OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Is 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.

OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture with large modular bookshelf system filled with books, vinyl records, audio components and other miscellaneous items, with turntable and two tube amps set across a rolling platform storage. Room is decorated in all neutral gray decor.

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

Two views of the three black and green floor seats with backs placed upon a tiered listening area along the back wall of the OJAS Listening Room at USM Modular Furniture. First image is from behind a turntable facing toward the front of the three chairs, second photo is from the side, revealing the tiered seating setup.

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.

gallery view of large gray speakers and audio setup

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.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.