Across bars, hotels and restaurants, vinyl is taking centre-stage, as a slew of listening bars have been springing up in cities around the world. Featuring high-quality sound systems, bespoke turntables and impressive record collections, these spaces – also referred to as hi-fi bars – are designed for uninterrupted, collective listening.
But it is not just their sound (or curated drinks menus) that is attracting city dwellers; their interiors are equally seductive, thanks to a cohort of design and architecture studios that have turned their hands to these new multifunctional venues.
By most accounts, the first listening bars came out of Japan during the post-war years. They were originally called kissas (short for kissaten – a coffee shop or tea house) or jazz kissas, and saw people congregate in coffee shops to sit together in reverential silence and listen to rare records on high-quality gramophones. Today, listening bars offer an alternative to concerts or nightclubs for audiophiles and music enthusiasts.
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In London, you rarely need to travel far to find one. Earlier this year, Soho was treated to Under the Counter, where Mia Architecture and Tuğcu Design have worked with Klipsch audio to create a low-lit, minimalist haven below ground. Meanwhile, Milan is home to cocktail-cum-listening bar Onda, which Solum Studio has kitted out with wooden panelling and stainless-steel counters.
In Bucharest, local designers Anda Zota and Muromuro Studio renovated a music shop on the ground floor of a typical communist-era apartment block to create the industrial-looking Bar Ton (lead image).
Over in New York, which lays claim to being the music capital of the world, Valentino just opened L’Atelier Sonore, created with Italian cultural collective Terraforma at its Madison Avenue store. Conceived with the collaboration of architect Francesco Lupia, the plush-carpeted listening room features floor-to-ceiling curtains and a bespoke wooden sound system that taps into a growing demand for a high-end, luxury take on the trend.
The growing prevalence of listening bars speaks to a collective yearning for ‘analogue experiences’, says Benni Allan, who worked with Charlotte Taylor to design the London-based venue Space Talk. ‘The hi-fi listening bar culture has suddenly grown because of a reconnection with vinyl,’ he explains. ‘At the same time, the rituals of going out are changing, and we are seeing a need for social connection. These spaces offer a more relaxed environment for coming together.’
At weekends, you’ll find customers queuing around the block to gain entry to the bar, minutes from legendary nightclub Fabric, to ‘enjoy unique music curation spanning different genres, delivered through a bespoke sound system’.
Designing a listening bar demands a different mindset, according to interior designer Clémence Pirajean, who so far has designed two listening spaces in London alongside partner James Lees. She says that, unlike a standard bar where the atmosphere is more often driven by energy and background noise, a listening bar requires ‘control, precision and subtlety’.
‘At Kioku [the Pirajean Lees-designed sake listening bar inside London’s OWO hotel] we designed with acoustics in mind from the outset. We did so by layering soft, sound-absorbing materials like cork, leather and fabric to create warmth and reduce harsh reverberation.’
The layout is also configured to invite intentional listening. Seating is arranged to offer a variety of auditory perspectives, whether you’re at the bar, in the secret booth or perched at a high table. ‘We were conscious of sightlines and acoustic lines equally,’ adds Lees. ‘The bar is not just functional but performative: its height, curve and materials all contribute to how sound travels and is experienced.’
Though music is at the epicentre of these bars, Lees believes that it’s also important to ‘design for silence’. ‘It’s in the details, the joinery, the craftsmanship, the music, that moments have room to resonate,’ he says.
Alex Young is one of the co-founders of Goodbye Horses in De Beauvoir, north London, a former corner pub transformed by Swiss studio Leopold Banchini Architects into a natural-wine bar and hi-fi listening space. Depending on the night, punters can expect to hear anything from Italo disco to Krautrock to rapper Kendrick Lamar, played on records sourced from auctions and the founders’ own collection.
Alongside his business partner George de Vos, Young’s idea to incorporate a quality sound experience stemmed from the belief that there was a lack of third spaces that encourage socialising and being able to hear music, he says. ‘For us, having quality sound was in large part about guests being able to enjoy the music while still being able to have a conversation without having to shout, which you can’t do with a poor-quality sound system.’
Unlike traditional Japanese kissas, he says that contemporary listening bars don’t need to ban talking. ‘Hi-fi bars or restaurants are places that have invested in audio technology, but a visit to them isn’t just about worshipping a giant tannoy in silence.’ While bars and music venues across capitals are slowly disappearing (according to the Financial Times, the proportion of club nights running beyond 3am fell in 12 of 15 global cities between 2014 and 2024), contemporary listening bars offer modern customers a place to collectively experience all genres of music in environments that look as good as they sound.
