Marble is winning me over in 2014. Just a year ago, the only objects I owned made out of marble were salt-and-pepper shakers that my wife wouldn't let me get rid of. Fast forward a year, and I'm lusting after the Ovo, an iPhone speaker made out of a beveled cylinder of marble that looks just gorgeous.
Designed by stone craftsman company Monitillo Marni, the Ovo is milled with the help of a computer controlled machine out of a single block of Cararra marble. It's a passive speaker, which means that it uses marble's own acoustic properties to amplify the sound coming out of your iPhone, no electricity required. All you do is slide your iPhone 5 or 6 into the Ovo's dock, and hit play.
The Ovo is not going to ever be able to compete in volume or sound quality with a proper pair of speakers, but as a beautiful object that can also amplify your iPhone's built-in speaker enough to fill a small room with reasonably loud music, this speaker is a beauty. I'm surprised that I like it as much as I do, but I suppose I shouldn't be: between the fact that designers are saying marble is going to make a resurgence in 2015, and the beautiful way marble is mined, there's a lot to love about this material.
Well, except the price. Marble is expensive, and the Ovo is no exception. You can purchase an Ovo speaker online for around $430.