledge that Maceál, one of the founding members of Rapalje, brings to the table. The multi-instrumentalist, not without reason called „Inspector Gadget“ by his band mates, is a born tinkerer with everything that has to do with music. In addition to harmonicas with completely new tunings and the gitouki, an instrument that adds a unique flavour to the Rapalje sound, Maceál developed the band’s proprietary headset microphones as well as the entire PA system, which he continues to optimise with great attention to detail. In his home province of Groningen and beyond, Maceál is a highly coveted expert in all matters of sound reinforcement technology. His company HornAudio, which has now been in existence for ten years, installs and rents out sound reinforcement systems of all sizes – all of them, of course, developed and manufactured in-house.
Sound tinkerer Maceál in his studio determining the acoustic behaviour of a „Pixi“ prototype.
As for most artists and stagecraft suppliers, the onset of the Corona pandemic initially heralded difficult economic times for HornAudio and for Rapalje due to the almost complete collapse of the event business. But surrendering to fate has never been Maceál’s thing. Instead, he used the free time he suddenly had to push his loudspeaker developments in a completely different direction: He used the principles of PA technology and his experience to develop extremely compact systems that offer true high-end sound with minimal space requirements. HornAudio breaks completely new ground with these systems that consist of a class D amplifier, a very compact subwoofer, and surprisingly small satellite speakers called „Pixies“, whose main parts are 3D-printed, acoustically optimised housings and flat membrane speakers. During development, special attention was paid to the avoidance of partial oscillations as well as to the prevention of phase cancellations through sophisticated housing and the front grille design.
A feature taken directly from the PA sector – and an extraordinary property in the hi-fi segment – is the scalability of the HornAudio system. While array configurations that can be adapted to the respective power requirements and on-site conditions are common state of the art in professional sound reinforcement technology, similar flexibility isn’t common for hi-fi and high-end loudspeakers. Maceál has created this possibility with his new development: Just like the speakers of a full-blown PA system, the „Pixi“ satellites can be configured as an array, if more power and an extended coverage angle adapted to the spatial conditions of a room are required. Arrays with four or eight „Pixi“ satellites per side can be easily realised to meet the requirements of large living rooms, public spaces, or a restaurant, for instance. Thanks to the runtime-corrected design of the speakers, the audio image remains linear in such array setups. Dreaded phase cancellations are avoided, so the sound isn’t compromised regardless of the listener’s position.
For the aesthetic design of the loudspeaker fronts, Maceál chose speaker fabrics from Akustikstoff.com. Despite good visual opacity, these high-quality fabrics offer maximum sound transparency and don’t impair the excellent sound of the system. Moreover, the extensive range of available colours allows the speakers to be visually matched to almost any conceivable room design and to meet any customer requirement.
The sophisticated development is convincing all along the line: Even the smallest configuration, which consists of two weatherproof „Pixies“ measuring only 7 x 7 x 7 cm and a 28 x 28 x 16.4 cm subwoofer that also houses the amplifier, renders a surprisingly voluminous and detailed sound. Its almost linear frequency response from 38 all the way to 21,000 Hz and the excellent spatial imaging raise the bar for small speakers with big sound, which has so far been defined mainly by Sonos systems.
Array configurations of four or eight satellites per side plus a correspondingly powerful subwoofer further extended the frequency response, bring even more sound pressure and sound volume to the table, and provide outstandingly fine detail regardless of volume. In fact, such an array with its linear reproduction behaviour outshines many established studio monitors in a direct listening comparison. In terms of acoustics, it is on a par with high-end loudspeakers that change hands for five-figure sums per unit.
The wide range of connection options leaves nothing to be desired. The system can play back audio directly via Bluetooth, and it can be integrated into a multi-room system via WLAN. In addition, there’s an RJ45 socket for wired connection to a LAN, a 3.5 mm jack socket to connect analogue audio sources, and a USB interface to play back audio content directly from USB data carriers.
The smallest configuration of the new HornAudio system, marketed as „Rapalje Sound System“.
A first series of the smallest configuration has now been launched as a special „Rapalje Sound System„. It can be ordered from Rapalje’s online shop together with a USB stick containing the band’s complete repertoire. There is a choice of five different colours for the speaker fabric from Akustikstoff.com that covers the speaker front: Customers can either choose neutral black or one of the band’s four typical colours, which are green, red, blue, and brown.
Active tracking of your shipment from Akustikstoff.com is more important than you may think.
Is your order from our online shop already on its way to you? If so, you will have received a shipment notification email with a tracking number. Use this number to actively track your shipment. It’s worth the effort.
