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Robert Lighton's career has included stints as a clothing manufacturer, a maker of expensive wristwatches, and, most recently, a designer and manufacturer of high-end furniture, examples of which grace the homes of Richard Gere, Kevin Kostner, and Renee Zellweger. It was during the latter occupation that Lighton—whose introduction to hi-fi and record collecting came while growing up in Kansas City—began to consider high-end audio as a professional pursuit. He was impressed with playback gear from Audio Note UK, and thought he might succeed in representing them in New York City—but Robert Lighton also wanted a line of products that would bear his imprint, in their sonic presentation and in terms of their value as artisanal, heirloom-quality goods, not unlike the furniture he continues to design and sell. The result is a growing line of Robert Lighton Audio products, designed and built by Audio Note and, to varying degrees, craftsmen here in the US.

Since the latter part of 2013, those products and a selection of gear from the standard Audio Note line have been available at the showroom of Robert Lighton Audio, on the 12th floor of 37 West 20th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea district (not far from the studios of Robert Lighton Furniture—or, for that matter, from Academy Records and the always-recommendable Jazz Record Center). Earlier this year I pried myself from my upstate-New York home long enough to visit Robert Lighton Audio: a beautifully decorated suite in which an Audio Note Ongaku amplifier shares space with a Suzanne Guiguichon armoire (above), and from which the view of the Empire State Building is stunning.

The look and the sound of the Robert Lighton Audio gear is no less impressive. Early versions of Lighton's debut product—a two-way loudspeaker that was influenced by Audio Note's AN-E line—led me to expect lots of structural curves and richly grained sapele wood; those elements remain in the finalized RL-8 loudspeaker ($25,000/pair with matching sapele stands). The unbraced enclosure of the 94dB-sensitive RL-8 is machined from solid, and hand-finished inside and out with water-based aniline stains, followed by applications of shellac and oil. The loudspeaker's reflex-loaded 8" woofer has a stiffer-than-average surround made of treated fabric—which Lighton describes as offering superior dynamic performance to a more compliant rubber surround—and is paired with a ¾" tweeter. Both drivers are made in Japan, and both feature Alnico magnets.

In the larger of two listening spaces at Robert Lighton Audio, the RL-8 seemed cannily balanced, top to bottom, with a realistically warm character—although those same pleasant qualities may also have stemmed from the Audio Note M2 RIAA phono preamp ($16,000) and the Robert Lighton Regency integrated amp ($16,500)—the latter having finally gone into production after some recent audio-show previews. The Regency wrings 8 watts from its single 300B output tube per channel, and all of the transformers beneath its hand-painted covers are Audio Note's double-C-core types. Those parts are supported by a solid sapele base, the contours of which bring to mind the original Voyd turntable—speaking of which, those same design elements are evident in the Robert Lighton Essex turntable (price to be determined), especially its distinctive plinth. Other Essex traits include a blessedly high-torque motor, a rosewood armboard, and a layered platter made from aluminum and copper.

Just as captivating—and, if anything, even more impactful and involving—was the humbler system in RLA's smaller listening room. That one was built around the RLA-5 loudspeaker ($15,000/pair including stands), driven by the 300B-powered Audio Note Meishu Phono Silver Signature integrated amp ($20,600), itself fed by a vintage Thorens TD 124 turntable in a custom RLA plinth. Here, as in the other room, the system allowed me to focus not as much on the hardware as on selections from Lighton's extensive, eclectic LP collection: Ivan Moravec playing a Chopin Nocturne sounded hypnotically great, as did In the Great Abbey of Clement VI: a beautifully bizarre record from 1979, of trombonist/composer Stuart Dempster performing solo in Pope Clement VI's Palace at Avignon.

Although Lighton isn't known for hyping his gear at the expense of other brands—at shows, it's difficult to get him to speak about anything other than records and large-format photography, in which he's also well-versed—his response to my praise betrayed a shopkeeper who is at peace with his way of doing things: "Most people are just playing what I call 'spatial gymnastics'—just stretching or squeezing or otherwise distorting spatial perspectives. But my thing is, Can you hear who is playing what? Can you hear everything? That's what sets this gear apart from the rest. We're doing something entirely different: I don't see the sense of doing something that everyone else has done."