“I remember when I was in my younger years how I used to get together with friends and listen to a record… so many friendships forged around music,” reminisces George Moraitis, co-founder of Melbourne-based high-end hi-fi distributor and consultor Nirvana Sound. Moraitis ruefully notes that somehow social music listening has been lost in many people’s lives, as listening has become a more private enjoyment. It’s something he wanted to bring back — that feeling of friendship and socialisation around a musical event. After all, he asks, “If we’re happy to congregate around a BBQ, why not around a music system?”
That’s why Nirvana Sound, alongside its core business, strives to build a community for likeminded hi-fi enthusiasts by running hi-fi and music-themed events — “product showcases, educational workshops, evenings with visiting audio personalities, live-streamed concerts or anything that brings people together over a common love of music and audio,” he says. “We call our community ‘music family’ and cherish everyone that attends, even though they have to tolerate our questionable humour and Mark’s ‘rabbit-hole’ music choices!”
Mark Döhmann is his fellow cofounder of Nirvana Sound and, for the uninitiated, an internationally renowned analogue system designer, having been responsible for the Continuum Caliburn turntable in the early 2000s which has been considered to be one of the best record players ever created. The two, who for the past five years have also worked together at Dohmann
