For a new feature series called Sound Matters, we’re taking the time to chat with some of our favourite audio-related collectives. Be it hi-fi speaker brands, custom rotary companies or soundsystem crews. First up, we sat down with our good friend Ryan Shaw, founder of MasterSounds. 

Starting life back in 2008, MasterSounds has gone from manufacturing turntable weights, to upgrading and refurbishing Technics turntables, developing their own range of rotary mixer and FX units, to creating modular hi-fi soundsystems. In an incredibly competitive audiophile industry, they’ve managed to carve out a name for themselves as one of the finest around over the past 17 years. As they enter a new era of the company, having stopped production on the mixers to focus predominately on their soundsystem range, we managed to catch up with Ryan to give us an insight into the world of MasterSounds and what the future holds for the company.

To kick things off, can you tell us how MasterSounds came to life?

So I was working in London at Phonica in the mid 2000s. It was at the time that the vinyl industry started to implode as MP3 and digital formats were on the rapid rise. Distributors started to fold, shops began closing and it was a turbulent time to say the least. In the shift between vinyl purism and the migration for many to digital, I saw a couple of things. Firstly, I was fortunate to have DJ gigs in many places, and noticed the shift meant that turntables started to become an afterthought, so I decided to take a tool kit with me to all gigs, fresh carts, how to setup a turntable correctly and what became my turntable weights.

Secondly, when adversity hits, creativity blossoms, so whilst the problems were hitting vinyl sales, this meant that the products that labels were selling became more of a treasure. The quality improved, as it was now riskier to press up a record for fear of a MP3 being favourited, and artists and labels began to really home in on the limited-edition aspect. Screen printed sleeves, hand numbered records, letter press inlay cards, really locking it back to the DIY era. In turn that made people like me appreciate the extra effort of a release, and I wanted to invest in that.

Your turntable weights have become industry standard over the years and were your first major product. What was the thought process behind the weights you designed and how did you go about manufacturing them? 

Taking inspiration from the issues I’d been having whilst DJing in venues, I saw the potential need for a solution. For me though I knew it would need to be a product that made a difference / solved a problem, was manufactured well locally and by people who I knew, and was of limited edition. With that in mind I thought about making up a small batch of turntable weights. I had seen this in hi-fi circles and wanted to see if I could translate this to a DJs perspective. I stated playing around at work, as my family business is manufacturing. I grew up in the factory and had always been surrounded by family who made things, so it was a natural choice to have some made up in our tool room which contained all the machinery to make the prototypes. Then after asking everyone I knew to test them I decided to make some and see if people actually wanted to buy them… Fortunately people loved them. 

In the early days I used to travel to record shops and offer them as ‘sale or return’. I remember heading to a record shop in Manchester who will remain nameless and politely asked the staff behind the counter if they were interested in stocking some. One of the guys quickly grabbed a roll of packing tape and clumsily dropped it over the record they were playing and sarcastically said “I use these”, to mock what I had just shown him. I said no worries and thought to myself, just watch! 

One of your latest collaborations is with the iconic Paradise Garage, how do that partnership come about?

I’ve always loved disco, and for me the crowning glory of the era was the Paradise Garage. I’m an obsessive person so when I get something in my head, I’ll go full force to make it happen. I set about licensing the image which took me a few years of knocking down doors. If anyone knows me they know I don’t give up easily and eventually managed to licence the image and create an edition for all PG fans to appreciate. We have partnered with the GMHC in NYC twice now, the first time was in 2016. It’s always a real joy for me to collaborate with artists / labels and brands I admire. I love making things for people to enjoy and that hopefully translates through to myself and my passion for audio and design. 

It’s a big step from turntable weight to the world of high-end rotary mixers - what made you dive into a niche but highly competitive world like that?

Part of my ambition for MasterSounds was to create a full loop of products so people could play on a 100% MS setup. The key to that was a DJ mixer. Through a chance meeting with former design manager at Allen & Heath, Andy Rigby-Jones, I drew up what was the Radius 2 and went to Cornwall with a dream to sell. We hit it off and staked everything on the mixer being a success. Through lots of hard work and dedication we created a unique product for the market. I felt it was important to not just create another boutique rotary mixer, especially as the scene was beginning to become saturated with products that all had a similar design. This took a lot of passion, as the easy route would have been much simpler but that’s not what I wanted and still do not want to do.  

Through a hell of a lot of hard graft, Andy managed to get us to a place where we could price our product as competitive as possible, especially given its hand-built nature and us only using quality esoteric components. I worked 25 hours a day, 8 days a week with laser focus to make it happen, and we made a great success of our 8-year partnership, selling many products together to all corners of the globe. It’s pretty cool to look back and think of those products being loved every day.

It must have taken a lot of time and development to create a mixer that you felt offered something different to what was already out there. How did you go about concepting and creating the plans for your mixers?

Ideas just come to me out of nowhere. Radius was conceptualised pretty quickly as I wanted a mixer to suit how I wanted to play, for it to be super compact and portable, and most crucially different to other models. Once again, limitation breeds creativity and Radius certainly changed the mould and flipped the rotary market 180. 

