Mark Ronson's Ojas Audio System

The producer behind 'Uptown Funk' and 'Back to Black' heard Devon Turnbull's speakers once and commissioned everything.

The Scene

Mark Ronson has spent his career in rooms full of the world's best studio equipment — Neve consoles, Studer tape machines, vintage microphones worth more than most cars. He's produced records for Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Adele. He knows what music is supposed to sound like because he's the one making it sound that way.

So when Ronson heard Devon Turnbull's Ojas speakers for the first time, the fact that he immediately commissioned a complete system — speakers, amplifier, turntable, and preamplifier — says something that no review ever could. According to Stereophile's profile of Turnbull, Ronson ordered the full package after a single listening session.

The system now lives in Ronson's personal space, separate from his studio work. It's not for mixing or mastering. It's for listening — the thing that producers rarely get to do on their own terms, through equipment chosen purely for pleasure rather than professional obligation.

The Gear

Ronson's setup includes custom Ojas horn loudspeakers — the same massive, horn-loaded birch plywood cabinets that Turnbull builds by hand in his Brooklyn Navy Yard workshop. These are driven by an Ojas tube amplifier, likely a single-ended triode design producing just a handful of watts — more than enough for the extremely efficient horn speakers.

The source is an Ojas turntable feeding an Ojas preamplifier, both handmade by Turnbull. The entire signal chain is Ojas from end to end — a rarity even among Turnbull's clients, most of whom commission speakers alone. Ronson went all in.

The philosophy behind the system is efficiency and transparency. Horn-loaded speakers convert amplifier watts into sound pressure far more efficiently than conventional designs. A 3-watt tube amplifier driving Ojas horns can produce concert-level volumes with virtually zero distortion. Every watt is heard, and every nuance in the recording is preserved.

Mark Ronson is documented as having commissioned the speakers, amp, record player and preamplifier after his first listening session.— Stereophile, "Hi-Fi as Art: Devon Turnbull & Ojas Audio"

Why It Matters

Ronson's endorsement of Ojas matters because he's not an audiophile hobbyist — he's one of the most decorated producers alive. Six Grammys, an Oscar, and a career built on sonic precision. When someone with that résumé chooses a hand-built system from a one-person Brooklyn workshop over anything from the established hi-fi industry, it validates Turnbull's approach in a way that no Stereophile review can.

It also creates an aspirational ladder for anyone who hears about Ojas and wants to move in that direction. Ronson's system is bespoke and six figures, but the design principles — horn loading, single-ended tubes, minimal signal path — are available at every price point. A pair of Klipsch Forte IV speakers with a tube integrated amplifier and a decent turntable gets you into the same sonic neighborhood for under $5,000.

For Stereos For Sale, the Ronson connection ties the Ojas story to one of the biggest names in modern music — and links directly to the gear pages for Back to Black, which Ronson produced at the Dap-Kings' Daptone studio on a Toft ATB console and Studer A80 tape machine.

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