Wall Mounted CD Player CPD-4 / Muji
Muji's wall-mounted CD player is Naoto Fukasawa's best-known object, a 1999 design that turns playing a disc into a single physical gesture. Fukasawa noticed that a CD spinning behind its housing looks like the blades of a ceiling extractor fan, so he gave it the same control: a cord hanging from the underside. Pull it, the disc spins up, and the music arrives as the rotation settles. The body is an off-white ABS square, the speakers behind a perforated grille in the lower corners, the other controls on the top edge. The current CPD-4 revision adds an FM tuner. Muji discontinued the player in 2024, so it is now found used or as old stock rather than new. It suits anyone who wants listening to be a deliberate act.
Design intent
- +Using the power cord as the only control turns switching on into an instinctive pull, borrowing a gesture people already know from an extractor fan rather than teaching a new interface.
- +Mounting the player on the wall with the disc on show treats the spinning CD as the object's main visual event, so the form and the function are the same thing.
Trade-offs
- -Sound quality is modest: small corner speakers in a thin plastic body prioritise the ritual and the form over fidelity, and a faint hiss is inherent to the design.
- -Now discontinued, it can only be bought used or as old stock, with no current warranty and limited support.
Muji's wall-mounted CD player is Naoto Fukasawa's best-known object, a 1999 design that turns playing a disc into a single physical gesture. Fukasawa noticed that a CD spinning behind its housing looks like the blades of a ceiling extractor fan, so he gave it the same control: a cord hanging from the underside. Pull it, the disc spins up, and the music arrives as the rotation settles. The body is an off-white ABS square, the speakers behind a perforated grille in the lower corners, the other controls on the top edge. The current CPD-4 revision adds an FM tuner. Muji discontinued the player in 2024, so it is now found used or as old stock rather than new. It suits anyone who wants listening to be a deliberate act.
Design intent
- +Using the power cord as the only control turns switching on into an instinctive pull, borrowing a gesture people already know from an extractor fan rather than teaching a new interface.
- +Mounting the player on the wall with the disc on show treats the spinning CD as the object's main visual event, so the form and the function are the same thing.
Trade-offs
- -Sound quality is modest: small corner speakers in a thin plastic body prioritise the ritual and the form over fidelity, and a faint hiss is inherent to the design.
- -Now discontinued, it can only be bought used or as old stock, with no current warranty and limited support.
