Factory Sound

The end of an era at York St, the beginning of a bigger one in Port Melbourne

Factory Sound has existed in many forms in South Melbourne’s York Street: rehearsal studios in the 80s and early 90s, the same plus a shop in the mid-90s, an expanding and beloved pro audio destination through the late 90s and early 2000s, one of the first big online audio retailers over the last two decades, then a major integrator and installer under new ownership today.

After more than 30 years of retail, they have finally outgrown York St and moved, not too far away, to a major new facility in Port Melbourne. Owner and CEO Jason Ghazal, who acquired Factory Sound in 2023, pulled out all the stops refitting the industrial building at 1 Tarver Street, calling on a related network of trades and businesses. I visited the site during construction and was amazed when the fully completed facility opened just a few weeks later.

The grand opening of their new HQ was on 5 August, with an official ceremony and ribbon cutting during the day, and a suitably massive party at night. I attended both, and they were surprisingly emotional.

Firstly, though, the facility. It is not just a slick pro audio shop, though it is definitely that. Only their other store in Parramatta, NSW, rivals the amount of high-end gear on the show floor. It is an absolute destination for anyone in pro audio, in any branch of the game. There are flagship live, broadcast, and recording consoles from every major manufacturer on display; that level of investment is not something you see anywhere else.

Throughout the rest of the store, mics, cables (including the indefatigable house brand), headphones, monitors, stands: you name it. Then you get out of the shopfront and into the serious areas: a purpose-built Dolby Atmos studio, complete with Avid S6 control surface and SSL Origin desk, and, most often, Avid’s Drew Parsons in residence. There’s also a recording room and vocal booth. Upstairs, you’ll find the very nicely kitted-out offices, including for the Projects team, where design and installation generate an ever-increasing part of Factory’s business.

Then there is The Showroom. It’s actually a small to mid-sized concert venue and bar. There’s nothing else like it in the country. A massive LED screen graces the upstage, a full lighting rig, two brands of PA hung on stage for demos (which can, of course, be rotated), loudspeakers and monitors of all kinds down both sides of the room, and the pièce de résistance, The Vinyl Bar, stocked with hundreds of vinyl records and drinks.

Factory Sound has built a destination for the entire Australian pro audio community, and it’s no surprise that all of their suppliers, approximately 140 brands, wanted to be part of it. It’s the perfect venue for demo nights, training, showcases and more. Despite being there on opening night, there was an Avid masterclass with Massive Attack’s Rob Allan scheduled for the very next day, with more already on the calendar.

No less than the area’s Federal MP, Josh Burns, joined Jason Ghazal and the broader Factory family to cut the ribbon. Factory sits in the seat of Macnamara, which hugs the bay down to Elwood and out to Caulfield, including Southbank, Albert Park, Middle Park, and St Kilda. As such, it takes in Melbourne’s old recording studio heartland, its post-production hub, plus TV and radio sectors. As Josh Burns noted, one in 10 of his constituents works in the creative sector. He spoke to the crowd as someone who definitely knows his audience, likening the new Showroom to “The Gershwin Room at The Espy, but with less sticky carpet.”

The presentations included a fantastic documentary made by the Factory team about the history of York St and its people. A who’s who of Melbourne audio identities appeared, and the narrative heavily featured long-term Factory identities Artie Jones, now General Manager, and Dean McGrath, National Sales Manager. Both their relationships with the York St store go back decades, as did those of most of the people in the audience, me included.

I found myself a little choked up as I recalled going into Factory in early 1998 and buying my first microphone, mixing desk, studio monitors, and cabling. The cabling was made while I waited, in a tiny room opposite the sales counter. I’m still using some of it right now as I type; it’s connecting my audio interface to the monitors on my work desk.

I found myself returning many times over the next few years, often to their completely insane end-of-financial-year sales events, which were a contact sport that required serious crowd control. Years after that, I’d return as a sales rep, then as a trade journo. It kept growing and growing, until finally it burst its seams and headed to Port Melbourne.

Both Artie Jones and Jason Ghazal made beautiful speeches at both the day and evening events, which I won’t detract from the emotional core of by merely quoting here. The opening was a beautiful family affair, in the literal sense, with generations of relatives present, along with the Factory family and the wider audio community.

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Factory Sound have every right to be proud of 1 Tarver Street, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing all of the wider CX readership there many, many times over the next few years for demos, showcases, training, networking, and some very smooth drinks over some even smoother vinyl.