Audium-Theatre of Sound

This place is so cool. Totally different experience than your typical “show”. The Depths was a sensory treat and like nothing else I’ve been to. The sound engineering and the nuances of the performance are spectacular.

Even though the idea seems good - a presentation focused on noise, without any visual stimulus - the reality is that the performance was tedious and nonsense to me and my girlfriend. It could be described as an almost random sequence of familiar noises - ocean waves, kids talking, people at the table etc. There is almost no silence or usual music, as far as I can remember. In short, I felt really disappointed by this experience.

This review applies only to the June 6, 2025 performance. I hope to return for a performance by someone who knows what they are doing. That said, June 6, 2025 was a cacophony of noise so loud at times as to be painful. We were not the only people to leave the performance. The venue needs to curate who they let perform at this unique space.

This place is so cool and if you’re looking a unique experience or just something new to do, you should go here. I wish it was slightly more musical vs it being more like noise but they have a few different shows and I want to go back and try out the different artist-in-residence shows.

What an incredible experience. I saw “the depths” which is an installation put on by Dave Shaff, the son of the original brain behind the theatre. Visiting from NYC, this was an absolute hit and I highly recommend it if you’re into impressive audio performances. It is a concert in the dark. Just close your eyes and get enveloped in the sound.

This place is a San Francisco gem, offering a truely unique experience in sound immersion. A new crew of sound buffs have undertaken a years-long technology update, and they are bringjng in new sound artists and musicians regularly to develop programming that takes you on a journey through the darkness, borne on waves of pure sonic energy from down the street to far across the universe.

Wasn’t really to my taste. Some parts were so loud I had to plug my ears. Didn’t enjoy the sounds of traffic and people clapping and coughing. Did like the nature and chime sounds. The show was about 40 minutes long.

some 3 dozen of us sat on chairs in a large space in a circle. the lights very slowly went out until we were in complete darkness and then we were surrounded in sound moving around us. water dripping and a lost saxophone and mostly unstructured musical exploration. I love that places like this exist but it's important to note that the technology used at the Audium is decades old. the promise of a vast spacial audio experience wasn't quite achievable even with the 170-ish speakers around, above, and below us. these days audio modeling is far more advanced and even a set of good headphones can provide better spacial audio. nevertheless, it's a very unique experience and I think with the right composition it can be very powerful (the program that was playing that day, an experimental, meandering, anchorless piece by David Shaff, was not really my thing). I think I'll give it another try when more interesting programming is available.

This was such an interesting experience which you shouldn't read into too much as the shows change often! Some things to note- if you can't sit still, or are afraid of the dark this show is NOT for you. It's about an hour long in a chair that might squeak and impact other audience members experience in pitch black. There are arrows to denote exits. Please DO NOT wear noisy clothing- think rain coats, loud jewelry, squeaky shoes as this will impact other people during the show. The beauty of this experience is we all come out with different opinions and takeaways and it's kind of hard to describe. I suggest you go yourself! Unfortunately their bathrooms are up a staircase so this place isn't Ada friendly that i could tell.

A unique theater in SF celebrating its 50th anniversary with the return of Audium VI: Rewind, an hour-long soundscape event occurring in total darkness. I enjoyed the live performance this past Friday, though it was hard to notice that it was happening live except that guests could talk to David Shaff afterward, the son of the original creator of Audium, an interesting experience of spatial audio and sound movement utilizing a 176-speaker system. There were exhibits in the lobby to explore prior to start time (art from 1970, an interactive recording device, an original analog sound control board, etc.). The event did not start promptly at 8:00pm as noted, rather 3-5 minutes later. It did end exactly at 9:00pm though. The experience is hard to describe. It was kinda like Ross Geller's "wordless sound poems" sound effects when he plays the keyboard in season 4 of Friends, in this case a collection of snippets of the everyday noises you hear on the streets of SF... objects dropping, the clanging of metal, the sound of traffic, and more, not so different from the real sounds I heard on Bush Street as soon as I stepped outside of the venue afterward. The random noises from the 70's, bouncing off the walls in the pitch black room included what sounded like R2-D2's whistling and beeping, water dripping, doors slamming, horns honking, a variety of vehicle sounds (cars, buses, trains), the audio of what may be heard if being butt dialed from a busy mall, then being butt dialed from a playground and the chatter of kids being played repetitively as if creating a remix of some sort. There was no indication of when it was intermission, as the lights stay dim, just bright enough to see the shapes on the walls and speakers along the ceiling. Communication by staff and management isn't the best. To my understanding from making previous inquiries online, they don't respond to emails via the contact info on their website. I'm not exactly a fan of the lack of care or customer service in this aspect. In fact, I avoided this place for at least a year cuz I was so turned off by it (plus I was too busy going to cooler places, lol). Audium is not quite worth the high cost IMO, and it's not for everyone, that's for sure, as the compilation of sounds I heard was certainly unconventional and not meant to be considered music. But I could appreciate this art form enough to have a good time, while easing my curiosity too.

