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Enter Level Audio, a Dutch company dedicated to achieving the most natural-sounding musical signal. Their MO is to offer audio accessories made from bamboo. In Level Audio’s vision the amorphous structure of bamboo in combination with enhanced rigidity from how the cut bamboo is layered and bonded make their product extremely suitable for the task of removing unwanted mechanical resonances. In addition this product is anti-static and anti-allergenic.
Most importantly the bamboo used by Level Audio is ecologically grown and sports an FSC certification. The Forest Stewardship Council’s mission is to "promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests". Even the panda and its habitat are spared as the bamboo is sourced from another region and of a different variety than the preferred panda chow. CO² neutrality is guaranteed and the finished product conforms with EU regulations regarding formaldehyde outgassing. In short this stuff is as green as it gets.
On top of sustainable ecological bamboo, Level Audio pays more than average attention to their packing of finished goods. Recycled paper and cardboard are used wherever possible. Before Level Audio can produce any audio-related product, the bamboo must be harvested. Next comes cutting the bamboo canes into long strips and removing the green outer bark with a specialized bench tool. After drying the long strips follows another abrasion stage. Only afterwards can these strips be lined up horizontally and bonded together under high pressure with glue to form large sheets like ubiquitous MDF or Ply.
From these sheets a CNC router mills the desired shapes. After coarse sanding there's further machining for holes and notches for subsequent inserts. Old-fashioned hand labor then handles fine finish sanding and the first application of a special wax/oil consisting of sunflower oil, soy oil, thistle oil, candela and carnauba wax plus paraffin. Halfway into the drying and hardening process of the wax/oil the product gets buffed out before it is left to dry out completely. The last step before boxing and shipping is a final brushing and application of a thin layer of velour where two surfaces will meet.
For review we received a complete sampling package. Don’t think the Level Audio products arrive in the trite box variety of the ecological brown shopping bag. Far from that. They come in real pieces of packing art. The base material is a recycled cardboard in stylish gray. From 2mm sheets of this cardboard the packing artist cuts the desired sizes from a single piece as much as possible. Think a bit how at grammar school you had to create a cube from a flat sheet of paper but now done in a professional way.
Where sides have to be folded, the cardboard is indented almost completely through and where joints have to be made there's a 90° staple. The finishing touch is the embossed Level logo on the lid. Each product comes in a custom sized/shaped box and where useful a ribbon is added to make lifting the product out of the box easier. Even before using these products, the presentation alone is most impressive already.
