Spiritland’s Paul Noble combines classic JBL collection with modern amplification and DSP for Happy Face Pizza / SUPERMAX

Sound engineer turned restaurateur Paul Noble has been dedicating himself to curating and modifying a range of vintage hi-fi and commercial audio artifacts, including many by JBL. These can now be seen and heard in the sites he and partners, Dominic Lake and Patrick Clayton-Malone, operate around the fashionable new King’s Cross development area.

The former BBC sound man and his colleagues first opened Spiritland, a combined café bar/radio studio, behind the fashionable Granary Square, in September 2016 featuring an iconic radio studio, a bespoke Isonoe mixer and Kuzma turntable, as well as Jelco arms fitted to classic Technics SL1200s twin decks, with radio station at the rear. The theme has been continued at the follow up venues—Happy Face Pizza and SUPERMAX bar, opened recently nearby, where Noble has curated some of JBL’s classic vintage pieces from yesteryear.

The speakers are a mix of retro classics from the JBL back catalogue (some sporting vibrant paint finishes) and new models sourced via HARMAN UK distributor Sound Technology Ltd.  All the tuning takes place via the DSP built into the new Crown XTi-2 Series amplifiers that power all the loudspeakers.

Read our full case study here:

https://www.soundtech.co.uk/professional-audio/bars-restaurants/happy-face-pizza-supermax