Kyron Audio targets luxury market with its third hi-fi speaker release, the Phoenix

Kyron Audio is on a mission to develop the world's best hi-fi speaker system from Adelaide. Its latest design is a thing of beauty but carries a price tag to match.

Kyron Audio is on a mission to develop the world’s clearest, highest quality loudspeaker from Adelaide, and the duo behind the luxury brand believe their latest creation is about as good as it gets when it comes to the home audio experience.

Lee Gray and Leon Suter, who started building speakers for professional musicians 20 years ago, are putting the finishing touches to their latest design, Phoenix, which will be shipped to a customer in Queensland in the coming weeks.

Phoenix is the third loudspeaker model released by Kyron, following its Gaia and Kronos systems launched in 2011 and 2013.

All three of the dipole loudspeaker systems combine analogue and digital technology to create a true sound through boxless speakers.

Kyron’s commitment to creating the perfect sound, which goes right down to helping clients design and furnish the spaces where the speakers will be installed, is very much targeted at the luxury market, with pricing for the Phoenix starting from $489,000.

Mr Gray said that made it the most expensive home speaker system ever built in Australia.

Kyron co-founder Lee Gray with the Phoenix system at the company's Stepney warehouse. Picture: Tom Huntley

For Kyron the ambition has always been to compete with the world’s best and to deliver a product that takes the home audio experience to a new level.

“Our goal is not to build the world’s most expensive speaker – our goal is to build the clearest, the most natural sounding speaker,” he said.

“Musicians spend millions of dollars on creating art, and then we typically go and cheapen it, right down to listening to the rumbler on our phone.

“Our goal is not to add anything. We just want you to hear what that person had created.”

Mr Gray and Mr Suter, both classically-trained musicians, met while in the Royal Australian Air Force Band in Sydney in 2000.

They soon started dabbling with speaker design and production and after two years decided to embark on a goal to build the world’s best loudspeaker system.

The breakthrough came in 2011 when they debuted the Gaia at the Australian Hi-Fi Show, taking out the prestigious “Best Sound in Show” award.

They have since won a string of national and international awards, and impressed the likes of influential American audio journalist and critic Michael Fremer, who in 2016 described the Kronos as producing “among the best sound I have ever heard anyplace, ever”.

Lee Gray says the Phoenix speaker system is aimed squarely at the luxury market with Kyron’s mantra “no compromises”. Picture: Tom Huntley

In 2015, after deciding to commit themselves full-time to Kyron, Mr Gray returned home to Adelaide while Mr Suter headed back to his home town of Hervey Bay in Queensland.

Mr Gray currently oversees the design and assembly of Kyron’s speaker systems from a workshop in Stepney, while Mr Suter, as systems architect, manages the electronic components.

Mr Gray said a big point of difference was that Kyron’s all-in-one systems came with all the accessories to the main speakers, right down to the cables. The company is also set to launch its own music server.

“If we wanted the best sound we knew we had to go active and control every element,” he said.

“The industry is very locked into buy your speakers there, buy your amp there, buy your pre-amp there and buy your cables from there and then you mismatch it together.

“It’s like a supercar analogy. If you want the best you don’t buy an engine from Ferrari, your wheels from Lamborghini and then get some random wiring loom from another supercar company, and botch it together hoping that you get an amazing sound.

“So we took control of every aspect – we build right down to the cables.”

Kyron recently formed a partnership with Ferrari Adelaide to showcase its loudspeaker systems to a local audience, and the company is looking to promote its range to music enthusiasts locally and overseas through similar partnerships with other luxury brands.

Mr Gray said several other luxury audio companies had emerged from Adelaide alongside Kyron, including Halcro amplifiers and Duntech loudspeakers, but few outside of the industry were aware of the niche industry that had been created.

With more awareness, he believes luxury manufacturing could unlock a new global opportunity for the South Australian economy.

“It would serve the state well if the luxury industry was highlighted, not just defence or advanced manufacturing,” he said.

“And if you can prove to the world that you do luxury manufacturing – let’s talk Germany, let’s talk Switzerland – the flow-on effects from that are incredible. Right down to your cheapest $3 widget, you can say made in Germany and that holds a gravitas.

“We could establish that here if we could get the dialogue out there.”