It seems that for superyacht owners, once you get the bug for better sound and vision, you just can’t shake it off. Steve May sits down with the companies that are taking on board entertainment to the next level…
For one music-loving boat owner, it was Taylor Swift who persuaded him to upgrade his on-deck audio tech. Specifically, the track cardigan, which was played on hard repeat as he compared competing sound systems. His existing speaker stack, deployed for DJ parties, just didn’t get the piano tone right. A comparison with the L-Acoustics Syva speaker array eventually proved far more compelling. It was time for an upgrade.
“You could hear the song all over the boat. It played all day while the owner compared his existing speakers with our high-spec Syva sound system,” recalls Nick Fichte, business director, home and yacht, for the brand. “I’m not a Swiftie,” confesses Fichte, with a pained expression and a laugh.
Clearly, getting the sound right on deck is a serious business for yacht owners. Typically there are two approaches to bringing music on deck: fixed and deployable. Built into the fabric of the boat, fixed audio is plumbed in at birth or during a refit. Most likely, these sound systems take the form of low-profile speakers nestled in bulkheads or hidden in ceilings. They’re unobtrusive and low maintenance, at least from a crew point of view, and are fine if you just want to stream Spotify, but they have their sonic limitations. They can sound thin, and produce audio that doesn’t travel far. Deployable systems, by their very nature, can be far more performative and are stored until required. Altogether more sizeable, they’re designed for beach club parties and DJ sets. But traditionally, they’re bulky and demand significant storage space.
“On larger boats, we’re seeing quite a few vessels that have deployable systems on them,” says Fichte. “The deckhands will go and get the loudspeakers and subwoofers and set them up so boat owners can have some live music, a band or a DJ.”