I had no idea what to expect, and neither should you. Future reviewers, if you read my review before you write your reviews, don't describe the experience at all. Just give the place five stars and let people experience it for themselves. My brother and his partner brought me here for my birthday. It was a perfect present. I fell asleep a couple of times, but it ended up enhancing my experience in a specific way that I won't explain. But don't be like me; come well rested. This is classic twentieth-century San Francisco. This. See, mid-twentieth-century technology promised a more human and humane future. Our current obsession with AI is the opposite. When I think of 1950s and early 1960s San Francisco, I think of people like my dad. Not that my dad ever lived here, but if he had, he would have known or been introduced to people like the founder of the Audium Theater. Just buy a ticket and experience it already.

My hubby has been part of the Bay Area Noise community for the past 15 years and brought me here on the last day of Ven Voisey's "Swells." He was their most recent resident artist who spent a month familiarizing himself with the space and sound system, and then performed his piece. This was my first time going to the Audium and I liked the layout and format. Ven had his 5 Hymn/Hum towers up in the lobby area which helped drop folks isn't he mental space of what we would be experiencing in the main space. Listening to "Swells" in the main space was really absorbing. The sounds swirled around and feeling the vibration come up from the floor into your body at the loudest points added a physical element. We sat in front of Ven's elevated booth and could easily hear him vocalizing with the electronic elements. I liked the mix of human voice with his recordings. Some other attendees were singing and screaming but it was aligned with what was going on with the sound. After the performance, Ven had an informal discussion with the attendees and it was really cool to be able to have this exchange with an artist immediately after experiencing their work. If you are not a fan of Noise, cacophonous or Experimental Sound pieces, or being in pitch black darkness, you may find yourself aligned with some of the lower rated reviews of this place. But the hubby and I had a good time that sparked interesting convos on the way home so we will probably be back for some of the future special exhibits.

My husband and I attended for New Voices II, and we were incredibly disappointed. We understood it would be abstract auditory art that was likely to be "weird" or "offbeat" and not to everyone's liking. Our expectations were fairly low -- we just wanted to try something interesting and new, and weren't expecting to be floored by anything. However, the whole thing just wasn't professional. For $66 combined, we expected better use of the space and sound equipment. As other reviewers have mentioned, maybe this was impressive in the 70s, but today, you can get a more immersive auditory experience at home with headphones and turning off the lights. I expected real use of the space and interesting sound combinations, but instead was met with a cacophony. Also worth noting that they request you come promptly at 7pm for a 7:30pm show and to "explore the building." The "building" is a small exhibition area with 3-4 small pieces that look like they were done by high school student level artists.

This place was a disappointment. We went for Sound Hour. Whether such a program should have a more conventional or expected format (a storyline etc) or should be abstract can be debated. However, they are not really using the space to bring out the best sensory experiences with sound. If you have a show with sound as the theme, it is unacceptable to not use its primary attribute i.e. resonance to its greater potential. So much can be accomplished with sound, this place fails in many ways. Dont bother paying, just dim the lights in your home, lie down in corpse pose, close your eyes and listen - for free in a much more comfortable surrounding.

Audium is truly unique experience and worth a try if you're feeling adventurous. Not for the faint of heart or for people with a lack of imagination but for audiophiles that want to take hearing to the next level. If you want to expand your horizons and blow your mind, give this place a try.

i recently saw Audium 11 Redux here. my main complaint is that despite asking guests to arrive promptly, the show started about 25 minutes late. we were left waiting in the lobby with no updates on what was going on during that time. that said, the show is super cool if you're into interesting audio experiences. it's definitely not for everyone though and i suspect a lot of people would find it pretty boring since it's not "music" in the traditional sense. my favorite of all the sounds by far was the thunder, which was quite intense and really showed off the capabilities of the sound system. i think with better sound design the whole experience could be much more impressive.

I would describe this as abstract sound art. If you are looking for a story or plot, then this is not for you. I can see why the reviews of this place are so mixed because it is so different from traditional sound performances I enjoyed this because it was very different, and the performer (the originators son) was very nice. I found the actual performance just okay, but may return at some tome.