In a relatively short space of time, you managed to become one of the leading rotary mixer brands in a small but saturated market. Last year you announced you would be building the final units of the mixers, FX, ISO and LinearPOWER products – what was the reason behind this new focus to Mastersounds journey?

As they say everything happens for a reason and it was the right time for us to go in a new direction. I’ve always wanted to create products that give the user a real sense of pleasure, and I believe I have many more ideas to bring to the audio world which myself, and the new design team, are currently refining. When you are so deep into it, time melts away, and I want to create more products that people will cherish. I hope I’ve left a small imprint of myself in the world of audio. You are right, it seems like there is a new rotary most weeks, which is cool as I understand how hard that is to achieve. 

We got to witness and hear the brilliance of your full 4-pointClarity M system at the Queen Samantha’s pop-up in 2023 and subsequently at the É Soul Cultura Freight Island takeovers. What do you feel sets this system apart from other offerings on the market?

From our smaller Clarity A systems it became apparent that we wanted to make a larger system for doing our own events, so Clarity M was born. Essentially, it’s a modular, high-power, high-fidelity audio system that you are able to build up from a small two 12” top and two 15” sub arrangement, right, through to a 4-point, four top and twelve sub sensory experience. The key to the system is its versatility, plus fidelity at higher SPL, plus total reliability as everything is tour grade. It’s another one for the tick box for me. When I look at what we have done it’s always with huge pride.

Has building speakers always been something you wanted to get involved in?

110%, from around the age of 12 I’ve been messing around with speakers and audio systems, becoming obsessed with all forms of loudspeakers and audio bits and bobs. Hooking speakers up at home and in cars was our staple growing up. Having amazing connections with people at the right time helped bring our products to the fore, years down the line here we are with systems shipping to all corners of the globe, which continues to make me so proud.

Is there a go-to record that you put on to test the dynamics of your soundsystem?

You can’t beat ‘Rhythm & Sound’ to give Clarity M a good workout, I always try to play as much music through the systems as possible and play around with the DSP settings so we can fine tune to the venue. I never stop playing around, as you have probably noticed at the events we have done together over the years!

Reconditioned, upgraded Technics are something you’ve been offering for a while now. What does an upgrade consist of and how are you coming into possession of your holy grail, box fresh stock Technics that you also sell? 

Well it’s been a long old road with the 1210 for me, over 30 years now. Truth be told it’s a strange one as I still get such a buzz from seeing them and unearthing hidden gems. I’ve often thought about this and I think it’s to do with the satisfaction I get from not just finding them, but also the people who I’ve met along the way. I’ve so many tales of heading out and meeting people, exchanging stories on how they got into music or what they do for a living and their journey. We are all pretty much the same, we love music, collecting stuff and being a little bit leftfield. To make it happen I’ve been completely obsessed, and I’ll go to the ends of the earth to make it happen. Sometimes it doesn’t really make sense, but my want for rescuing and giving new homes to these design classics is truly my passion. We have sold thousands of “MasterSounds Approved” original Technics SL’s now, which is pretty crazy to think, but each and every one has the same attention to detail given to it. 

The MasterSounds SL was born from my mind wanting to see how far you could improve the SL turntable and truly is our love letter to the original classic. MasterSounds SL’s are a true labour of love, as each and every part is worked on. We fully strip each turntable and re-paint and re-silkscreen by hand. We then replace most of the components with new, and upgrade the original arm to a wonderful fully rewired Rega RB-330 and Audio Technica XP-7 cartridge mated to one billet machined arm board. People always ask if the turntable is good to use for DJing, I always say “you bet!”.

MasterSounds HQ is based in Stockport, a place our good friend Luke Una once dubbed as the new Berlin. What is it about Stockport that makes it special and how has it changed in recent years to gain such a title?

Stockport is great, I’ve been there 8 years and seen it blossom, it’s a really great place and so creative. Music, art, food and culture all wrapped up in a tiny town. We have SK1 and All Night Flight records, both really push the envelope with the most amazing stock, it’s just the best feeling to walk in and come out with some grail. I also collect books and magazines, so visit Rare Mags on the Underbank when I can, again a slippery slope of discovery and have to stop myself most days wandering down from the office to check out what’s dropped.

There’s a family feel to the company, one where we get the sense customers feel they can easily approach and talk to you regrading the products you make. Do you think that has helped you get to where you are today?

100%, when I was working in record shops I could see from some employees that there was an attitude and a distance and elitism from the customer which I thought was complete bullshit. I work on two simple mottos, I only sell what I would buy myself, and treat people how you expect to be treated. Audio and music can be really intimidating for people to enter into, and I have always wanted to give people my attention and understanding to really get to know them and work together to ensure they are happy with not just the product but our service, skill, care and attention to detail.

What does the future hold for MasterSounds? 

It’s such an exciting time for us, since we stopped selling DJ mixers it’s been a real period of reflection for me. I’m now older and some may say a little wiser, since 2008 with humble beginnings and a big idea, I’ve grown us to where we are today. I’ve a new team including new design engineers feverishly working away at the future. It’s a bit of a cliche I know but… WATCH THIS SPACE.

Massive thanks to Ryan for taking the time out to speak to us for this feature. Be sure to give MasterSounds a follow to keep in the loop with the next chapter of their incredible journey.