HUMAN AUDIO

It all began with a music-loving engineer, Péter Büdszenti. He set out to build a CD player that would capture as much of the musicality of vinyl turntables as possible, while preserving the advantages of the CD format. His motivation was not commercial ambition, but the joy of creation – a spirit that continued to define all his later work.

After a long search, his choice fell on Philips’ early, solidly built industrial transport, the CD-Pro2. Philips itself rarely used this mechanism in its own products; instead, high-end manufacturers built their systems around it. Péter’s friends quickly recognized the promise of his work and soon joined him in the development.

Following numerous prototypes and experiments, the Libretto was born – built upon the same principles that still define Human Audio products today. But the journey didn’t stop there: the Libretto needed a partner in the audio chain to carry forward the same sonic character. This led to the creation of battery-powered integrated, pre- and power amplifiers, a DAC, cables, and other accessories.

In time, the Libretto itself was ready for renewal, resulting in the second-generation Libretto II. However, by the time it was completed, Péter tragically and suddenly passed away. His final wish was for the team to continue the work under the Human Audio name, guided by the shared principles they had established together.

HUMAN SOUND

The principles that define Human Audio products.

            The first is complete handcrafting: during production, we strive to carry out as many processes as possible by hand.

            The second principle is battery power: as a result of the battle against network noise, the devices have been completely disconnected from the power grid, solving the issue with built-in batteries.

            The third principle is vibration damping: where resonance-as a natural part of music-is not entirely eliminated, only moderated so that it does not distort or alter the sound. Experiments have shown that wood provides the best solution, as many musical instruments rely on the resonance of wood. While the exact physical explanation is not entirely clear, the experience suggests that wood imparts a more “human” touch to the sound of electronic devices

            The fourth fundamental principle is simplicity: while many high-end devices focus on increasing power and reducing distortion-often leading to larger transformers, longer signal paths, and heavy, iron-clad structures Human Audio has chosen the opposite path. The principle of simplicity, fewer components, and shorter signal paths has resulted in a unique, human, lovable, yet exciting and pure sound character.

This is accompanied by a unique design that reinforces the human-centered identity.

To control the development process, we have continuously sought the assistance of professional musicians and opera singers, listening to our products with their own recordings.

“It is not the object but the human that is the goal.”
László Moholy-Nagy

DESIGN

One might ask: can design and high-end audio coexist?

At first glance, these seem like opposing concepts. On one side, the engineering mindset dictates that everything must be subordinated to sound quality. Aesthetic considerations are irrelevant. The shape, the individual components, and the enclosure’s size and form should be purely engineering decisions, leaving no room for aesthetic embellishment. Every stylistic choice is suspect. This is true, yet on the other side, the designer remains unconvinced.

It is impossible to ignore the fact that high-end audio equipment must integrate into a home environment. More often than not, they end up as the centerpiece of a living room-cherished possessions replacing the beautifully polished world-receiving radios of our grandparents. Furthermore, the external appearance should reflect the monumental effort that went into crafting the internal components.

The solution-the common ground-lies in quality. Quality is not merely an aesthetic concept, nor can it be applied solely to the generated sound. True quality acts as an aura that surrounds objects. Architects do not describe their favorite buildings as “beautiful” but rather as “good”-a quality that transcends appearance. Functionality, logical structure, structural clarity, and efficient, economic constructability all contribute to architectural value. This holds true for seemingly pure engineering structures like bridges, cooling towers, or industrial facilities, which exude aesthetics when built with logical, clean design.

If that is the case, what role does a designer play in a high-end development team? Shouldn’t it be enough to make purely logical engineering decisions-ensuring that if everything works, the final product will not only be good but also inherently “beautiful”?

This is true, but it is difficult to entirely remove aesthetic intent from the decision-making process of electrical engineers. A visual specialist helps regulate this instinct while also accelerating processes by introducing another perspective into considerations such as assembly and manufacturability. The role of the designer here differs from the norm. They are not merely a stylist, not tasked with deciding the shape. Instead, they immerse themselves within the development team, experiencing every technical challenge firsthand. They subtly guide the design process from the earliest ideas, yet their presence remains nearly invisible. Most importantly, they, too, must be passionately devoted to music.

During the design of Human Audio products, we frequently discussed the beauty of old musical instruments-where form was dictated solely by the sound they produced, refined over centuries. Instrument makers, whom we may call artists, only expressed decorative tendencies in small gestures, such as the carving of instrument heads or unique finishes-always subtly influenced by the style of their era and location.

András Göde (Designer)