Some of you may know that I have a regular column on examiner.com as the S.F. Travel Examiner (http://www.examiner.com/x-515-SF-Travel-Examiner). You gotta check out the Steve McQueen video/GPS map I found online...it's cool. But I digress. Anyway, a big part of my journey in that role is finding the unique and unusual places to visit in the city. Well, when I started this a couple of months ago, I randomly asked people what places they recommend I write about, no less than three people mentioned Audium. That's just weird, don't you think? I had never heard of it...where have I been? The first person was a colleague at work who just said - "You have to check out Audium...it's surreal." The second person was...well, when I was getting a massage. I was lying on my stomach in a zen-like state, and as the masseuse was twisting my arm...literally...he says - "Oh man, have you been to Audium?...it's wild." The third person was a friend of mine who is really excited that I'm getting to write about stuff that really excites me. She shows me a newspaper clip and says..."Oh I found this in the Datebook...have you heard of Audium?" Now my friend lives four blocks away from the place and had never heard of it. Well, I finally went, so instead of repeating myself, click on the following link to read the S.F. Travel Examiner article I wrote about my most unique experience there. Gee, I don't think Jamie W. has forgiven me yet... http://www.examiner.com/x-515-SF-Travel-Examiner~y2008m8d11-Audium-Random-Soothing-Surrealand-Kafkaesque

Where to start... In text, the Audium in San Francisco sounds cool. The venue description lists it as, "Audium is the only theatre of its kind in the world, pioneering the exploration of space in music. The theatre's 176 speakers bathe listeners in sounds that move past, over, and under them. "Sound sculptures" are performed in darkness in the 49-seat theatre." You walk in and there's a small waiting area. It's got some abstract sounds, some odd projection, and a few seats. Everything smells like a musty unfinished basement. You walk through an angular hallway and end up in a round room with seats presented in a circle. There's no assigned seating, you just sit wherever you want. Once everyone is seated, the sounds start and the lights turn down low. Twenty minutes, a short intermission, and then twenty more minutes. Unfortunately, the sound isn't that interesting and the sound quality isn't great (or loud). The show starts off with sounds from the BART station and it only gets weirder from there. When the description says "music", it's using that term pretty loosely. I'm guessing that in the 70's, this place was a lot more impressive. As it is now, I can get much more impressive sound at a movie theater, with 3D headphones, or with an Atmos setup at home. Want to really hear immersive sound? Go check out the Magnolia sound room at a Best Buy. The abstract "show" was pretty lame. We bolted during the intermission. If we wanted to hear sounds of the BART station and feet walking in mud, we can do that at the Bay Point/Pittsburg line. Twenty minutes was all we could take. Luckily, our night was saved by a local brewery called Hammertime just a mile or so away where we were able to get a bite and a brew. Bottom line here is: this may have been pretty special in it's early years, but in 2019, don't waste your time. We were not impressed.

This was a real disappointment and a shame that they're not using their sound system for enjoyable experiences. The sounds of shattering glass, Bart station, creepy kids yelling, explosions. No plot or storyline. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Overpriced, unimpressive, waste of time. Maybe interesting 50 years ago yet the quality of sound now was nothing notable, esp. as the content was so minimal. It was the quality of a highschool kids arts project.

Sound sculpture isn't for everyone. If you are open to experiences, it's a San Francisco tradition that is reasonably priced and unique. Well worth the money, $20, and I hope it stays. Did I like every sound I heard? No. But that's art, open to discussion. My only suggestion is to upgrade the Lipton tea.

Great idea, lousy execution. It's not just that they use cacophonous "found sounds" repetitively, but you would think that with so many speakers they could vary the directions of the sounds much more than they did. I'd say 80% of the sounds came from one general direction. So sad. And no, it's not my ears' fault -- my friends heard it that way too. Boring. And considering they haven't changed the recordings for nearly a decade, I'll throw in lazy too. Plus, be aware that this space does not seem to be ADA compatible. No one in a wheelchair could get in here, even though it appears that all they'd have to do to make that possible is build a very small ramp. So, not only lazy and boring, but probably illegal.

Its a good idea in concept... but in execution.. I actually just fell asleep, sometime between the intermission and the singing birds. Like hypnosis, this show only 'works' if you keep your mind open and believing. I followed instructions, closed my eyes, imagined the scenes of the sounds, but still fidgeted a lot in the chair. I was also tempted to contribute to the noise with random sounds of my own. I have to say, I did like the beginning a lot. Started out with an audio that is so familiar almost everyone in the room... an epiphany in itself about the community connection of the BART. Although I suppose the same epiphany could have been gained for a lot cheaper had I just closed my eyes at the nearest station... But I kept on waiting for something more interesting to happen, and it never did. I couldn't see the story, or the intro/climax/fin... I couldn't stay entertained with the content, and thus my conscious mind took a nap. Really wished for comfier couches. Overall I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This local experience stays low-key for a reason.

