Monolith's stainless steel speaker is very metal

Nocs has teamed up with design studio Heliot Emil to create an even more minimalist version of its Monolith smart speaker.

It can be yours for $5,000.

Monolith speakers are famed for their minimalism, with models such as the Nocs Monolith x Aluminium looking like nothing else on Earth.

Now their creator, Nocs Design, has teamed up with Copenhagen's Heliot Emil studio to create a new limited edition speaker that’s even more zen.

The two firms have a "shared fascination with steel and its raw, industrial aesthetic" and a love of minimalism too. That's pretty obvious with their first collaboration: it looks like a monolith from the film 2001, albeit one with five big speaker drivers in it.

As ever with the brand, there's more to the speaker than how it looks.

HELIOT EMIL vs Monolith: key features

Each of the speakers is hand-made in Sweden and is being made in strictly limited quantities. Nocs says that's to ensure "meticulous craftmanship" and "flawless design and performance." But, while the manufacturing is old-school what's inside is not.

There's Bluetooth 5.0, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect as well as compatibility with the firm's own Nocs Design Music App.

Each Monolith comes with two 6-inch dual vented woofers and three 3.5-inch full range drivers; frequency response is 30Hz to 20kHz and there's a Class D amplifier with 150W of power.

In addition to Bluetooth, there's Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac).

Like other Monoliths, this design has been made with upgradeability in mind: it's been created in such a way that it's relatively easy to repair.

The Monolith looks massive in photos but it's smaller than you might expect: the speaker comes in at 550 x 380 x 180mm (21.5 x 15 x 7 inches), although at 12kgs it's not exactly portable.

Each Heliot Emil vs Monolith speaker is $5,000 / €5,000 (about £4,167) and you can connect up to eight Monoliths together as a multi-room system.