AUDIO BY DESIGN
JONATHAN LEVINE OF MASTER & DYNAMIC
Established in 2014, Master & Dynamic rocked the loudspeaker market with leading and innovative approaches to personal sonic devices. Its founder, seasoned entrepreneur Jonathan Levine, sought to produce headphones with superior craftsmanship and materials, as well as offer unmatched sound quality. We sit down with Levine to decipher why he decided to enter the realm of personal listening devices and how he employs his personal convictions into these luxury products.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START A HEADPHONE BRAND?
Ever since I left Wall Street in 1994, I've been a serial entrepreneur. I was also inspired by my two sons, Robert and Justin, who are now 24 and 18. When Robert was 13, he started DJ-ing, and at 16 he was producing his own music. As a supportive parent, I built Robert a small recording studio in my place of business. Mind you, I was also his road-crew and pseudo-manager, taking him to all the different places his DJ-ing would take him. And as an entrepreneur, I was naturally looking at the industry—this was back in 2012-2013 and Beats by Dre was sort of taking over the world.
As an entrepreneur, I found it very interesting that my sons lost interest in Beats very quickly, so it gave me a very naive idea without any background or training, that I could create a new type of headphone audio company and not try to become the next Beats by any means. But I thought that would maybe become the next Sennheiser, Bowers+Wilkins, Bang and Olufsen, Bose — so that's really what we set out to do. And I'd like to think that a little over four years later, we're on our way to create a brand and audio products that can live and exist and be relevant today or fifty years from now.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START A HEADPHONE BRAND?
Ever since I left Wall Street in 1994, I've been a serial entrepreneur. I was also inspired by my two sons, Robert and Justin, who are now 24 and 18. When Robert was 13, he started DJ-ing, and at 16 he was producing his own music. As a supportive parent, I built Robert a small recording studio in my place of business. Mind you, I was also his road-crew and pseudo-manager, taking him to all the different places his DJ-ing would take him. And as an entrepreneur, I was naturally looking at the industry—this was back in 2012-2013 and Beats by Dre was sort of taking over the world.
As an entrepreneur, I found it very interesting that my sons lost interest in Beats very quickly, so it gave me a very naive idea without any background or training, that I could create a new type of headphone audio company and not try to become the next Beats by any means. But I thought that would maybe become the next Sennheiser, Bowers+Wilkins, Bang and Olufsen, Bose — so that's really what we set out to do. And I'd like to think that a little over four years later, we're on our way to create a brand and audio products that can live and exist and be relevant today or fifty years from now.
WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE MASTER & DYNAMIC? AND DID THE PRIOR EXPERIENCE HELP YOU TODAY?
As a kid I, wanted to be an architect and was always taking things apart and putting them back together; that led to an interest in design. Like I said, in 1994, I decided to leave Wall Street and to start making stuff—without any real experience. With that said, I think I've always had a good eye for design, materials and market trends, so I applied the expertise I developed into three businesses: all different from one another and nothing in audio or luxury. I think those three prior experiences and successes definitely gave me a leg up in starting Master&Dynamic, simply because I was used to distribution, warehousing, importing—all these other aspects which can trip people up when starting a business. That execution aspect became important.
CAN YOU TELL US WHERE THE NAME FOR THE BRAND CAME FROM?
We got lucky with that one (laughs). If you've ever had to name anything besides a child or a pet, it's really difficult. Especially in today's world where where you have to own the URL's and global trademarks. We did a lot of research, a lot of exploration. It was a maddening process and it can really drive you to the brink of lunacy. When we finally came onto the name we loved it for various reasons. This concept of being a “master"; there's a direct connection to music. There's something in music called dynamic mastering, which is what you do when you create that final track that gets recorded and duplicated onto albums. And this play with being dynamic — to be open to new ideas - and that's been extremely important to us. We have tremendous discipline when it comes to our product and our brand, yet we try to remain fluid, and dynamic, in terms of the new things we're looking at and the way we try to connect with the consumer. It all blended really well.
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH THE END CONSUMER?
There's a good chance that if you sent an email as a consumer to our support, information, or press lines, chances are you'd get a reply from me. I've always found that if someone reaches out because they need a replacement part or something like that, when I reply and we open up dialogue, they appreciate, I appreciate, and we both learn something. A lot of times, those conversations turn into other opportunities, where I find out what this person does and maybe they're a music producer or an engineer. We have a conversation and it may give me an idea about a new product, they may connect me with someone else, I feel like the serendipity through conversation and relationships has fuelled the development of Master & Dynamic.
