The best tech to set the mood

The art of noise

Ask someone to do a quick pencil sketch of a loudspeaker and they’ll invariably draw a rectangular box with a couple of circles on the front. Italian designer Franco Serblin saw things differently. In 1983, he established the audio firm Sonus Faber, driven by the philosophy that speakers should be beautiful to look at and that musical fidelity could naturally flow from that beauty. “He had a great belief that attention should be paid to the way violins and cellos are made,” says Ricardo Franassovici, MD of British distributor Absolute Sounds and one of Serblin’s champions. “He went to Cremona to talk to the old luthiers before they disappeared and took their secrets with them.” 

They deal handsomely with any music that is thrown at them

That devotion to the work of Italian violin- and lute-makers can be seen in classic Sonus Faber products such as 1993’s Guarneri Homage. Serblin sold his company in 2006, continued to design under his own name and died in 2013. “But rather like Michelangelo, he left a lot of drawings,” says Franassovici. Serblin’s son-in-law now runs the Italian workshop that bears his name, developing new products inspired by ideas contained within those sketches. 

The latest of those is named after the Goldberg Variations, a suite of pieces for keyboard by JS Bach published in 1741. Its appearance is extraordinary; a uniquely asymmetric cabinet, handmade from solid walnut, with thin cords replacing the speaker grille to evoke Italian stringed instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Vivaldi and Corelli pieces that Franassovici chooses to play by way of a demo feel historically and musically appropriate, but as you’d hope for a product of such pedigree, it deals handsomely with whatever he throws at it – Muddy Waters, obscure 1970s prog-rock outfit Sweet Smoke, “The Look of Love” by Dusty Springfield. “I’m a music person, not a hi-fi person,” he says with a smile.

The Goldberg doesn’t boast subwoofers and extended bass; for living-room listening that would be overkill, according to Franassovici. “We want the sound to breathe in the room,” he says. And it does. Deeply and easily. Franco Serblin Accordo Goldberg, £8,888 a pair, absolutesounds.com

Lights fantastic

We call them light fittings, but German design firm Occhio calls theirs “luminaires”: sleek, modular objects, many with interchangeable filters and lenses, all connected via a Bluetooth mesh to give consistent, considered lighting throughout the home.

Its new Luna collection may look at first glance like a series of lightbulbs housed within spheres, but the reality is more complex and beautiful: LEDs within the casing project light into a solid glass “fireball”, which appears to float and glow when switched on but vanishes when switched off. That switching and dimming can be done with simple hand gestures, while an app gives more granular control and lets you link groups of lights. A little piece of celestial magic. Occhio Luna, from £778

OLEDs you win

It’s the newest and largest of B&O’s Harmony TVs, made in partnership with LG – in fact, it’s the largest LG OLED screen currently available at some 2.15m wide. But while the screen is big, bright and beautiful (and with the blackest of blacks), it’s the kinetic speakers that really impress.

They sit horizontally below the screen when in TV mode, but smoothly and silently fold up to the vertical when the Harmony is serving as a media centre. For years, TV manufacturers have quietly wrestled with the problem of what to display when just playing audio; B&O has provided a rather elegant answer, which is to mostly cover it up with oak or walnut, leaving a neat information bar at the top of the screen. Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony 97in, £50,450

Lost in music

Purely for his own delight, Californian audio engineer Kris Cadle installed a speaker system into a classic egg chair. On finding out about this and experiencing it first hand, fellow engineer Josh Chaney was “blown away”.

The two have now swung into full production, but the wholly customisable Solodome isn’t just a cute retro object: fiendishly clever virtualisation creates stunning spatial audio from stereo source material (either via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm jack) and delivers it through two speakers at ear height and subwoofers in the seat. That sense of immersion is enhanced with noise cancellation (you can barely hear anything going on outside the chair) to give the ultimate space for rediscovering the art of listening. Solodome XL, £5,604

Make the switch

Smart home devices that control light, sound and heat inevitably revolve around an  app, or, more commonly, multiple apps on smartphones or virtual assistants. Some may consider this a triumph of technology, but for others it’s an impractical chore.

This award-winning panel uses the light-switch locations that are already embedded in our domestic lives, and with a range of software plug-ins lets you control a whole range of these devices and systems, including Sonos and Philips Hue out of the box. Suddenly, a visitor to your home can turn up the heating a notch without any password shenanigans. “Prosumers” should be able to install them, otherwise it’s a pretty straightforward job for an electrician. Rithum Smart Home Touch Panel, £249.99 

@rhodri