Founder · Educator · Loudspeaker designer
Josep Maria Marimon
I run HifiCafé, host the channel, design the Opus I loudspeakers and organise the rooms where all of it gets heard. I design, build, film and explain: I do not stop at one part of the job.
The projects/ 01
What I run, design and organise. One job: making hi-fi understood and heard.
HifiCafé
A Spanish-language platform for the sector, with a marketplace, videos, groups and a record library.
Canal HifiCafé Barcelona
Equipment reviews, trade shows and workshops. Videos are filmed in the listening room and on the factory floor.
Club de Audiófilos y Melómanos de España
A meeting place where listeners arrange gatherings, listen to equipment and discuss it.
Opus I
A two-way loudspeaker with Beyma drivers. I design it, oversee production and distribute it. The calculations, crossover and build are documented on video.
Stereo Vintage Barcelona
Barcelona’s first vintage hi-fi show, with exhibitors, listening rooms and a workshop.
SounDeluxe
Guided public listening sessions for groups, companies and events, with Txell Castelló.
Reaching people through the networks/ 02
Four channels with four different focuses, largest audience first. On each one, what travelled furthest.
25:19Ecualizador gráfico: cómo conectarlo bien y si vale la pena
46:23La catedral del HiFi vintage de Europa: Darthy en Barcelona
26:44HiFi contra audio profesional: el duelo, con Rafael
El bass-reflex es el mismo principio que una botella soplada
El montaje del crossover de las Opus I, accesible por fuera
Diseño y montaje de las Opus I con transductores Beyma
Antes de ser Aphex Twin: Richard D. James
Boards of Canada: la nostalgia de una infancia que nunca viviste
Opus I: de la caja al filtro
Data retrieved from the official TikTok API on 2026-08-23
Kind of Blue: la sesión de 1959 de Miles Davis
Marantz Model 1060, un amplificador de los setenta
Antes de ser Aphex Twin: Richard D. James
Design, build and distribution of the Opus I loudspeakers/ 03
This is my first loudspeaker. The work starts with acoustic targets and ends with a cabinet that has been built and measured.
PrototypeLimited, numbered series
It is a two-way bass-reflex bookshelf loudspeaker with professional Beyma drivers. I first defined what it needed to do well. I then chose the drivers, simulated it, built it and measured it. The cabinet consists of twenty-three sheets of board, stacked and compressed with four steel rods.
It is supplied as a kit. The parts are numbered and tongue-and-grooved, and fit in one position only.
“Lira” geometry
The section is curved, with a flat baffle and an elliptical back. There are no parallel walls inside, so standing waves do not form.
40 mm walls
The cabinet uses twenty-three CNC-machined sheets of board. The glue lines between the layers damp the panel’s vibration.
Port milled into the wood
The tuning duct is milled from the sheets themselves. It does not use a plastic tube, so there is no tube resonance.
On-axis response at 1 m, with both channels overlaid. It remains within ±3 dB from around 50 Hz to 20 kHz.
Off-axis response with the same cabinet turned 45°, 90° and 120°. The treble falls gradually, without breaks.
These plots are provisional. The measurements were taken in a room, without an anechoic chamber.
Written and taught/ 04
Critical Listening Course
Each chapter explains one idea and then you test it with your ears. The theory first, in plain language; then the exercise, which plays in the browser itself. Fifteen chapters of around forty minutes, twenty families of exercises and three test formats: A/B, ABX, and correcting instead of guessing.
Articles
I have written thirteen signed articles for the HifiCafé magazine. These five explain the decisions that shaped the platform.
- 01Independencia, transparencia y nuestro modelo: una respuesta abiertaFebrero de 2026
- 02Los equipos que no veréis en HiFi CaféJunio de 2026
- 03El silencio que mata las comunidadesAbril de 2026
- 04HifiCafé ya es un espacio completamente gratis, neutro y libreAbril de 2026
- 05Las personas que hacen grande HiFi CaféFebrero de 2026
Transparent collaborations/ 05
I make videos and organise gatherings where people listen to equipment. I do not sell equipment and I am nobody’s sales agent.
When a brand collaborates on a video, it pays for the work of filming and editing it, not for what I am going to say in it. If the equipment does not convince me, I say so anyway, and whoever collaborates knows that before we start. And I always state in the video that there is a collaboration behind it.
How they have gone so far
I have worked with brands and distributors in three ways, and none of them is a fixed package:
- A brand supports a video on a subject I had already planned to cover.
- A distributor or brand lends me a piece of equipment and I review it on the channel.
- We organise a public listening session in a room and film it.
There are other routes. If you have something in mind that is not here, tell me and we will talk it through.
Interviews and sector data
I share what I have.
Talks and guided listening
For the trade or for a company.
Do you want to work with HifiCafé or with Josep Maria Marimon?
Get in touch directlyjosep@hificafe.org
