Lamps look like speakers but stay quiet

(Credit: Technabob)

Well here's twist we didn't see coming. Just the other day we were talking about the curious trend toward combination speaker lamps as companies build MP3 players into lighting appliances. What we didn't realize, however, is that the trend goes both ways.

Lyx, a home furnishings company based in Sweden, is listing a "Lightspeaker Lamp" that's designed specifically to look like an acoustic device but doesn't actually function as one. Much attention has been paid to detail, as Technabob notes, including a "volume" knob that's really a dimmer. Why? Because, we assume, they can.