Inside The Listening Rooms — where music is the centre of everything

London is home to some of the best listening rooms in the UK, with every type of music and experience pretty much catered for.

The idea of a listening room is a simple one: it’s the optimum space to have a shared listening experience of music. The ideal place to do this is one that’s been sonically supercharged for such an event. It doesn’t have to be an intimate room, it can be a bar or a venue but what has to be right is the sound system playing back the music.

It’s sometimes an unnerving thing, sitting still in a room with other people all focused on one record. But it’s an experience that, when done right, offers immeasurable joy for the thing you are listening to.

These spaces are not new, far from it — Japan has had them for 100 years now. They all take a leaf out of the popularity of those listening bars, where a culture of music aficionados was born out of shared gramophone listening in the ‘20s, when classical music was popular. This eventually shifted to the Jazz kissa era, cafes where music fans could get to listen to their favourite music on high-end kit with maybe a whisky or two in hand.

While custom tube amplifiers may have made way for custom Atmos set-ups, the spirit of shared listening is not just still there, it’s thriving.

If you are ever in the Big Smoke, then here are three listening rooms we recommend — and below this, we go behind the scenes, exploring the tech and logistics involved in creating a premium listening space…

1. Spiritland

• Located in: Kings Cross, London

In an interview with The Guardian, Paul Noble record producer and creator of Spiritland said he was inspired to set up Spiritland thanks to Japan’s love of the listening bar and its “deep, beautiful, reverential approach to listening to music”. This can also be found in Spiritland — which is a café, bar and radio studio that all take advantage of an entirely bespoke audio setup, created and built by high-end audio manufacturer Living Voice.

According to Spiritland, their setup also includes “a two Isonoe-modified Technics 1200 turntables with a variety of cartridges including Audio-Technica AT-XP7 Dual Moving Magnet Stereo Cartridges, a Tascam DA-3000 Hi-Res Recorder, Revox B77 Tape Recorder, two Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2 CD players, a Studer A730 CD Player and more”. Oof.

For more information, head to: https://spiritland.com

2. Brilliant Corners

• Located in: Dalston, London

Brilliant Corners wears its ode to Japan on its sleeve, with a Japanese inspired menu and an audio set up that would surely get the nod of approval.

While at time of going to print it was closed for a refurb, when normal service resumes, sometime in mid-August, expect an intimate restaurant setting with some superb music that’s played back on some modified Technics turntables, controlled by an Isonoe Electronics built custom valve mixer. Also in the setup are two Mcintosh tube amps power, some 1970s Klipschorn speakers. If you are waiting impatiently for the venue to re-open, then there’s always “Mu” just around the corner — another aural delight that’s been created by the team behind Brilliant Corners.

For more information, head to: https://brilliantcornerslondon.co.uk

Jazu

• Located in: Deptford, London

Jazu is a fantastic listening bar, with the emphasis on both those words. The setup there is superb, with a bespoke sound system created by South London audio engineer Bosco Taylor. There’s a 3,000-strong collection of vinyl to gawp at, while the food is a Mexican-based treat. Interestingly, even though the name riffs off of the aforementioned Japanese Jazz kissa scene, this bar was inspired, like the food, by the listening bars of Mexico.

For more information, head to: https://www.jazudrinks.com.

Behind the scenes of a listening room

The KEF Music Gallery in London is an incredible place for music fans. Situated slap bang in the hustle and bustle of Great Portland Street, its TARDIS like in its size. From the street it looks initially like a KEF product showcase but inside it’s an audiophile's dream — with some 5,000sq feet of area, over two floors, to play some serious sounds.

This experience centre opened in 2024 and serves as a multifunctional space for events, training, and product demonstrations. The reason for T3’s visit, however, is because it hosts a multitude of audio goodies, including DJ nights, album launches, and immersive sound experiences.

On the day I was there, they were preparing for an intimate listening-room experience exploring Lauryn Hill’s two fantastic albums: ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ and ‘MTV Unplugged No. 2.0’, all played back through KEF’s LS60 Wireless speaker range.

A lot goes on in the Kef Music Gallery and that’s because the space is flexible in its design. It includes a cafe and podcast studio, and there’s even a table made of 900-year-old Kentish oak hidden underground in The Hub — one of the many beautifully specced out rooms on the lower ground floor.

“There are not too many cafes with a Dolby Atmos 10.8.8 immersive system that I'm aware of,” says Geoff Loveday, KEF’s technical sales director, pointing out the huge sound system that’s situated on the first floor of the gallery. It’s here that many a DJ night has taken place, each with their own sound requirements.

