OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture Is a Shrine to Sound

With his affinity for brutalist industrial design paired with a set of highly tuned ears and eyes geared towards vintage hi-fi components, Devon Turnbull and his company, OJAS have become regular collaborators amongst a who’s who of creatives spanning from the late Virgil Abloh to Byredo’s founder and creative director Ben Gorham. His latest project is as modular as it is musical, a semi-permanent installation within the USM Modular Furniture’s Soho, New York flagship store imagined as a temple of sound for audiophiles and the curious alike.

Photo: Lauren Coleman

Set with USM Modular Furniture towering shelving system stocked with records, books, and audio components, the modular furniture’s utilitarian aesthetic makes for a fine pairing fronted by OJAS’ similarly audio-aesthete’s functionality. Created to invite listeners the opportunity to “experience a calming environment to contemplate music, liberated from the disruption of outside noise,”⁠ Turnball’s and USM collaborated to establish a listening room sharing the sensory focusing traits of a temple or shrine.

OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture  – Devon Turnbull’s first semi-permanent listening room – integrates Kvadrat Acoustics Soft Cells acoustic panels on walls and ceilings with a bespoke audio system created by OJAS. \\\ Photo: Lauren Coleman

The OJAS speakers with USM Haller case goods are complemented with seating, and other furniture designs. \\\ Photo:Lauren Coleman.

OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture shares similarities to Turnbull’s recent HiFi Listening Room Dream No. 1  (below) installed within London’s Lisson Gallery. But while that listening room dedicated to “a democratic, public listening space, where people could experience music through a high-quality stereo system without needing to own it” exhibited an almost desaturated minimalist atmosphere dominated by the monolithic stature of OJAS’ signature gray speakers, Turnbull’s latest Listening Room turns of the dial a bit in its retreat-like comforts with a few splashes of color across its sparse seating.

Photo: Lisson Gallery London Limited

The OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture installation is open to the public and by appointments at USM Modular Furniture Soho, 28-30 Greene St, New York, NY 10013.