Playing a CD is usually a pretty standard affair. Pop open a lid, place the CD on its tray, and go sit down to enjoy your music. Japanese design group Hers Design evidently didn't think it should be that simple. The Lunacalante is Hers' slick rethinking of the CD player, and that poking out the bottom is a CD.

The CD player appears to be top-loading. That is, you slide a CD down through the slit at the top, and it is (hopefully) mechanically assisted into place — that place being halfway out the bottom of the device. An exposed CD isn't what we go for first when looking at CD players, but Hers presents it in an attractive enough way that we might be tempted. However, without any kind of protection at all, a table-saw-like CD poses all sorts of hazards — both to the CD and the people around it.

The rest of the design is simple and pleasing: All of the controls are along the spine of the device, and it looks to have both track number and time displayed on its otherwise blank face. No pricing or availability yet, as right now it appears to be a concept for the brand Metaphys. — Kevin Hall

Hers Design, via Technabob