Words by Rafe Arnott, photography by Zephyr unless noted otherwise. Photo above: Yasin (left) and friends set-up one of Yasin's stacks for a recent Public Records NYC gig.
Tom Wong, Winston Cooper, Duke Vin – men who shaped the nascent Jamaican sound system culture of the ’50s and ‘60s. Seven decades on, New York City DJ, speaker and amplifier designer Mo Yasin, is channeling the zeitgeist of that unique island movement.
Drawn to music at a young age, Yasin was raised in a traditional North African home of the Virginia suburbs, this meant academic pursuits were given preference to being a DJ. Nonetheless, he bought his first turntables in middle school. Lacking peers who lived and breathed music like he did, the intervening years saw the development of a Do-it-Yourself thought process/work ethic and a move to NYC and experiencing making music firsthand. Exposure to dub production techniques in the studio led to full immersion – both culturally and technically – into sound system culture. DIY loudspeaker builds followed quickly. Yasin kindly agreed to an interview while juggling bespoke speaker/amplifier builds with live selector gigs at such lauded venues as Public Records.
This article is ONLY made possible thanks to donations from readers like you. Your sponsorships made the amazing photography by Zephyr for this story a reality. I humbly thank you for helping make Resistor Mag what it is.
Photo below: Real Deal – A finished stereo stack awaits cabling to hook into Public Records NYC.
Interview with Mo Yasin
Resistor Mag: Who is Mo Yasin, and how did you end up designing and building these culturally and historically important loudspeaker designs?
Mo Yasin: I was born and raised in northern Virginia before moving to New York City in 2015 to pursue DJing. Before the pandemic I was DJing and working in record shops, playing clubs and throwing DIY parties between NYC and DC. When COVID hit, my DJ partner at the time and I decided to invest in a PA as a lot of clubs were closing down. At the same time, I was exploring dub production techniques and that kind of led me down the rabbit hole of learning about sound system culture and how the DIY ethic is really the cultural engine of so much of what I love about music and sharing it in communal settings. This was summer of 2020 so I’m still very new to the sound system and audio world despite working in music for over half of my life.
Resistor Mag: Describe your connection to music. Was it important to your family growing up or did you come to music from outside influences?
Mo Yasin: I grew up in a fairly conservative Sudanese immigrant household where musical pursuits weren’t explicitly forbidden, but weren’t exactly encouraged either. I guess it was a rebellious streak that sparked my interest in music and DJing because I didn’t really have any peers to explore it with as a kid. I was alone in my basement nerding out on DMC DJ battle videos and '90s hip-hop. I bought my first pair of turntables in middle school with the intention of becoming a turntablist, but abandoned that when I started spinning outside of my basement and playing real parties. Listening to a lot of rap music led me to sample digging, which opened up everything else for me. These days I’m spinning mostly dance music parties but I listen to all genres.
Photo left: Yasin checks fitment on a bass-bin cabinet cum coffee table.
Aesthetically my system is designed like the reggae and rave stacks in London and Kingston, but in practice I’m most inspired by the tradition of a sound system being an entire system – not just a collection of audio equipment but a creative endeavor that includes the music played through the speakers, the people operating it as performers and artists, and the community formed around its events."
–Mo Yasin
Photo above: Yasin on the wheels of steel at Public Records NYC for a recent gig.
Resistor Mag: Your speakers echo traditional ‘60s Jamaican sound system designs – used by the likes of Hedley Jones, Clement Dodd and Tom Wong. Talk to me about your design influences.
Mo Yasin: All of the cabinets in my system are sourced from free plans found on DIY websites. You’ll find a ton of Hog Scoops, double 15-inch kick cabs, and 12-inch mid horns all over the internet. It’s funny when people tell me my system looks so unique when I’m using what were at one point some of the most common cabinets in the DIY sound system scene.
Aesthetically my system is designed like the reggae and rave stacks in London and Kingston, but in practice I’m most inspired by the tradition of a sound system being an entire system – not just a collection of audio equipment but a creative endeavor that includes the music played through the speakers, the people operating it as performers and artists, and the community formed around its events.
Sonically I’m into the big club systems of the '80s and '90s in New York/New Jersey clubs like Zanzibar, Sound Factory, Twilo, Palladium and of course the Paradise Garage. I’m too young to have actually heard those systems in person but am lucky a lot of them are so well documented so we know a lot about how they were built, processed, and tuned. I studied them pretty extensively when building my first stack.
I used to throw a party in DC called First Family that we held primarily at a club called Ten Tigers and sometimes at this venue called U St. Music Hall. Both places had these amazing Martin Audio systems, so the upper bass cabinets in my system are Martin 215MK3s, inspired by my memories of those First Family parties.
Photo right: Yasin's loudspeaker designs echo those of dub/soundsystem giants from Jamaica's reggae heyday in the '50s, '60s and '70s. The bass bin build reveals how Yasin and his crew incorporate a large folded horn into the design.
Photo above: Yasin digs through the stacks at home in his Brooklyn apartment.
Resistor Mag: Like the ‘50s and ‘60s originals, would you consider your designs to have a signature sound?
Mo Yasin: Not yet. Right now, my system sounds like a classic horn-loaded stack and I’m pretty happy with it, but I’m constantly tweaking and learning, and trying to improve it.
This might be too broad of an answer but the sound I’m after is a powerful club sound that still plays as effortlessly and naturally as serious hi-fi. For me that means speed, clarity, and dynamic range but still a lot of power and physicality, especially in the low end. A lot of the systems I’ve heard that use home hi-fi components in dance applications sound a little too delicate for my taste. I’m trying to bridge that gap.
Resistor Mag: Is it all about bass? I’ve heard the term ‘weaponize’ when it comes to the bass of some sound systems.
