I love it when design and function merge seamlessly. The new Leon Mera Sound Sconce is a great example of blending these elements by combining sound and lighting in an attractive wall fixture effortlessly accenting whatever’s around it. I had no idea something like this existed until my gaze was recently transfixed at a trade show. After much begging and pleading on my part, I finally had a demo sample sitting on my desk. I couldn’t wait to get it unboxed and installed.
Unboxing
Thanks to Livewire’s Grant Wilging, we have a snazzy unboxing video to do what 1,000 words can’t. Everything arrives encased in brown cardboard with pro installation in mind. There’s nothing consumer-facing or shiny here. It’s all meant to be broken down easily and recycled. The mounting hardware and Sound Sconce unit are packaged separately and separate SKUs are available for new construction and retrofit. Our Black Sand unit (they also come in Linen and Clay hues) was designed for the latter.
Installation
The Leon Mera Sound Sconce sports a 3” woofer, cloth tweeter, and onboard dimmable LED tape designed by American Lighting. Units are sold as a pair or separately with or without an amplifier. The speaker itself is passive so it needs some sort of amplification and the lighting has an integrated or outboard American Lighting power supply designed to wire directly to an AC load from a switch or dimmer. The actual installation work is extremely simple and requires 2 conductor speaker wires and high-voltage power fished through the wall. This product demonstrates the rapid convergence of high and low-voltage disciplines. Integrators without proper licensing may need to call in a master electrician.
We ended up installing the Mera Sound Sconce in an area already decorated with a large mural depicting the Grateful Dead playing in Portland during their 1974 tour with their wildly amazing and impractical Wall Of Sound. I was hoping the Sound Sconce could round out the space by providing aural illumination in the space around the clock.
After the Sound Sconce installation, I fired up our house audio system and began playing “Fire On The Mountain” from the Grateful Dead’s seminal May 8, 1977 show at Cornell University’s Barton Hall. It was amazing. From the warm glow of the Sound Sconce to the full sound emanating from the small but mighty speaker, it transformed the space in a sublime way that Leon has become famous for.
Final Report
Is $2,000 a lot for a wall-mounted light/speaker combo? I guess it depends on who you ask. For someone looking to tastefully flank a flat panel TV, restaurant dining room, decorative mirror, or simultaneously light and bathe a hallway with sound, the answer is “of course not!” The Mera Sound Sconce isn’t a solution in search of a problem but rather a killer arrow in any integrator’s quiver which will be finding its way into more and more of our projects in the coming months.