Having that much audio power in one place is jaw-dropping but not all of it is needed at once, it depends on the type of show they are running. Thankfully Loveday notes that they have tried to make everything as simple as possible to run.

“The whole building runs on a Crestron smart home system. That system is great because it gives us complete flexibility and control of not just the audiovisual but aircon, the network, lighting, CCTV — it's all on there,” he explains.

While upstairs there are a number of listening areas, where you can test some of the speakers on show, it’s the main system I am really interested in.

“We’ve got our uber house system, which includes our LS50s that are dotted around the ceiling, in conjunction with a bunch of our architectural in-ceiling speakers, and some subwoofers, which aren't just decorative or on display, they're part of that system,” notes Loveday, pointing to an array of them on the floor.

“This makes up one big immersive 10.8.8 Atmos system that's driven by a very sophisticated Trinnov Altitude 32 processor. So we can orientate in various different ways.”

Loveday continues: “For example, if we're doing an event where we might need something centered in a certain part of the room, we can configure the system by just selecting one preset where three speakers become our left, centre, and right speakers, and then all the others accordingly surround left, surround right… And that's done simply by selecting a preset on that processor, which makes life infinitely easier.”

This would be impressive on its own, but a level below this KEF has created a number of areas for intimate audio demos, including a space affectionately called The Living Room and the absolutely without hyperbole, The Ultimate Experience Room.

I head downstairs, admire the oak table and am taken to a room that hasn’t been given the same sound-proofing treatment as the others — the echo reminds me just how much work has gone into making this place an, er, sound investment.

A tour of the living room setup shows a place packed with speakers from KEF’s sprawling range.

“We get everything from seasoned audiophiles that know all their stuff and really want to quiz you, right through to people that are taking their first steps into good hi-fi and don't really know how to achieve this or what they'd like," explains Loveday.

"There’s a bit of handholding through the whole experience, but we can adapt to whatever kind of person's here. And what's nice with the way we've got things is: we can control that experience.”

Speaking of experience, it’s the Ultimate Experience Room that is a must visit. The room is a stunning audio showcase, packed with some of the most impressive audio tech in the capital, including a pair speakers that stand tall like an art installation.

“They were conceived in 2007 as a a very special audio project,” says Loveday pointing at the KEF MUON speaker setup.

“The designer is a well-known sculptural artist called Ross Lovegrove. He's famous for his hourglass, spherical, no straight edges kind of design.

"He's actually designed a couple of other products for us as well, but there are only 100 pairs of these that are ever going to be built. We're on pair 90 something, so you need to be quick if you want to reserve a pair. There are not many places in the world where you can see those, let alone hear them,” Loveday notes.

A quick Google shows that the speakers are worth £190,000. I decide not to phone my bank manager on this occassion.

“This is very much our flag waving exercise,” says Loveday about the room. “It is the best of everything we do.”

In the room there is a two-channel setup using the incredible MUON speakers plus a 9.14 configuration. That’s not a typo, there’s actually 14 subs in the space.

“There’s a reason for 14, it's not just a sort of random number that we just happened upon or figured out we could squeeze 14 subs in here," says Loveday.

"The Trinnon processor I mentioned that's running upstairs, well we have a second one running this room. It's a 32 channel Atmos processor, and we're showcasing their new wave-forming technology, which is bass management technology, which, in very very simple terms, works with two identical arrays of subwoofers. So you have an array at the front and an array at the back.”

The idea is this setup eliminates the need for a sweet spot in the room, so theoretically you can sit anywhere and enjoy an incredible sound.

A demo of Elton John’s Rocketman, mastered in Dolby Atmos, proves this — I’ve never heard the song in this way before, soaring through the speakers and searing itself on to my ears. I found new in the old again and it was a life-affirming experience.

As I walk out of the KEF Music Gallery the sound of the street hits me, as the dampening used in the gallery gives way to the outside world. It got me thinking: to create a truly unique listening room and, in turn, listening experience takes huge dedication.

You can see that with what KEF is doing, with what Spiritland's Paul Noble is doing and what every other listening room across the country is also trying to do.

The key ingredient, other than the music, though, is you. You being there, you experiencing music with others and maybe, just maybe, you hearing something new in something old again.

Head to KEF's official site to book yourself a demo at the KEF Music Gallery. Or just drop in for a coffee.

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