BAUHAUS AUDIO STUDIO

At the crossroads of Bauhaus inspired Mid Century Design, Professional Audio Technology, Artistic creativity, fine woodworking artisans and the passion for music and sound design lies a unique sound “haus” called Bauhaus Audio Studio.  And it was a long and winding road that got us here.

“Heritage not Hobbyists.”

Many biographies begin with “It started with my father…”  And our story is no different.  My father was a radio man in the Navy, stationed in Naples in the early 50’s.  His understanding of radios and tube electronics ran deep and well tested.  When he came home and graduated college and moved to NY he never left his passion for radio and sound amplification behind.  

I grew up with a garage full of radio equipment and tube electronics in a time where everything was going towards solid state and transistors… all the while watching my father settle in at nights and communicate with other HAM operators across the country.  By 1968 while he was working for IBM during the day, he set my mother up with an Art Gallery and Frame Shop just north of NYC where my 4 siblings and I would make frames for customers and the art gallery day and night.  We’d joke about the “sweatshop” work ethic but all of us appreciated the experiences, money and art surroundings.

What we did with wood was amazing.  We didn’t call it a creative outlet then, but it not only fed the family, it sent kids to college, fed design curiosities, and honed unforgettable craftsmanship artisan skills.  My early architecture dreams quickly turned into engineering studies and degrees and the study of sound waves and predicting performance and in situ measurements.  A mouthful for sure, and acoustic engineering is boring on paper, but amazing when put into play.  My A&M ROTC and engineering led me to the Navy, and from hunting for submarines in the 80’s to sound designs in the 90’s, it led to a great career that in the 2000’s came all crashing together in some sort of perfect storm that included the early woodworking skills, artistic endeavors, music passion, electronic and acoustic engineering and authentic appreciation for mid century modern furniture, specifically the stereo console.

In 2020 along with my son who returned from his stint with the Marines we started to take this seriously, and with his help we acquired, refurbished and sold a couple hundred very early on.  Watching him take this on and then listening to them nightly surely helped him with his injury recovery.  He’s now re-enlisted and focused in the Army in the Intel Division and loving his Kuba console in his apartment.  He just became an NCO and is so loving his military career.

The last 5 years have been a whirlwind tour of trying to remain a great quality shop, and toying with a vast expansion with a blip in time where we experimented with hiring contract laborers and contract shippers only to realize a drop in excellence, and damaged inbound and outbound pieces.  My son and or I ended up having to redo  most of the consoles before they shipped, if we could catch them.  Topped off by a contract shipper rolling a trailer filled with $45,000 of our restored consoles destined for customers, where we were lied to about insurance coverage, that and warehouse theft in equipment and time.  Lessons learned.  Bigger doesn’t mean better.  Only better means better.  And we found out quickly that pivoting back to being a bespoke boutique is far better than being a wood warehouse and garage shop.  Divorcing and moving on from such a predicament was difficult but the new vibe, and exceeding customer expectations again with our new boutique shop has been more than awesome.

We won’t soon forget why we were the shop of choice when Paramount Pictures needed a console and a gramophone record player for a John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds movie.  We can’t forget that feeling when we shipped out a pristine Brionvega rr-126 to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).  The Emmy award winning director who had us deliver 2 consoles for his Chicago penthouse, or the real estate tycoon who had us deliver 4 consoles to his historical oceanfront mansion in West Palm Beach.  Last week we delivered 5 consoles to a vintage reseller in Chicago.  The pinnacle thusfar was having Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, the man who wrote the underpinnings of the soundtrack of the 80’s and 90’s reach out to us for his own Grundig Stereo Console.  A delivery we will never forget.  And weekly we seem to deliver a few consoles to people like you and me who just want to sit back, look at something awe inspiring and listen to great music. We have stories that warm our soul and validate our mission.  1050 of them in fact.  And counting.

Bauhaus Audio Studio, a bespoke boutique soundhaus, where better is simply better.