CAN YOU TELL US WHERE THE NAME FOR THE BRAND CAME FROM?
We got lucky with that one (laughs). If you've ever had to name anything besides a child or a pet, it's really difficult. Especially in today's world where where you have to own the URL's and global trademarks. We did a lot of research, a lot of exploration. It was a maddening process and it can really drive you to the brink of lunacy. When we finally came onto the name we loved it for various reasons. This concept of being a “master"; there's a direct connection to music. There's something in music called dynamic mastering, which is what you do when you create that final track that gets recorded and duplicated onto albums. And this play with being dynamic — to be open to new ideas - and that's been extremely important to us. We have tremendous discipline when it comes to our product and our brand, yet we try to remain fluid, and dynamic, in terms of the new things we're looking at and the way we try to connect with the consumer. It all blended really well.
WHO DO YOU THINK THE MASTER & DYNAMIC CUSTOMER IS?
I have this habit of talking to strangers wearing our products no matter where I am. It actually happens a lot on the New York subways. I'll see somebody, approach them, motion them to take off their headphones and I'll say something like like “Those are really cool headphones. What are they, and where'd you get them?" They'd tell me they're Master & Dynamic, and then I'll usually follow up with “Do you mind me asking you what you do for a living?" And without really tracking it, I think that 95% of the people I've met this way are in some type of creative field, whether it be design, fashion, music, advertising. I'm happy that we've hit that nerve, creating a brand and product for creative people. I think that the consumer we attract is one who, I think, has an appreciation for design and materials. They also want to differentiate themselves and they do that in other areas of their lives, from how they decorate their homes, how their desk looks like in their office, their sneakers, clothing; I think they use Master & Dynamic as a way to do that as well. All the while, these are people who are tech savvy and want the best.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE FUNCTIONAL DESIGN WITH CONCEPTUAL DESIGN WHEN BUILDING NEW PRODUCTS?
I don't like to (laughs)! There is a lot of technology that goes into our products, but everything we do starts from design. In a short period of time, we have, for a young company, a pretty consistent track record of designing products that people want to wear. At the same time, we work to make sure that everything we want to put in the product can go into it, and we don't compromise. My engineering team might argue with me, but I feel like we've stumbled onto a lot of interesting things because we won't take no for an answer. An example of this is when we designed our first wireless headphone in 2015: the MW60. We wanted to carry a lot of the design elements from our MH40 product into our MW60, one of them being the external ring that goes around the product. We made that part of our design element for the MW60, and in doing so, we created this antennae technology that actually created three times the connectivity distance of our competition. The point I'm trying to make is that we approached that antennae from a design aspect, then we turned it into a technological benefit.
With our MA770 wireless speaker that I designed with the architect Sir David Adjaye, I envisioned a concrete speaker. People told me I was crazy, my own product team told me I was crazy, you couldn't do it. And usually, like I said, when someone tells me I can't do something, that's when I really get interested. And so we persevered and created a speaker from a proprietary concrete composite that we developed, because the product had to be designed and manufactured. Above and beyond that, we found out that the material we developed had some of the best acoustic properties out of any other materials used in speakers. So that's what I'll call another happy outcome, because we wouldn't relent on the design or material side.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE FUNCTIONAL DESIGN WITH CONCEPTUAL DESIGN WHEN BUILDING NEW PRODUCTS?
I don't like to (laughs)! There is a lot of technology that goes into our products, but everything we do starts from design. In a short period of time, we have, for a young company, a pretty consistent track record of designing products that people want to wear. At the same time, we work to make sure that everything we want to put in the product can go into it, and we don't compromise. My engineering team might argue with me, but I feel like we've stumbled onto a lot of interesting things because we won't take no for an answer. An example of this is when we designed our first wireless headphone in 2015: the MW60. We wanted to carry a lot of the design elements from our MH40 product into our MW60, one of them being the external ring that goes around the product. We made that part of our design element for the MW60, and in doing so, we created this antennae technology that actually created three times the connectivity distance of our competition. The point I'm trying to make is that we approached that antennae from a design aspect, then we turned it into a technological benefit.
With our MA770 wireless speaker that I designed with the architect Sir David Adjaye, I envisioned a concrete speaker. People told me I was crazy, my own product team told me I was crazy, you couldn't do it. And usually, like I said, when someone tells me I can't do something, that's when I really get interested. And so we persevered and created a speaker from a proprietary concrete composite that we developed, because the product had to be designed and manufactured. Above and beyond that, we found out that the material we developed had some of the best acoustic properties out of any other materials used in speakers. So that's what I'll call another happy outcome, because we wouldn't relent on the design or material side.
