PARTNER SERIES · NO. 001 · SEPTEMBER 2026
The Listening Room
Inside the analogue revival, with the Sydney DJ who built a record bar in his house.
THE ROOM
Welcome to Berto's
One wall of Robbie Rommers' Sydney home is vinyl. Birch plywood shelving runs floor to ceiling, built around vintage JBL monitors and a stainless steel DJ booth. This is Berto's: part record bar, part working archive, entirely personal.
The room takes its name from Robbie himself. Every finish has a reason, every record carries a memory, and every detail reflects two decades spent watching rooms come alive through music.
“I've spent twenty years in some of the best venues in the world, watching what music can do to people. Berto's is my version of everything I've loved about those places, in one room. The name is personal because the whole thing is personal. It wasn't built for an audience. It was built for the music.”
THE MOMENT
The room the world is trying to build
Across the world, listening has become a destination again. Tokyo's jazz kissa established the ritual; London has Spiritland, Paris has Listener, and Sydney has JAM Record Bar. Each room makes the same proposition: music deserves attention.
$1BN
US Vinyl 2025
19
Years of Growth
58.6%
CD Revenue Up
45%
Cassettes Up
The appeal is not nostalgia. It is ceremony in place of access: choosing a record, turning it over, hearing a room respond. The format asks for time, and rewards it with presence.
“In an instant world, vinyl embraces the physical reality of sound, making the listening experience feel deeply personal, tactile, intentional and alive. These shelves are a map of where music has taken me, and that changes what I play, and how I listen.”
THE BUILD
Every decision came from somewhere
ACA Joinery translated the record collection into architecture, while Nicholas Reeder fabricated the stainless steel DJ console. The room was assembled as a set of specific answers: storage that could grow, speakers that could breathe, and a booth that felt permanent without feeling precious.
“The shelving, the JBLs, the steel DJ console — they come from different rooms, different cities, different moments. The point was never to copy one place. It was to understand why each part worked.”
Robbie now consults with members building rooms of their own, beginning with how they listen and what they already own rather than a shopping list of equipment.
“Like a DJ set, start with the records, not the gear. A great system playing a thin collection is a showroom. And the biggest trap is building a room to be photographed instead of a room to be used. If you're scared to put a drink down in it, it's furniture, not a listening room.”
THE PARTNER
The ear behind our events
Feels Music gives Unobtanium events their arc. Robbie programs for the whole room: arrivals, conversation, dinner, the moment a night turns, and the record that sends people home. It is hospitality expressed through sound.
“Feels programmes the whole night, from the first guest through the last. Talk to me about the people, not the playlist. Who's coming, what the night is for, how they want everyone to feel. Give me that and the music writes itself.”
REFERENCE ROOMS
Where the idea lives
Six rooms that turned attentive listening into a culture, a ritual and a reason to gather.
Sydney · JAM Record Bar
Merivale's love letter to the Tokyo original. Fifteen thousand records in pink plywood.
London · Spiritland
The kissa idea scaled for King's Cross.
Paris · Listener
A dedicated listening room beneath Rue Vivienne.
New York · Valentino
L'Atelier Sonore, a soundproofed listening room inside the Madison Avenue flagship.
Tokyo · The Jazz Kissa
The source. Rooms like Dug in Shinjuku, spinning records since 1961.
Melbourne · LB's Record Bar
Merivale's first Melbourne room, on Meyers Place.
The offer
Two ways for members to experience the room behind the story — in public at JAM, or through a private event built by Feels Music.
01
Robbie at JAM
Feels night at JAM Record Bar, Saturday 26 September
02
Feels for your night
Introduction to Feels Music for private events
Design by Robbie Rommers. Photography by Tom Wholohan. Steel fabrication by Nicholas Reeder. Joinery by ACA Joinery.