Hi-fi listening room opens at New York’s Cooper Hewitt design museum

A new temporary hi-fi listening room has opened at New York City’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The installation welcomed its first visitors last weekend, and will close on 19th July 2026. 

Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 features a handmade audio rig created by the eponymous Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and engineer, known for making uniquely immersive high-fidelity rigs. 

In this case, visitors are invited into a space inhabited by speaker-sculptures. The technology has been specifically developed to deliver realistic, natural sounding tones. USM Modular Furniture and textiles produced by Kvadrat also feature. 

A special event will be held at the museum tonight, Thursday 18th December. From 6PM Eastern Time renowned WNYC radio host John Schaeffer will be in conversation with Turnbull. Music inspired by the former’s longstanding show, New Sounds, will also be included. Tickets for this are available here.

HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 forms part of a wider programme of music, sound and design work included in Art of Noise. The full exhibition is a collaboration with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and officially begins at Cooper Hewitt on 13th February 2026.

“As part of Art of Noise Turnbull’s HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 is an opportunity for visitors to have a rare and transformative dedicated listening experience and surrender to high fidelity and enveloping sound,” said Joseph Becker, curator of architecture and design at SFMOMA. “At Cooper Hewitt, Turnbull has taken inspiration from the incredible millwork in Andrew Carnegie’s library for the site-specific design of the custom speakers.”

“Created as a ‘shrine to music,’ this listening room series invites visitors to experience music in a space designed to slow down and reflect, bringing back the joy of experiencing and sharing music together,” Turnbull added. “My intention is to return to the kind of immersive listening we experienced when we were young, free from outside distractions. Presenting this work at Cooper Hewitt is especially meaningful to me, having grown up visiting the museum.”

Last month, DJ Mag visited Refuge, Brooklyn’s new “high def dance club”. You can read the report here.