Mo Yasin: I think a dance party should be physically visceral experience and the best way to achieve that with a sound system is with subs that can generate bass you literally feel through your skin. Unfortunately, for a lot of rigs that’s basically their only design criteria and you end up with a big muddy mess of indistinguishable low frequency (LF) energy that smothers the rest of the spectrum. These days amplifiers with thousands of watts driving speakers with massive power handling are pretty easy to come by so it’s not that hard to get a lot of sound pressure level (SPL), but I don’t often hear PA systems that have very clean or articulate bass notes. I love subs and play a lot of bass-centric music, but it can become a pissing contest to see who has the biggest and loudest bass and that doesn’t always make for the best experience.
Photos below: Building his single-ended 6CB5A amp based off a Thomas Mayer design. "This is the signal section, the PSU will be housed in a separate chassis," said Yasin.
Hi-fi seems to be kind of having its moment in the sun, so I think more people are recognizing how much better things could be, maybe we’re about to enter the next audio golden age."
–Mo Yasin
Resistor Mag: Have high fidelity components, like so many products, been victimized by economic considerations superseding what could be argued as the historical quality of the stereo system?
Mo Yasin: One of the many failings of the capitalist mode of production is that it sacrifices quality and craftsmanship for profit-motivated goals like scalability and convenience. There are a million examples of that within the history of audio and the recording industry, and it has a net-negative effect on how, and by whom, audio is produced and consumed.
That’s what’s so powerful about the DIY ethic to me. We push things forward and keep culture alive through communal sharing of knowledge and resources, guided by a love of the craft instead of sales. A lot of the most interesting things happening in hi-fi, music production, and nightlife come from underground and niche communities that eventually find their way to the mainstream to have a bigger cultural impact. Hi-fi seems to be kind of having its moment in the sun, so I think more people are recognizing how much better things could be, maybe we’re about to enter the next audio golden age.
Photo above. The high frequency horn is adorned with Arabic calligraphy. "...the right horn says “Mashallah TabarakAllah” which loosely translates to “What God has willed, may God bless it..." It’s a common phrase Muslims use to express admiration, to acknowledge that the beauty/goodness of a thing/person comes from God. The left is my name – Muhammad Yasin – the same as on my necklace pendant."
Resistor Mag: Streaming services, earbuds, computer speakers and mobile phones as listening platforms… is the average person capable of recognizing quality audio playback?
Mo Yasin: Yes, and we should give ourselves more credit than what the tech industry has limited us to. The human ear and auditory system are more sophisticated and sensitive than any other sensory organ by several orders of magnitude. Compare the frame rate at which our eyes start to perceive motion from discrete images with the microseconds of time difference our ears are able to detect. Phone screens and TVs get exponentially better resolution per dollar every year, why not commercial audio devices too?
Resistor Mag: Why is good sound important?
Mo Yasin: Music is the most powerful medium we have for connecting with each other. In an increasingly isolating world, sharing it is something we should take very seriously. Good sound opens up your mind to new things and expands the listener's imagination. In a live setting it allows a DJ or performer to be more adventurous with their programming and lets them express themselves more freely. Low-quality sound is limiting and sort of forces you to play more familiar or recognizable tracks. Just like it’s much harder to enjoy a movie if you’re squinting and straining to make out what’s on the screen, your brain is doing a lot of work to fill in the gaps and it’s fatiguing. I think it’s the same with sound.
Resistor Mag: Let’s talk music. Do you collect vinyl? Describe your collection.
Mo Yasin: I’ve worked at a couple record stores in New York and still spend a lot of time digging. There’s a pretty wide and robust record culture here that I’m very grateful to be a part of.
Photo Above: Yasin on the decks at home.
Mo Yasin: Most of my collection is 12-inch singles and I probably own more House music than anything else. For many years I focused on digging for records I could play out, but now that I have a pretty decent set-up, I’ve been seeking out more stuff to just listen to at home by myself and not necessarily dancefloor tunes.
Resistor Mag: Do you play for yourself when you’re the selector, or do you read the crowd demographic? I ask because many DJs take it upon themselves to educate listeners/dancers.
Mo Yasin: I am reading and reacting to the energy of a room when I’m playing out, but that doesn’t mean pandering. I’m trying to express myself by telling some sort of story about who I am or what I’ve experienced – and just like real life, that identity or story isn’t formed in a vacuum. A good DJ is one who expresses themselves honestly and authentically through their selection, programming, and mixing style, but that can only happen in conversation with the audience they’re playing for, and awareness of the context they’re playing in.
Mo Yasin: I’m not necessarily concerned with educating anybody in a set and I don’t want to make myself out to be an authority on anything. If you discover some new tracks or hear something you already know in a new way through my sets then that’s great, but I think that should be a byproduct of the experience and not the end in itself. We’re looking to form connections, not be lectured. I’ve also been around enough chin-stroking record bros to recognize that it eventually devolves into a game of one-upmanship with everybody just trying to play the most obscure record. A lot of times certain records are rare because they suck.
Resistor Mag: What’s next for Mo Yasin?
Mo Yasin: I’ve been enjoying consulting for venues on sound system design but I don’t have much interest in the retail and manufacturing part of it. I’m mainly focused on DJing and throwing parties with my system while continuing to build on and improve it. When I started designing my system I had basically zero technical knowledge. If I knew then what I know now the whole thing would be very different, so I might start over and build something entirely different, who knows?
Check Mo Yasin out online for further info: Soundcloud, his website. Zephyr on IG.
Think of this like an online subscription. Your donation supports a unique space for me to smash-up music journalism, alternative culture, high fidelity reviews and give volume to those stories and voices lost in the white noise of mainstream hi-fi media. Plus, beer money.