TELL US ABOUT MÅRTEN WALLBY AND HIS ROLE IN THE COMPANY?
Mårten is my original and still lead designer, based in Malmö. When I first found him on Behance a long time ago during my search for a designer, I asked to interview him and he said "I'll meet you in Copenhagen, because I live in this small little town." I said, "No, I want to come to you." I remember I flew into Copenhagen late at night and a took a train into Malmö on a crisp morning. I fell in love with the city Mårten grew up in. I think Mårten became our lead designer because his aesthetic and mine are very similar. I love industrial vibes and if you've been to Malmö, you'd know that it's this old industrial city that's being reborn into a sort of design and technology city. So the combination of old and new, industrial and tech, I think, is really interesting.
WITH YOUR RECENT LOUIS VUITTON COLLABORATION, AND REFLECTING ON YOUR FIRST WITH PROENZA SCHOULER, WHAT KIND OF IMPACT HAVE COLLABORATIONS HAD ON THE MASTER & DYNAMIC BRAND?
The easy answer is that it's had a huge impact and benefit to Master & Dynamic. When an iconic brand like Louis Vuitton can see that we operate on a very high level, with Proenza Schouler or Leica Camera, and see how we approach these things, I think it gives them confidence that we are the right partner. On a personal level, to work directly with these teams and brands and learn how they treat themselves and the product, you can learn a lot. It's like going to school without ever having to spend the time or money. That's been the upside for me and it's trickled down through the company; this ability to work with these great brands, learn from them and adapt them to your own brands.
ARE THERE ANY BRANDS YOU'D LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
How we find partners and how we work together has always been founded on mutual respect and love for each other's products, as well the ability and desire to create something special together — not just slapping logos on stuff. How we map out our partnerships going forward is that firstly, we're just careful and respectful. We do have a few things working in the automotive world, which has always been on the wishlist, and those things are starting to take hold.
WITH YOUR RECENT LOUIS VUITTON COLLABORATION, AND REFLECTING ON YOUR FIRST WITH PROENZA SCHOULER, WHAT KIND OF IMPACT HAVE COLLABORATIONS HAD ON THE MASTER & DYNAMIC BRAND?
The easy answer is that it's had a huge impact and benefit to Master & Dynamic. When an iconic brand like Louis Vuitton can see that we operate on a very high level, with Proenza Schouler or Leica Camera, and see how we approach these things, I think it gives them confidence that we are the right partner. On a personal level, to work directly with these teams and brands and learn how they treat themselves and the product, you can learn a lot. It's like going to school without ever having to spend the time or money. That's been the upside for me and it's trickled down through the company; this ability to work with these great brands, learn from them and adapt them to your own brands.
WHEN YOU'RE TEST DRIVING NEW PRODUCTS, IS THERE A PARTICULAR RECORD OR PIECE OF MUSIC YOU LIKE TO HEAR?
This is something I haven't thought about in a while, and it's always good to remember it. I remember my son Robert and I created a master playlist — which I'd have to dig out now — but we used this playlist to tune our headphones. This was back in 2013. But we had lots of hip-hop on there, with some Philip Glass, and I of course had lots of classics like Van Morrison and Muddy Waters. So it was that stuff, mixed with Outkast. It went from blues to jazz to classic rock to hip hop; the music we loved. After we created this playlist of different genres to tune against, the reviews came out for our first product being genre neutral. Some headphones are bass heavy, for example, but we created a product where any genre of music you want to listen to sounds great. That was a happy outcome.
WHY WAS THE HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES THE COMMUNITY THAT MASTER & DYNAMIC DECIDED TO BACK FINANCIALLY?
Education has always been important in my life, my children's lives and my business partner's. A lot of companies, when they start out, they want to have a charity aspect with it. A lot of them will take on big companies, almost global and that's great. But for us, we really wanted to act locally, where we can have some impact. Harlem, also historically, has a deep connection to music, and so it just became the right partner for us. Like anything else we do, we learn a lot from meeting new people and helping others out. There's a lot of satisfaction there.
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR MASTER & DYNAMIC GOING FORWARD?
I'd like to tell you that we do a lot of strategic planning. But I think, at the end of the day, the magic of Master & Dynamic is that we sort of try and create every day. I think the future looks bright for us. We don't have plans to take over the world. We're very happy with the place we're in, and for us, in the end, it's all about making great product.
