Six Floors of Custom Audio for Million Dollar Listing’s Ryan Serhant
As someone who has made his way to celebrity by mastering New York’s luxury real estate market, real estate broker Ryan Serhant has an acute eye for the inner workings of a perfect residence. Just watch five minutes of Serhant breaking down New York’s finest real estate on Bravo’s wildly popular—and mildly addictive—show, Million Dollar Listing, and its spinoff series, Sell it Like Serhant.
The real estate broker-turned media mogul is currently the star of the series and the CEO and founder of the mega brokerage firm, SERHANT, which houses an in-house film studio, tech platform, and marketing and education arm. After getting married and having his daughter, Serhant decided to invest in his own piece of real estate, setting down roots in an 8,000-square-foot Brooklyn townhome, and then embarking on a three-year gut renovation of all six floors.
Among major changes to the space were doubly expanded room dimensions, removal of load-bearing walls, and the installation of a private elevator. When it came to the audio engineering for the new space, the first thing Serhant asked Richard Hollander of AV Design & Integration was, “We’re going to do Leon Speakers, right?”
Foundationally, Serhant wanted three things in the family’s new space: a great network, an advanced security system, and exceptional audio throughout the entire home. As a long-time dealer of Leon products, Hollander had already integrated some of the company’s audio essentials into Serhant’s previous apartment, namely the company’s Axis AxV60 speakers. Several years later, Serhant was eager to learn more about the company’s expanded product line and what it could do for his new space.
Though the audio design vision centered on simplicity, Hollander and Serhant’s interior design team, Ash New York, made sure to integrate Leon essentials across the home’s six floors and outdoor spaces for a cohesive, whole-home listening experience. To help fine-tune the vision, Hollander spent time walking through a typical day in Serhant’s life to make sure that sound technology was complementary and unobtrusive.
“Technology needs to make your life better and easier—that’s always the goal,” Hollander said.
With this in mind, the team started off strong in the lower-level media room and playroom, where two soundbars infuse both spaces with Leon’s aesthetic audio solutions in the soundbar sphere, which the company has essentially invented and cultivated over its 25-year history. In the media room, Leon’s Horizon Ultima Soundbar is the perfect fit for Serhant’s TV set up, thanks to its built-to-match performance levels and configurations that allow exact matching and TV mounting. Likewise, Leon’s FrameBar was designed with a cabinet that matches Serhant’s Samsung FrameTV, along with custom grille fabrics—in this case, white hardwood and granite fabric—that mirror the lightness of the family’s playroom.
Over in Serhant’s office, Leon’s popularly customizable Timbre Bookshelf speakers complement the dark wood finishes in the space through a rich black hardwood cabinet and matching grille fabric. Leon’s versatile hardwoods and fabric options were also helpful in the master bedroom and media rooms, in which Tonecase Bars in black hardwood and gray grille fabrics act as mantle solutions for housing the Sonos Arc, while complementing surrounding dark wood finishes.
In some areas, Serhant opted for in-wall subwoofers as an added safety measure for his young daughter, and around the entire home, extra in-ceiling AxV80 speakers ensured an entirely balanced audio distribution. To tie it all together, the team blended circular Terra LuminSound outdoor speakers in a deep forest hue within the outside greenery to continue the audio program outdoors.
The final additions by Leon are sleekly integrated while hitting all the right style points of their own, and they are displayed in a recent YouTube tour of Serhant’s freshly renovated home. “They crushed it, so thank you, Leon,” Serhant says, observing the in-ceiling Axis Speakers in the main living room: high-performing, but discreet.
Each floor in Serhant’s new Brooklyn townhome is a picturesque example of Leon Speakers’ 25 years at the forefront of custom audio craftsmanship and clever technology concealment. As a mainstay in the audio sectors of both commercial and residential markets, the company creates innovative products made to complement any space while boosting aesthetic appeal, all while offering the capabilities of an agile design team capable of customizing audio solutions for the most extensively engineered projects. Above all, those who invest in custom-crafted audio solutions by Leon appreciate the built-to-last quality and singular experience they provide.
“Leon is about entertainment, about the visceral experience of music. These are emotional experiences that you don’t forget, no matter how old you are,” Hollander concluded. “What Leon meant to Ryan was music—bringing it to every room in his home.”
Additional Spaces
Downstairs Media Room - Horizon Ultima Soundbar
Bedroom - Tonecase Hardwood Cabinet for the SONOS ARC
Home Gym - Axis AxV60 speakers