Listen, you're not coming back here a 2nd time so make the most of it. If you don't have a musical/experimental/artistic bone in your body - that's OK, just don't bother coming here. Come with people you trust or know well. And make sure they are as into it beforehand as you are. In other words, don't come with a friend you rarely see and certainly don't come on a date/trying to impress. What will happen is that you'll be disappointed but that's part of the experience. You could simulate the experience (and probably enjoy yourself more) if you sat in complete darkness in your room and played through Dark Side of the Moon. But that's not the point. This is meant to be a one-time shared experience with people who are open-minded and will want to talk about it afterwards. That is all.

Reading some reviews of this, and I have to laugh at a lot of them. If you're the kind of person who hears "Hey, there's this show where you sit in total darkness and speakers on all sides of you play different sounds" and your first reaction is "That sounds stupid but I guess I'll check it out anyway," why would you expect to enjoy it? This was meant for audio geeks and people who like quirky, off-the-beaten-path experiences. If you don't fall into one (ideally both) of those categories, you probably won't enjoy it. I, personally, had a pretty fun time. When you walk in, you're greeted by a series of interesting sculptures and a large, projected video of a babbling brook. You stand around for about 30 minutes, with free, cheap-ass tea and coffee (careful -- I burned my tongue on mine), and are then ushered into the theater. The seats, arranged in a couple of circle formations, are minimalist, but comfortable enough, and the whole thing has a delightfully weird Kubrik-esque vibe to it, with speakers and lights hanging from the ceiling and retro-futuristic geometric architecture. They slowly dim the lights until nothing is visible but the glowing arrows on the floor, which guide you to the exit. The first half, the son of the owner mixed a series of sounds like Bart trains and waterfalls. The lights slowly came up about 30 minutes in, which I guess was supposed to signal intermission, but the lighting was so soft and the music kept going that no one really knew whether or not we were supposed to get up. After glancing around awkwardly, a few people left to go to the bathroom or get coffee. The second half involved more instrumentals, like synthesizers and xylophone/wind chimes, and I liked it better. It was relaxing to be in total darkness, enveloped in sound moving in all directions around you. The experience ended much like the intermission, with no one really sure about when to leave. My SO and I were the first brave souls to leave, and afterwards everyone else slowly trickled out. The owner and his son thanked us for attending on their way out. It was a unique and interesting experience, and I thought it was $20 well spent even though I'm not even the biggest audiophile. If you come with an open mind and in an elevated state, you'll probably enjoy it. But be honest with yourself: does what I described above sound like a good time to you or hipster nonsense? Either way, you'll have your answer of how you'll end up liking it.

I brought my own drinks . I actually didn't know what I was in for. I loved the dimness of this place. Hey it was worth the money , I pretty much just stumbled upon this place and was like hey I'll try this place out. There was some great singing here. It was quite angelic. Everyone was friendly too. I had some pretty good brownies that made things really cool.

Can't say I really understand what this is all about but I think the idea quite intriguing. What exactly is this? you asked. You will be listening to some sound in (almost) complete darkness for an hour. The soundtrack used is a bit strange. It was random and appeared to be all over the place. I guess it makes sense since the composer explained it was an idea to explore memories and dreams. A lot of things were up to your own interpretation and imagination. Definitely not something for everyone. Most would find this bizarre and boring. Some would come here just because it seems like a cool and hippie thing to do. The tickets do sell out fast at some nights. Come here early to secure your if you really want to see the show. The theatre could only sit 40-50 people. A few people were turned down the night we went there.

I always have the best times at this place on hippie crack. Bring your own balloons prefilled.

Need to stand up for the audience here. This is the most inconsiderate and obscenely lazy artwork I know of. Thoughtless compositions, terrible audio quality, and a gimmick with worse performance than your home stereo. You'll find more deserving diversion in below average high school artwork. An album of buttdialed voicemails would be more thoughtful.

There are facts and there are opinions. I'm going to strive to be objective. I'm not a sound engineer but I've worked and played with professional sound. I was looking forward to the Audium experience. With over 150 speakers I thought the sound of even a tractor engine swirling around the room would be engaging. Modern or not even modern technology was not utilized in the room. Why do I say that ? Because I only ever heard sounds coming from specific places around the room. The sound never swirled around the room. Panned is the term for that. No panning whatsoever. People were panning sounds between audio channels 50 years ago. None of that basic effort was made here. It was like there were many audio channels but absolutely no spatial dimensional effort on the part of the composer. Just a beep here, oh and a sound effect over there and one over here. So non-use of the room's potential was surprisingly disappointing to me. Then there's the content of the audio track. There are specific constructs that make a song interesting. There's tension and release, there are verses, bridges and choruses. I was not expecting music. The content of the audio was an incoherent mix of sounds where each hardly ever lasted more than 10 seconds. There was no relationship of the sounds to each other. Some sounds were musical notes, many were not. So as a composer, what is it that you are trying to accomplish ? What is it about your construction of the composition that is hopefully engaging to an audience in the least bit ? This was like someone had hundreds of sound snippets that they threw into a hat and with no discernible attempt just stuck them together. The sonic statement was not engaging to me. I hoped and hoped it would get better but it just kept on going at the same style and content. I also felt that the fidelity of the sound was not crisp and bright. Sounded like a 3rd generation tape mix. This felt like a freshman in college got into a sound lab in 1970 and just threw together a bunch of sounds that hopefully would be received as avant garde. For my time and money I would have felt the experience would have been more successful by simply putting a lava lamp in the middle of a dark room and putting some of the softest beautiful jazz fusion panning around the room. My friend and I both gave the experience 3 stars out of 10.

