Who doesn’t have a record collection these days? And then the decent hi-fi follows, with audiophile speakers and modular components. Too often all of this ends up on some existing shelving, sub-optimal for both aesthetics and acoustics. Enter Paris-based Horizon System with a form-follows-function, design-led range of audio furniture that will change the way you think about your sound system. Yes, we really believe these pieces are that good.
“I started Horizon System,” says Horizon founder and creative director Laurent Salles, "out of a personal need, to design objects that would elevate my listening experience and highlight the extraordinary nature of audio hardware.” Salles turned to Paris based Perron et Frères, an award winning design studio to come up with the final pieces. The results - you see them here - are like all great design: deceptively simple. Think of an Eames moulded fibreglass chair and you’re in the right place.
Target market is audio professionals and those of us who consider ourselves audiophiles. Want to create an individual listening experience for each piece of music by moving your speakers around? Horizon System offer a bespoke solution in the form of their Atlas SK1, individually crafted from a single anodised aluminium plate and equipped with high-end wheels.
Horizon System: Furniture never sounded so good
Horizon’s Surface F1 - utilitarian names reflect utilitarian approach - creates a stackable home for your hi-fi separates, using aluminium plate and solid oak, itself available in a variety of stains to order. Idea is that vibration will be reduced and electromagnetic isolation enhanced. Heat, often an enemy particularly in amplifiers, is more easily dissipated. Hidden levelling screws allow you to provide a stable platform even on those fashionable aged floorboards you’ve used to add character to your loft.
Subtlety is central here. Because there’s more. The S1 and S2 in the Atlas range are static stands for speakers, so minimally designed they’re barely there, which is the key to all that Horizon System do. Atlas S1 uses solid feet of oak and an aluminium cross member to support your speakers and isolate them from vibration. Atlas S2 takes a related but different approach: using two folded aluminium plates to lift their load so that, as Horizion put it, they "elevate your speakers, transforming them into sculptural elements that enhance sound quality while making a bold visual statement”.
These aren’t going to be cheap pieces, as creative director Laurent Salles effectively underlines when he points out that for him "Horizon System operates at the intersection of hi-fi culture, modularity, minimal design, and precision fabrication”. They’re designed and created to be as important as the hi-fi separates - and your precious record collection - that they support and contain. Record crates, for example, are not just made to order but numbered, as if they were limited edition sculptures. Put aside £600 for yours and we’ll be round for the listening party.
Next up: The best audio equipment you can buy right now.