Now and then we receive emails and calls from customers who report problems with the delivery of their shipment and ask us for help. Apart from a few exceptions, however, there is very little we can do in such cases. The parcel services’ operations are completely beyond our control, especially outside Germany. Nevertheless, there are several things you can do in advance to avoid much of the typical hassle with parcel services.
This article illustrates how to set the course for the smooth delivery of your order. Let’s start with a look at what causes the vast majority of problems, because, as always, understanding the origin of problems makes it easier to avoid them right from the outset.
Overworked delivery staff
Are you still expecting several delivery attempts to be made before a shipment is considered undeliverable and returned to the sender? Well, time to say farewell to this idea. Today, delivery services are amazingly quick when it comes to returning a shipment because of an insignificant address error, a missing door code for a building, or simply because the reception desk in an office building is unoccupied during the very minute a delivery driver appeared and disappeared again.
You can also bid farewell to the hope that drivers will actually phone, text, or email you, no matter how many contact options may be printed on the address label of a shipment. According to our experience, phone contact is only made for express items nowadays. In all other cases, the delivery driver, in all likelihood a prime example of an overworked, underpaid gig worker anyway, will try to get the shipment out of that delivery van clogged with far too many Amazon parcels as quickly as possible. Quite frankly, working conditions don’t leave space for even the least bit of additional service. So don’t blame the driver.
The volume of parcels is continuously increasing and most delivery drivers are terribly overworked. Please make it as easy as possible for them to deliver your Akustikstoff.com order effortlessly.
Do not expect notifications
In the meantime, items are often deposited for collection at a depot (UPS Access Point, post office, etc.) after a single delivery attempt. And, in many countries, you better not bet on a corresponding notification to land in your letterbox. In the worst case, your fervently awaited speaker cloth will be returned to us without any further notification after about 10 days in the depot.
Much in the same way, items are more and more often „delivered“ at a random place somewhere on the plot or in the immediate vicinity of the delivery address. And, again, the expected notification card might be missing. In such cases, the item is flagged as “delivered” in the parcel service’s database, but it can be almost impossible to identify its actual location or to collect it. This can be particularly annoying for business customers who are urgently waiting for our speaker fabric to keep their production running.
Moreover, the vast majority of parcel services still perform „contactless delivery“ as a protection measure against Covid-19. This can make it even more complicated to find out the whereabouts of an item and the person who has accepted the shipment.
Keep a constant eye on the shipment process of your speaker cloth
Once you’re aware of all this, you can do appropriate steps to ensure that your shipment from Akustikstoff.com arrives at the desired destination on time and reliably. We do everything we can to make this possible. That’s why we ship all orders with a shipment ID that enables seamless tracking of the item.
If you’ve placed an order in our online shop, you will automatically receive a shipping confirmation with a clickable shipment ID enabling you to track the shipment directly on the parcel service’s website. You can monitor the entire shipment process and usually also see all delivery address details stored by the parcel service.
Actively facilitate a smooth delivery of your speaker fabric
First check this address data for correctness and completeness. Should you discover an error, please contact the parcel service provider immediately and have it corrected. In most cases, this can be done directly online. However, some providers will require you to create a customer account first.
Then take a look at the scheduled delivery date. Ideally, you should arrange for someone to be present at the delivery address on that day. If this isn’t possible, best change the delivery date or address way in advance. Alternatively, you can issue a one-time drop-off authorisation for a specific location with almost all parcel services.
Personal delivery of a shipment has become rare in the wake of Covid-19.
We’ve also heard that drivers simply skip deliveries that would require them to ascend several floors and simply send parcels straight to a depot for collection. While that’s surely not nice, there’s not much anyone can do about it, and it seems to happen quite often nowadays, especially in cities. With the help of the shipment ID, however, you can at least find out immediately whether your shipment has been made available for collection at a depot near you.
As you can see, the shipment ID in our shipping confirmation email is your key to a smooth delivery. Take advantage of this opportunity!
Stay on the ball
It is very important to track the shipment closely until you have received it. After all, the vast majority of problems occur on the proverbial last mile. Consistent tracking keeps you aware of whether the item is still on its way or has already been delivered, deposited in a depot or delivered to another address. In most cases, proof of delivery with the relevant details is also provided. These can help you to get possession of your parcel as quickly as possible.
Please remember: time is short once your shipment has been sent to a depot. Items that are not collected within a maximum period of two weeks (rather less) will be returned – which is a disadvantage for either side, as you will not obtain the speaker cloth while we get charged exorbitant return fees.
Don’t forget to check your spam folder
If you have placed an order with us online, our system generates an order confirmation email immediately. Should you not have received this email, please check the spam folder of your email programme – and continue to do so, because it is very likely that the shipping confirmation with the shipment ID will also end up there.
