Earlier this year, it occurred to Robert Lucskai that he could combine his life-long love of high-end hi-fi with his expertise as a real estate agent. Thus his startup business Costa Soniqa ("Sound Coast") was born.
Lucskai, a Hungarian who emigrated to Spain 15 years ago, calls himself a Personal Audiophile Journey Advisor. With Costa Soniqa, he aims to serve Germans, Brits, Poles, and other Europeans who wish to buy a house in Spain that can readily be outfitted with a high-end listening room. For the demanding and the highly committed, he even finds entire homes that can qualify as "audiophile villas," with acoustic treatments in multiple rooms.
Usually, he says, his clients have a high-end stereo in their main home. When they buy a pied-à-terre in Spain, they're obviously not going to settle for a Bluetooth speaker. For buyers still discovering their audiophile side, Lucskai will often suggest that the basement be turned into a listening room or movie theater. "Basements are essentially dead space. Most people don't know what to do with them," he told me in a busy hallway at the Stadion PGE Narodowy, a soccer stadium where hundreds of audio brands and vinyl sellers have set up for the 2025 Warsaw Audio Show. He's not averse to working with Spanish home buyers, he said, but moneyed foreigners are more likely to need everything from assistance with the language to contacts with local dealers. Lucskai is the Spanish distributor of the Hungarian Popori Acoustics brand of panel speakers (footnote), he suggests that home buyers purchase Poporis. If the customer has his or her heart set on a pair of B&W Nautilus speakers or some MBL Radialstrahler, Lucskai will happily track down the product in Spain.
Together with an American business partner, he's already thinking of his next venture: a kind of audiophile Airbnb. "When people look for travel accommodations, everybody wants something niche, something special, some new idea or concept," Lucskai enthuses. If he can build a network of audiophiles willing to rent out their homes—including their stereo systems—to other audiophiles, he can already hear a sound sweeter than all but the sweetest music: cha-ching.
Footnote: I had a long listening session with Popori Acoustics at High-End Munich 2024. They are excellent speakers. [CORRECTION]: As of last fall, Popori Acoustics is distributed in the US by Unique Home Audio LLC.–Jim Austin
Footnote: I had a long listening session with Popori Acoustics at High-End Munich 2024. They are excellent speakers. [CORRECTION]: As of last fall, Popori Acoustics is distributed in the US by Unique Home Audio LLC.–Jim Austin
