13 January 8-14, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Don’t Shy Away A chic new vinyl lounge venue is set to open downtown later this month. BY PRESTON JONES A listening experience unlike any other in North Texas is set to open its doors soon. Shyboy, tucked away in former bank vaults beneath the Drakestone Apartments, 1313 Main St. in downtown Dallas, will be a first-of-its-kind hi-fi bar. (The Drakestone was formerly known as the Davis Building, prior to the Headington Companies’ renovation in 2017.) The 3,000-square-foot space is modeled, in part, after the sort of venues first popularized in Japan immediately following World War II. Shyboy is intended to provide a thoughtfully conceived, carefully assembled and finely cali- brated space in which to, figuratively and liter- ally, lose yourself in the music. “Hi-fi is a pursuit,” said Jonathan Merla, vice president of marketing for the Heading- ton Companies, in a recent conversation. “It’s an endeavor that takes a lot of research and contacting all sorts of different people, and then, obviously, it takes a lot of investment to do it right. It’s not an inexpensive thing. That, coupled with, I think, now people are want- ing a different listening experience.” Entering Shyboy will undoubtedly pro- vide that, even for those who have respect- able analog listening setups at home. The equipment and designers name- checked here may not mean much to the lay- person, but even a cursory glance at the specs and behind-the-scenes personnel enlisted for Shyboy indicates Merla very much means what he says insofar as “a lot of investment.” A pair of state-of-the-art OJAS sound sys- tems, designed by the New York-based artist and audiophile Devon Turnbull, will anchor Shyboy’s two listening rooms — a main space and a smaller area, informally dubbed the “blue room” — with McIntosh amplifiers and customized Neve preamps augmenting Turnbull’s pieces. (For context, a single, Turnbull-designed bookshelf speaker costs $6,000. Suffice to say, the speakers located in- side Shyboy are considerably larger.) Renowned acoustician Ethan Bourdeau, whose work in listening spaces includes a recent exhibition at the San Francisco Mu- seum of Modern Art, has acoustically tuned the entirety of Shyboy, further refining Turnbull’s work and helping ensure a singu- lar listening environment. “A lot of details have gone into this space so that it performs acoustically,” Merla said. “All of it is to remove any sort of distractions for the listener, so the listener can just walk in, hear some good music that they’ve never heard before and enjoy it.” Indeed, for all of its gearhead cred, Merla is emphatic about the venue’s egalitarian na- ture. Shyboy will be open Wednesdays through Sundays and will have a capacity of just under 300 (cannily ensuring both com- fort and the possibility of FOMO). The com- pany plans to offer most access most nights free of a cover charge. Furthering its promise of accessibility, each space will feature a bar offering a menu comprising what Merla calls “democrati- cally priced” signature highballs and other cocktails, as well as soft-serve ice cream. “We wanted to make sure that a 23-year- old could come get a $13 cocktail that doesn’t take that long to wait for it to be made,” Merla said. “They can focus on danc- ing or listening. That’s really been our north star at this place. How we can use our re- sources to remove all the things that you en- counter in listening spaces ... the things that distract you from connecting to the music.” A Wide Range of Sounds W hat will those filing into Shyboy’s acoustically treated temples of sonic exploration hear? Merla said the genres on offer will be expansive, ranging from house and Latin rarities to Japanese city pop and classic jazz. Helping curate the DJs and selectors passing through Shyboy will be its music di- rector JT Donaldson, a well-regarded DJ in his own right, as well as label owner and tal- ent buyer, who helped co-found the ac- claimed Josey Records before parting ways with the label and retailer in September. “Why we called it Shyboy, we started to kind of decouple it from the nerdy audio- phile and make it more accessible for people to wrap their heads around,” Merla said. “People think hi-fi is very serious, and it’s not that. We’re definitely going to have a lot of listening sessions, but we’re also bringing [DJs like] Theo Parrish and Eli Escobar and Derrick Carter and all these people to come play from all over the world, so [people] can come and let loose, too.” Shyboy’s interiors, designed by the inter- national architecture and interior design firm 5G Studio Collaborative, embrace the rawness of its basic elements, leaning more toward a brutalist nature, an homage, per- haps, to I.M. Pei’s endangered City Hall just a few blocks away. The roots of the communal, close-listen- ing environment are more of a mid-century modern vibe, exemplified by the “jazz kissa” style of cafes found throughout Japan, which encourage focused listening to high-fidelity (and typically, though not exclusively, jazz) records through vintage audio equipment. “I just loved the idea of the women and the men who own kissas in Japan,” Merla said. “They’re so dedicated to this thing, and it’s just this one person. It’s the bar that they built. It is the loudspeaker system that they built. It is the record collection that they spent their entire life collecting. There’s just something so poetic to that, and such a deep connection. ... I thought that was super in- spiring. We took a lot of that into Shyboy.” Shyboy arrives at a moment when, more so than ever before, the analog presentation of music has become a focal point for North Texas nightlife. While Shyboy will be the first, explicitly marketed-as-such hi-fi bar in the area, there are other notable rooms — Boogie’s, Ladylove Lounge or the Heading- ton Companies-owned Midnight Rambler — where vinyl reigns supreme. To that end, in anticipation of what Shy- boy will bring to downtown Dallas, Merla announced that a new, vinyl-focused bou- tique will soon open at the Joule, called Re- cord Dogo, overseen by Connor Fields and Dylan McGraw. The boutique will specialize in international rarities, first pressings and imported dance singles. “People want little record shops,” Merla said. “They want curation, and they want super niche [selections]. That’s, I think, what people really dig.” Shyboy is targeting a mid-January open- ing — timelines, particularly in the world of nightlife and entertainment-oriented busi- nesses, are nothing if not flexible — but Merla and his collaborators within the Headington Companies and beyond are ea- ger to bring a new perspective to a night out for the denizens of Dallas. “I’m really excited about how we’re pro- gramming the space and who we’re attract- ing because of its very rare nature in America — it’s not just Dallas,” Merla said. “No one’s really building anything like this yet. I found out there aren’t many people crazy enough to do it, because it takes a lot of work.” Courtesy of the Headington Companies The interior of downtown Dallas music lounge Shyboy. | B-SIDES | t Music Hand built not bougHt. Franklins TaTToo and supply 469-904-2665 • 4910 Columbia ave, dallas, TX 75214 proFessional TaTToo supply For pros only Call for your appointment or design commissions today!