This amazing venue could be used for all kinds of unique shows, feature brilliant local musicians and maybe even create a special little scene. However, the guy who owns it uses it once a week to play his same old stuff he made in the 70's. It's kind of a perfect example of San Francisco, really. A rich guy has access to something wonderful and keeps it from all the creative poor people for his own vanity projects.

Went on a whim with my wife without any expectations and an open mind. Perhaps this could be the reason we enjoyed it so much. I can understand it's not for everybody but to each their own. What I don't understand is why anyone would give this a low rating simply because they don't get it. For the price of parking or a cocktail, you can experience something so unique that defies explanation. I totally recommend it and hope to bring our adult kids to experience it with us.

Did you ever spend time going through all the different ring tone options on your phone? Maybe like 30 options altogether. You comb through the list. Settle on one that you kind of like and use that as a comparison against the remaining sounds. Cutting in and out between different options, not quite settling on which you want to choose. Imagine that process but for 30 minutes. Welcome to Audium. 4 stars though, support your local art community.

This experience was awful on so many levels. The concept of an in the dark sound performance was intriguing to me as someone who considers himself relatively knowledgeable about music and audio. I was ready for the idea that the performance was going to be avant garde but it sounded much more like a 5 year old messing around with a sound board than a composition. Three main things that caused me to leave at intermission: - Sound quality. Put the composition aside for a moment. The sound quality was reminiscent of a cassette being played over a pair of computer speakers. There was an unmistakable hiss in the mid range and the highs were garbled. When lows came in, there was occasionally distortion. Additionally, it seemed like all of the speakers were ceiling mounted so it didn't have a very immersive quality as often the sound would seem like it is just coming from directly up. - Lack of cohesion. Perhaps I am just too much of a stickler for the fact that there needs to be some sort of reason behind a composition. I spent much of my time trying to visualize something while listening and found that rather than inducing images, the artist basically spent all his time trying to make your brain uncomfortable with non natural transitions from one speaker to another. If that was the point of the composition, then perhaps I don't get the meta. - Uncomfortable. Forget about the music, the theatre itself was rather uncomfortable. No airflow, hot and stuffy. I get slightly claustrophobic at times but the chairs were very generously spread out so that wasn't an issue. It was just uncomfortably hot. If there was anyone that was to ask for a point of comparison for the show, look up "the sound" that Ross plays on his keyboard in the sitcom Friends. Dead ringer.

BIG disappointment !!! From all the positive press and hype I expected to be blown away. Sorry to say the only thing that was blown was my $20 bucks for admission. How this place has survived for as long as it has is a mystery. While the sound quality of the speakers is excellent the spacing and separation of the annoying sounds is no different than listening to a recording at full volume of sound effects on your home stereo with the lights out. Could have / should have been so much better !

I bring any out-of-towners here as it really has equal doses of 70s San Francisco feel and a conscious-ness expanding artistic ethic. I must say that the first time I went to Audium I was slightly perplexed. How exactly was this supposed to work? There's no template or script of this type of thing. I mean, sure, it was a "show," but there was nothing to SEE. But it intrigued me and I thought about it a bit more. About zero-ing in on my sense of sound. Come with an open mind, leave with it even more open. This is a one-of-a-kind experience. Also, discuss the show with your buddy over drinks on Polk after! Highly recommend.

I thought this was a great experience. It was the first time for me to experience a waking hallucination. Some of it was slightly disorienting and alarming at times. Overall, I absolutely loved it. The owner of the establishment is friendly and was willing to talk about the mechanics of the place after the show. Overheard this from the people in front of us while we were waiting in line: "Yeah, last time I was here, it was 1976."

An absolutely stunning aural experience in a quirky seemingly custom-built theatre. I had the luck of being brought here and knowing absolutely nothing about it. When the show started I knew that I had been delivered to the right place. It's hours in complete darkness, it's weird, and it's unlike anything else. After the show the creator hung out in the lobby to answer questions about the technology and meaning behind the show. Tons of respect to the courage it took to realize this bizarre and delightful vision.

