Audeum Audio Museum — Attraction in Seoul

Audium is an audio specialty museum located at the foot of Cheonggyesan Mountain in Naegok-dong. More than that, it serves as evidence of what scale can be achieved when one person’s decades-long obsessive collecting drive combines with chaebol-level wealth.

Rather than an ordinary audio room possible at the general public’s level, an entire 10-story building was constructed without sparing any expense according to the design of master architect Kengo Kuma, winner of the Pritzker Prize, and dedicated entirely to the museum. From an architecture enthusiast’s perspective, the viewing experience is quite remarkable - the master’s vision, conceived with the patron’s support, was implemented without any material or formal constraints, with every detail from bathroom accessories maintained with consistency, and aesthetic details fully realized from tiles to sculptures and curtains.

It houses half of the world’s 20 sets of vintage theater speakers, and displays countless cameras including unused, exhibition-only Hermès version Leica camera sets. With hundreds of thousands of LPs, classic large music boxes and gramophones, and a 100-year-old theater speaker system designed for 7,500 people - reportedly the only one in the world - it would be like heaven for audio enthusiasts.

The collection, accessibility, and the value of rare items that are far removed from ordinary people’s reach. It brings complex feelings, but I’ll stop such thoughts here. Reservations are essential and success in booking is uncertain. The competition is fierce. Therefore, I don’t know when my next visit will...

CONS: You need to make reservations in advance, which are all entirely booked for all available dates, despite the museum being completely empty. the reservations require both a valid email address and phone number, as well as agreeing to allow them to use your data for presumably nefarious purposes. The tour is only in Korean, so if you don't understand Korean you'll want to bring noise-cancelling headphones to listen to the recorded audio tour without the background chatter.

PROS: The space is nice, the collection is interesting, and you get to listen to some of the audio equipment (which isn't the case at some other music and instrument museums I've been to). Additionally, one of the employees was very helpful. She helped find me a reservation for the following day, and helped me get around the telephone requirement since my eSIM was only for data. Also, it's free! (maybe, depending on what they do with your...

Impressive collection!

However the guided tour was in Korean so we only relied on the short audio tour which usually ends before the tour guide finished his explanation—so we felt like we missed many information.

We are basically herded from one room to another without any extra time to take photos. Only at the last room we were given 30 minutes to take photos after the guide’s explanation.

Overall we were impressed by the building and collections. We cannot say we enjoyed the visit because there was not enough explanations in English about what was displayed and we were not given enough time to admire all of the items on display.

I tried to use an app to translate the guide’s explanation but my phone’s mic was not able to catch his voice most of the time. So it’s kind of frustrating at the end.

I gave 5-star for this museum’s architect and collection display, regardless of our frustration...