The simple remedy for future cases: put the domain akustikstoff.com on your whitelist. Don’t worry, we never send advertising emails and prevent our systems from spreading spam.
Avoid problems even before placing your order
Please make sure to check the following simple points before sending your online order. This greatly helps to ensure the quick and smooth delivery of your shipment:
• Did you enter your e-mail address correctly and without typos when placing your order?
• Is the indicated shipping address correct, complete, and accurate?
• When ordering via Paypal Express: Is your correct delivery address on file with Paypal?
• Have you entered your telephone number for queries? A telephone number is always required for express shipments, but it can also be extremely helpful in other cases.
• Do you have a clearly legible bell plate or a company sign bearing the name in the shipping address? If not, delivery is almost sure to fail.
• Is your letterbox easy to find and clearly labelled? This is the only way of enabling the driver to leave you a message if necessary.
Additional information from Shipcloud
We process almost all our shipments with the help of Shipcloud, and our customers will also receive a message from Shipcloud if problems with the shipment are reported by the parcel service.
If you receive such an email, please contact the relevant parcel service immediately to resolve the problem. Please remember that it doesn’t help to contact us. We do not have any information beyond the tracking information and are not entitled to act on your behalf in relation to the local delivery service. We can only help you if the shipment is lost or completely misdelivered, and, of course, we’ll be happy to do so. But fingers crossed that this won’t be necessary once you’ve taken all the precautions described above.
The white-bellied frog (geocrinia alba) is an extremely tiny species that only lives in an equally tiny area. Scientists have found that total area the extremely endangered frogs occupy is less than 2 square kilometres of swampy patches in the Margaret River region in southwest Western Australia. Such an endemic species naturally attracts the interest of scientists.
Biologists at the University of Western Australia wanted to record the frogs’ distinctive noises to to gain further insight into the behaviour of the animals. But in a wet environment, this poses particular challenges. So they got in Touch with Soundlabs Group in Mittagong, Australia, our distribution partner for the Asia / Pacific region.
“My application is probably a bit unconventional,” wrote Emily Hoffmann, PhD Candidate at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia. “I am working with critically endangered frogs in Western Australia, and we are trying to monitor their calling behaviour remotely by using audio recorders that we can deploy into the field. I have made some water-resistant cases for the audio recorders, but I need to cover the holes for the microphones with something water resistant that won’t interfere with the recording ability.“
Leon Gross, the owner of Soundlabs Group, was more than happy to help. He provided the biologists with some of our liquid-repellent Acoustic Cloth 2.0. The specially treated cloth, which has already proven its special qualities in numerous applications such as outdoor loudspeakers or in yacht building, now covers the section where the microphone is located, so any rain or drops of water just run off while neither the technology within the cases nor the quality of the recordings are affected.
One of the recording devices equipped with Acoustic Cloth 2.0 by Akustikstoff.com. The devices are used to monitor white-bellied frogs in Western Australia.
To learn more about the white-bellied frog and the research project, which is supported by several foundations and associations, read this article, which was published by „The Naked Scientists“.
Philippe Guènerie’s from the French town of Blois specialises in exclusive retro design and impressive high-quality horn systems. The hi-fi tinkerer has been building loudspeakers and amplifiers for a long time. He also refurbishes historical amplifiers and radios. Whenever speaker fabric is required for a project, he relies on the products of Akustikstoff.com. „You have beautiful things on offer,“ he praises the range.
Impressive: Philippe Guènerie specialises in high-end horn systems.
Nothing is more pleasing than satisfied customers – and we’re especially pleased when we exceed our customers‘ expectations. We did so again, this time with our Metallic-Line speaker fabric , which will now even appear on British television. A few days ago, we received a message from Paul Golledge, who lives with his partner Emma Newton-Gunn in the Château de Montvason, a lovely castle in Normandy. The couple is among the protagonists of the British Channel 4 series „Escape to the Chateau DIY„.
Paul writes: »Hello, I ordered your copper acoustic cloth for a project I have. We are once again filming for U.K. channel four ‘chateau diy’ and I have built a large pair of Art Deco speakers for my French Mouthful O’ Jam vintage 78 record DJ kit. The old kit was filmed for a German Arte documentary called Shellack. After having trouble with my staple gun I finally managed to fit the cloth and I’m incredibly pleased with the look. I chose copper because I thought it would look OK but to my surprise it is incredible and the deco speakers are superb. I will be ordering more as I need to build the Art Deco bass speaker units. I’m sure that on television it will look incredible. What an amazing surprise. Well done and keep up the good work. All the best, Paul, Château de Montvason.«