This is a an excellent, unique experience that is so very San Francisco. The whole experience in the sound room is about 60 minutes plus the waiting beforehand and opportunity to talk to the composers afterwards will add another 30-60 minutes depending on how early you get there/late you loiter to ask questions. The current composition is Audium 9, and it's fantastic. They did say they are currently working on another show that should hopefully be out within the year. The whole experience is somewhere between a sensory deprivation tank, a John Cage performance, and a Buddhist meditation. I came out feeling completely rested and super excited. I definitely recommend trying this out once. Tickets usually sell out on the Tuesday or Wednesday beforehand, so definitely plan ahead and grab your tickets from the link on their website.

It's good, definitely unique. I was expecting something a little different based on the reviews. The person who runs it is very cool, and a considerate person. The seating is good enough. It would be great to have an option to lay down. The actual audio portion could be dissonant at times, so don't expect meditation music. Overall, I'm glad I did the experience, but I can't say that it'd be for everyone.

i think the people writing bad reviews are the type of people who go to art museums and scoff at the work and get angry because they dont get it. if you go in with an open mind youre going to be litttt

The people leaving 1 star reviews are perfect examples of the disposable tech culture halfwits San Francisco is quickly being digested by. These plebs clearly have zero idea of the history of this place or about the man who designed and composes for it. I get that your stupid iphone can burp out a plethora of dull dance music clap trap right now and you feel music isn't worth paying for. But some of us can actually still appreciate creativity. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that the Audium still exists. It is one of that last refuges of a bygone weird, creative and free thinking San Francisco. Thank you for all the many years of music and know that not all of us think as these entitled morons do. I hope you pass on the Audium to your son and other artists to continue to keep a place for sonic sculptures. I think the idea is brilliant and we need more of this in the world.

Look, it's 2016 and we all know that a monorail is not the most practical form of transportation. But does that make it somehow not fun to ride on a monorail? No! Of course not. Monorails are still awesome. There was no Dolby Atmos in 1975. No 7.1 channel home receivers. Those wouldn't come for 30 years! Yet decades ago, two guys had a dream of a place where you could explore being enveloped in sound, and they actually built it. Sure, you can go down to the AMC Van Ness and watch some Captain America movie in Dolby Atmos, but when you leave, what will you have experienced? Some bombastic corporate nonsense? This is the opposite, an exploration, through sound, of the psyche. Sure, it uses technologies from several decades ago, but that's part of the charm, and there's nothing else quite like it. It's a remarkable and worthwhile experience, providing introspection, experimentation, and a peculiar sort of nostalgia. If you can put aside the modern notion of music and sound being in a perfect, digital form, you'll enjoy this deeply.

Only 32 reviews? But who wouldn't want to sit in a pitch-black room for an hour and listen to 360 degrees of arrhythmic cacophony? I mean, we all like the planetarium, don't we? Well, if you're not sold on that, I probably can't convince you. But for those who think it sounds too good to be true, I must point out the following caveats: #1) The true Achilles heel of this experience is the chairs. For a place that's been open 33 years, with a room of such meticulous acoustics design, could they not afford to buy 49 recliners? As it is, you've just got these little folding chairs, meaning you have to cross your legs, put your elbows on your knees, and what have you. This seriously detracts from the sensation of floating in an infinite and dimensionless void. Plus the owner specifically asks you not to lie on the floor. Of course, what with the darkness, you could get away with that and a lot more in here, provided you can time the lights coming back on. #2) Basically the guy has 4 tracks of pre-recorded stuff which he directs to different parts of the room in real-time. I'm sure that could be a little more sophisticated, but it's the content of the music itself that I find to be the real missed opportunity. The best way I can describe it is a sparser cousin of Wendy Carlos's Timesteps sprinkled liberally with "found" sounds. But I was hoping for something a little more saturated and intense, more repetitive and hypnotic like Philip Glass, to really immerse and overwhelm your senses and make you lose track of space and time. And, I just have to point out, with a setup like this you could send people screaming from the theater if that was your intent, but that might not be very good for business.

