At first glance, it looks like a CD with unusual cover art—maybe the guts yanked out of some hi-fi equipment left behind at a stoop sale. Pick up a copy of "1-Bit Symphony" when it goes on sale Tuesday, and inspect more closely. It's not a CD at all. It's a simple electronic circuit glued inside a clear plastic jewel-box case, terminating in a headphone jack on the right spine.

"It isn't a recording," says Tristan Perich, the New York composer who created the device. "It's a performance."

Mr....