Hi-Fi
A room built for listening.
Reference two-channel sound, chosen by ear, assembled with intent, and built into a room designed to disappear around it.
Whole-home audio fills a house. Hi-fi is something quieter and rarer, a system built for the act of listening, where every part is chosen for how it sounds and how it's made. We build two ways: sound hidden in the architecture, and sound you're meant to see.
Object
Sound you're meant to see.
Some hi-fi belongs on display. Placed well, a great amplifier and a pair of loudspeakers are as much a part of the room as the art, and they'll outlive the house's next three renovations.
Amplification
McIntosh.
The blue meters, the black glass, the weight of it. McIntosh has built amplification in Binghamton, New York since 1949: tube and solid-state amplifiers, preamplifiers, and sources engineered to last a lifetime and serviced for decades. It is the icon of American high-fidelity, and it looks the part.
Photography: McIntosh.
Loudspeakers
Sonus Faber.
Made in Vicenza, Italy, the way instruments are: solid wood, leather, and the hand of a lute-maker. Sonus Faber loudspeakers are tuned by ear and finished like furniture; the flagship Suprema is the full expression of it. Sound, and an object worth building a room around.
Photography: Sonus Faber.
The room
The room is the first component.
A great system in the wrong room is a compromise. We treat the room as part of the instrument: speaker placement worked out by ear and by measurement, acoustics handled quietly with the architecture rather than against it, power and racks kept clean and out of sight, and every source, amplifier, and cable chosen to match. Whether it's a dedicated listening room or a living room that has to look like one, the goal is the same: nothing between you and the recording.
- Placement & acoustics
- Clean, dedicated power
- Concealed racks & wiring
Hidden
Or reference sound, built into the wall.
When the room can't show a thing, the hi-fi disappears into it. Wisdom Audio builds planar and line-source speakers that install into the wall and finish flush: reference performance with nothing on show. The architecture keeps its lines; the sound fills it completely.
Photography: Wisdom Audio.
Digital
British digital, done right.
Meridian pioneered digital audio and still sets the mark for it: DSP loudspeakers and high-resolution playback that keep the recording intact from source to speaker.
Photography: Meridian.
Loudspeakers
Bowers & Wilkins.
The British house whose monitors sit in Abbey Road, and whose Nautilus is still the reference a certain kind of listener measures everything else against. We install Bowers & Wilkins from the sculptural Nautilus to the 800 Series Diamond, where a room wants a speaker that performs like a studio and reads like a piece of design.
Photography: Elevated Integration.
The library
Your whole collection, beautifully kept.
Roon gathers your music (your own files and the streaming services) into one library with the depth of liner notes: artists, credits, lyrics, and the connections between them. One interface, in any room, at full resolution. It's how a serious system is lived with day to day.
Interface: Roon.
The process
Chosen by ear, not by spec sheet.
A system is assembled, not ordered. We start by listening, to the music you love and to the room, then audition components together, design the setup, install it properly, and calibrate it by ear. You hear it before you commit; you keep us after, to keep it right.
- 01
Listen
To the music you love, and to the room it will live in.
- 02
Audition
Components heard together, in combination, before anything is chosen.
- 03
Design & install
Placement, acoustics, power, and racks, built in properly.
- 04
Calibrate & care
Tuned by ear, and kept right for as long as you own it.
Hear our reference system by appointment.
Pure on its own. Part of the whole.
The listening room stands alone when you want it to, and joins the rest of the home when you don't, hi-fi within the same Savant system that runs the light, the shades, and the whole-home audio. Two-channel purity, one house.
Common questions
- What's the difference between hi-fi and whole-home audio?
- Whole-home audio puts music in every room, in the background. Hi-fi is a room and a system built for listening, reference two-channel sound, chosen for how it sounds, not how far it reaches.
- Can high-end sound be hidden?
- Yes. Wisdom Audio speakers install into the wall and finish flush, reference performance with nothing on show, for rooms where the architecture comes first.
- Do you design dedicated listening rooms?
- We do, and we also make a living room perform like one. Placement, acoustics, power, and concealment are part of the work, not an afterthought.
- Which brands do you carry?
- McIntosh, Sonus Faber, Wisdom Audio, Meridian, Bowers & Wilkins, and Roon lead the line; we also work with Mark Levinson, KEF, and Pro-Ject where a system calls for it.
- Can I hear a system before I buy?
- Yes. We audition components together, and you can hear our reference system by appointment before anything is decided.
- Vinyl, streaming, or both?
- Both. Roon unifies your files and the streaming services into one library at full resolution, alongside a proper turntable when you want one.
- Where do you work?
- Westchester, Fairfield County, NYC, the Hamptons, Long Island, Nantucket, and Bermuda.
The bench
McIntosh · Sonus Faber · Wisdom Audio · Meridian · Bowers & Wilkins · Roon
We also work with Mark Levinson, KEF, and Pro-Ject where a system calls for it. See the full roster →
Design your listening room.
Tell us how you listen, and we'll build the system around it.
Or call the office at 212-634-9091.