Not at all what I expected. The idea is there, but the execution is unfortunately pretty poor. I wish it was better so I didn't have to give a review like this, because the old man who runs the thing seems so sweet. He should probably bring in someone to help. Imagine being in a room with 25 or so people and it goes pitch black. So black you can't see your hand in front of your face, or the strangers in the room, or the way to the exit, which you might head to if you could see it after about ten minutes. So do not go if you're claustrophobic. You might feel trapped. Then the sound kicks in, and it sounds like someone who has no idea what they're doing is at the controls going: Bing bang boom. Crash. Bing bang boom....crash. Water. Child. Hippo. Windows 98 startup. Hoooooornnnssssssssssss. Space shuttle buttons. Bing bang boom. Bop. Someone putting away dishes. Bop bop. Generic FX noise #1. Underwater splash. Error. Cymbals. Bells. Horses. Birds. Toot toot, boing boing. There's a whole lot of boings in there. Then the lights come on and you look around at each other quietly for awhile. Awkwardly. Then dark again and: Peruvian pan flutes. Water. "Macro. Micro. Macro. Micro. Giggle. Gaggle. Babble. Bubble? Bibble? Burple. Troglodyte." Swim team. Coins. Generic fx noise 3. Storm. Xylophone..... You get the picture. If someone who had real musical prowess composed a show I bet it would be awesome. It feels like it was made on way too much bad acid in 1978 on GarageBand v0.01. It's a great idea...sorry sir. If you fell asleep in the Audium you'd wake up a schizophrenic for sure. It is unique.

WHAT A SCAM! DO NOT GO HERE. You have been warned. My husband bought these tickest from the Sosh app (fail on their part too), so we came here with an optimistic attitude about being immersed in a sound show. You sit in the most uncomfortable plastic folding chairs for 1.5 hours listening to a man behind a curtain who thinks he's the Wizard of Oz play random boi-oi-oing noises on his synthesizer while you sit awkwardly in the dark getting a second hand high from your fellow audience members' weed. There is no talent or skill involved in this show. For $20/ticket, you should go listen to the SF symphony(even from the balcony) to appreciate real talent. I want my money and time back. We left at intermission, being utterly disappointed.

A $15 dollar nap that I am glad I took. Soothing and unique for sure, but not meant to be repeated.

As others have previously mentioned Audium has the potential of being a really cool and unique spot in SF, unfortunately it ended up being a rather boring thing to do on a Friday night. Maybe I'm not artsy enough to appreciate the show at Audium, but speaking as an honest reviewer I don't think it's worth a second visit. It's really only worth a first visit to say you experienced it, but not worth the price. Right off the bat this place is not a good first date idea. If you're trying to get to know someone sitting in a pitch black room where you have to be completely silent will not work in your favor. The building is really stuffy and outdated, and once you're in you're trapped. The lights begin to dim until you realize that you can't see anything at all except for a green exit sign floating in the darkness. I closed my eyes to get a better experience. The noises do not create a story. Instead you hear a bunch of random sounds for the next 30 minutes. I felt like it would have been really cool if there was a story to all the noise. I wanted to feel like Alice lost in Wonderland whimsical and a little confused. Instead I felt like I was listening to someone change the channels on a tv screen. Luckily the person I was with was starving and wanted to leave during intermission. 30 minutes was enough for me!

Superbly amazing. I was here a bit ago and was in awe of the entire experience. I even got to meet the creative creator of this nearly unexplainable thing. If you're an audiophile, just go. If you like interesting art, just go.

This place is probably one of the most amazing time capsule from the 70s. Watching the main room's retro-future 70s design itself worths the price. As the show starts, you'll see the inventor, who is probably the oldest DJ in the Bay Area; he's playing his composition using multiple tracks on almost 200 surrounding speakers in pitch dark for the audience, which is quite unusual for people who are more familiar with nowadays clubbing culture. Unfortunately, not just the design, but the entire audio system is also part of the time capsule, so the quality of the sounds and the style of the composition couldn't compete neither with modern sound systems nor with contemporary electronic compositions. And as some people will notice, the time capsule is so realistic, even the smells in the room somehow are from the 70s. It would be great if the old inventor, who can be seen on a Star Trek like DJ cabin shortly before the room dims to pitch dark, would allow other new talent's to experiment on his system. Also it would be amazing to upgrade the sound system to match with our age's slightly increased requirements. Despite of these minor glitches, if you're going to this place to experience the 70s, regardless you were alive and consciousness or not in that decade, you'll have a full experience, with all the ups and downs, and at the end of the show you will understand why those ages had to be passed and had to be replaced and improved with our age. Still, a very interesting retrospective experience. There is an open discussion at the end of the show where the inventor is explaining his ideas and concepts about his performance but I think it would be really just better if the performance would speak for itself and he shouldn't have to explain anything. There is also space for interaction, where you can ask questions from him. Surprisingly, his wife, who is a very kind and beautiful old lady, after examined my ID, started to speak to me in my mother language, which only can be understood by a small Hungarian tribe of less than 10 million people in Europe. In overall, I'm recommending this experience, just go there with proper expectations, and if you're taking shrooms, then for god's shake, be sure you're doing the exact amount you need, so you won't disturb others in the middle of the show as you're running out screaming like a crazy freak nor get bored and start to sleep because you took only a few. I'm not recommending psychedelics for this show, but I'm sure some people would prefer a complete 70s experience, and they wouldn't feel it complete without that; in this case, taking the proper amount could help to maintain a more socially accepted behavior in pitch dark while strange and freaky sounds and electronic effects swirling around you in the room. Enjoy!

