Next-gen audiophile designer Devon Turnbull talks shop with the Audiophiliac.

To hear the speaker-maker Devon Turnbull, whose DJ and graffiti name is OJAS, discuss the intentions in creating his audio company of the same name is to capture with perfect clarity In Sheep’s Clothing’s core mission. 

“I started what I think of as my audio practice out of an interest in this form of listening to recorded music in a way that’s ritualistic,” the Brooklyn-based Turnbull told the King of Audiophilia, Steve Guttenberg, in a recently released interview. 

“I want my hi-fi to be a bit like a shrine. I want to enter a space … where I can get lost in music and experience music in a way that is more intentional than background music, essentially.”

Turnbull’s vision has captured the imagination of audiophiles and hi-fi stores the world over. The reasons can be found in his exquisitely designed, Guttenberg-approved OJAS speaker systems. 

Turnbull’s biography, published on the company’s fantastic website, provides a few reasons why: 

OJAS is the creative pen name of Devon Turnbull. As a university student studying Audio Engineering he started using the name across a variety of disciplines including graffiti, music, graphic design and clothing design. In 2003 Turnbull co-founded the clothing brand Nom de Guerre with Isa Saalabi, Wil Whitney and Holly Harnsongkram. For the next decade, while primarily working in fashion, the name OJAS was kept alive on sound sculptures Turnbull was crafting for himself and a growing number of audio enthusiasts around the world. With a particular interest in high efficiency speakers and low powered tube amplifiers, Ojas audio equipment aims to bring realistic, natural sound to the listener. These products are the result of two decades of experimentation, engineering and explorations in the audio underground.

Turnbull’s interview with Guttenberg offers a look inside the mind, and the creative space, of an audio engineer whose innovations are expanding the conversation on listening culture.