I watch too many horror movies and was worried some nutcase would come out when the lights went out and slit my throat. Even though I was tense, I still really enjoyed the performance. Soundscapes of children laughing, water rushing, and birds chirping are just a few of the sounds you'll here in the 45 minute-ish performance. Other sounds you might hear are people farting and/or snoring.

Absolutely amazing. I had heard mixed reports on the quality of what happens inside Audium, but I'd have to say it was an entirely impressive event, like nothing else you've ever experienced. Writing about music (or, more accurately, "sound collages") is like dancing about architecture--meaning I can't begin to describe the experience in words--but trust me when I tell you it is an absolute trip. The performance happens in total darkness, but within minutes I was experiencing Synesthesia, or seeing colors and shapes corresponding to the sounds. At first I wanted the sounds to have more direction, more structure, but then I came to realize the lack of structure and direction are intentional. Honestly, after five minutes, I lost all track of time, and seemed to be dreaming, or tripping or something. (Full disclosure: I was not loaded, though that would have been pretty rad, too, I imagine.) I stayed captivated the entire time, and when the lights finally came up, my face was flushed (not sure why!) and I literally felt high. The feeling stayed with me for a while, and it felt odd walking back out into reality. The proprietors are up there in age, and I don't see them training anyone to take over for them, so you should really hurry down and experience this one of a kind art. Audium is a singular innovation, a purely individualized artistic labor of love. You don't want to miss it.

The intermission was nice. Audium is charmingly campy and, as a concept, seems almost appealing. Who wouldn't want to sit in a room that looks like a 1950's science fiction movie set and listen to swirling sounds? Probably you. The trouble comes from the "music," which aspires to Schoenberg-like atonalism but ends up sounding like it was put together by a three year-old with a crippling case of ADD. Sounds zip and clatter and swirl around, but nothing ever repeats or pauses for long enough to be enjoyed. The cacophony is much too fast for one to reflect, remember, or imagine. You'll be too absorbed by the low-quality of the speakers and the clunky, distracting 1970's synth-effects to think about anything other than the location of the exit. Audium might be more forgivable if it was $5 or, alternately, good. Technically, you've heard far more impressive sound every time you've been to the theater. Aesthetically, you could experience a much more enjoyable state with a set of headphones and a piece of your favorite downtempo music.

I enjoy, and actively seek out, the unusual, the weird, the unique, the bizarre, the obscure...and will appreciate it as long as there's intelligence behind it. But there's none of the latter in Audium. Another reviewer put his disappointment more technically and objectively ("gary l.", on 1/23/17), so for my own I'll say I feel you'd have to be stoned silly to find this compelling. On top of that, they are RUDE: They tell you the show starts at 8:15pm, and to arrive by 8pm to get your tickets at Will Call, but the show actually doesn't start until 8:30pm, and they only have a few seats in the lobby, so for a half hour I had to stand waiting, which I don't mind as much, but my senior citizen father had to stand that long, too, which is incredibly thoughtless and inconsiderate. Why do they feel it's ok to waste their audience's time so that their own time is not wasted? The professional thing is to waste nobody's time, not their own, and not the attendees' either. In other words, do like in the opera and the ballet: the show starts on time, and those who don't arrive by then cannot get to their seats but until intermission. That's professional. Anything else is unprofessional and thoughtless...much like the Audium "event" was.

Audium is a great concept. Sitting in a domed room in pitch-black stillness, the silence punctuated by music and recorded sounds coming from 176 speakers in the floor, ceiling and walls. It's like surround sound on steroids. Unfortunately this great idea fails in the execution. For about an hour, an octogenarian musician utilizes tape machines to play recorded sounds of animals, children's voices, ambient noises and outdated synthesizer sounds. The result is random, dull and listless. The whole time I was experiencing this anachronistic soundscape, I kept thinking of a far better Sixties-sounding sonic experiment: "Revolution No. 9" by The Beatles. There are so many talented contemporary electronic composers out there who could take this great concept and make it sound vivid and fresh. Until then, this is not worth the $20 per ticket.

This is not a theatre of sound, it is a Wayback Machine to sound experiments of the 1960s. The space is cool and I like the concept of lying in darkness and listening, but the current soundtrack is right out of kids stereophonic albums from the 1970s where noises would alternate between *LEFT EAR* and *RIGHT EAR* (wooooo!) in a very obvious manner. I wish the proprietor would lease out the space to some other sound artists who could do something new with it. 45 minutes of listening to the Requiem to a Dream soundtrack would be an experience. Hell, 45 minutes of Whalesongs and Pink Floyd would be better.