Which Steinway Lyngdorf System Is Right for You? A Guide to the Full Range

Steinway Lyngdorf make some of the finest audio systems in the world. They also make a surprisingly wide range of them — from discreet in-wall speakers for a living room cinema to floor-standing reference loudspeakers capable of filling a large room with accurate sound, through to a dedicated speaker built to survive life on the deck of a superyacht. Choosing between them is not simply a matter of budget. Each model in the range is designed for a specific application, and the largest is not always the best choice for a given room. This guide explains the full Steinway Lyngdorf range — what each system is designed to do, what room it suits, and how to think about the choice.

We are authorised Steinway Lyngdorf dealers and RoomPerfect Certified Professionals — one of a small number of UK installers with formal certification in Steinway Lyngdorf’s proprietary room correction technology. The guide that follows reflects our direct installation experience across the range, not manufacturer literature.

The Steinway Lyngdorf Philosophy — Why It Is Different

Before comparing models, it is worth understanding what makes Steinway Lyngdorf different from other high-end speaker manufacturers — because the difference shapes how the range works.

Every Steinway Lyngdorf system is designed as a complete, integrated whole: speakers, electronics and room correction working together as a single engineered entity. Peter Lyngdorf’s position is that the room is not a neutral container but an active participant in the sound, and that no amount of speaker quality compensates for an uncorrected room. RoomPerfect — the room correction system built into every Steinway Lyngdorf processor — is therefore not a convenience feature. It is the technology that allows the rest of the system to perform as designed.

This integrated approach has a practical consequence: Steinway Lyngdorf systems are not mixed with other manufacturers’ components. You cannot pair Steinway Lyngdorf speakers with a third-party amplifier and expect the same result. The system is designed from first principles to work as a whole, and the RoomPerfect calibration is specific to the pairing of Steinway Lyngdorf speakers and electronics.

The Model Range

Model S — The Cinema and Living Room Standard

The Model S is the system that introduced Steinway Lyngdorf to the home cinema market and remains its most widely installed product globally. It is a compact, discreet in-wall speaker system designed for rooms where the audio must be invisible — and where RoomPerfect’s room correction can be relied on to compensate for the placement compromises that in-wall installation inevitably involves.

The S-15 speaker is the primary element: a compact in-wall or on-wall speaker with a relatively small footprint that belies its output capability. The system’s bass is provided by the S-210 dual 10-inch boundary woofers, which are designed to be positioned at or near room boundaries — corners or against walls — where boundary reinforcement works in their favour rather than against them. RoomPerfect then corrects for the coloration that boundary placement introduces, leaving clean, extended, controlled bass that a conventional free-standing subwoofer placement would struggle to match.

The Model S is our most frequently specified Steinway Lyngdorf system for home cinema installations. Its compact footprint means it can be installed in rooms of modest dimensions without compromising the interior — speakers are flush with the wall surface, painted or finished to match the room, acoustically invisible behind the projection screen. It is available in configurations from a simple 5.1 arrangement to a full 16-channel Dolby Atmos system.

Best for: dedicated home cinema rooms, living room cinema systems, any room where speaker discretion is a priority. The correct choice for the majority of residential cinema installations in the Custom Controls portfolio.

The Steinway & Sons Model S Soundbar — A New Category

Launched in Q3 2024 and awarded Best Soundbar at CEDIA Expo 2025, the Model S Soundbar is Steinway Lyngdorf’s answer to a brief that no soundbar had previously addressed seriously: the finest possible single-unit audio solution for a living room or media room where no other speakers are visible.

The Model S Soundbar is not a consumer soundbar in the conventional sense. It contains three Air Motion Transformer tweeters, three dedicated midrange drivers and two woofers, driven by 1,600 watts of Lyngdorf digital amplification from an A1 or A2 amplifier. The machined solid aluminium cabinet — hand-finished in Skive, Denmark — is available in matte black or high-gloss black with gold details, with custom lacquer finishes on request. At approximately 1.4 metres wide, it is designed to complement screens up to 85 inches.

What distinguishes it from everything else in soundbar form is the integration with Steinway Lyngdorf electronics and RoomPerfect. The soundbar benefits from full room correction calibration, measured and applied by a RoomPerfect Certified Professional — not the compromised auto-calibration that conventional soundbars offer. The result is a single wall-mounted object that delivers calibrated, room-corrected audio performance that a conventional soundbar simply cannot approach.

Best for: media rooms and living rooms built around a large display where no other speakers are visible or desired. The reference choice for a living room cinema system at the highest level. Pairs naturally with Crestron integration and Lutron lighting for single-button operation.

Model C — The Compact Reference

The Model C MKII is a compact, free-standing loudspeaker — Steinway Lyngdorf’s entry point into the hi-fi and high-performance music listening market. It occupies a different position in the range from the Model S: where the S is designed for cinema with music capability, the Model C is designed for music with cinema capability.

The Model C is notably compact for a free-standing high-end loudspeaker — roughly the footprint of a premium bookshelf speaker, though designed to be floor-standing or on a dedicated stand. Its boundary woofer is positioned to work at a room boundary, maintaining the Steinway Lyngdorf approach of placing bass drivers where physics works in their favour. RoomPerfect handles the integration between the main speaker and the woofer, and between the system and the room.

Best for: music rooms, smaller living rooms, studies, or any space where a discreet free-standing loudspeaker is preferred over an in-wall installation. Can be configured for 2.1 stereo or expanded for home cinema.

Model LS — The Large Room Reference

The Model LS Concert and Studio series addresses a challenge that the Model S cannot: very large rooms, large-format home cinema spaces and rooms requiring high continuous output across a wide area. The LS uses a line source approach — floor-to-ceiling stackable speaker columns that distribute sound vertically across the full height of the listening area rather than from a single point source.

The line source approach has a significant acoustic advantage in large rooms. A conventional point source speaker radiates sound spherically — its level drops by 6dB every time the distance doubles. A line source radiates cylindrically, with level dropping by only 3dB at each doubling of distance. In a large room, this means the back rows receive significantly more level relative to the front rows, producing a more consistent sound field across the whole audience area without needing the rear seats to be closer to a separate speaker cluster.

Best for: large dedicated cinema rooms with multiple seating rows, high-ceiling spaces, any room requiring extended vertical coverage and consistent performance across a large audience area.

Model D — The Reference Music System

The Model D is Steinway Lyngdorf’s flagship — the system that gives the company’s ambition its fullest expression. Named for the Steinway Model D concert grand, the world’s most celebrated concert piano, the Model D is a complete integrated music system for the most demanding listening environments.

Best for: dedicated music rooms and prestige listening spaces where absolute sonic performance is the priority and visual presence is a feature rather than a constraint. The choice for serious music collectors, pianists and listeners for whom nothing else is sufficient.

Marine Speaker — Reference Sound for Yachts, Pools and Terraces

The Marine Speaker takes everything Steinway Lyngdorf does for an indoor listening room and rebuilds it to survive permanently outdoors — on the deck of a superyacht, beside a pool, or on an exposed terrace. It is not a compact outdoor speaker in the conventional sense; it is a full-range, high-end loudspeaker built into a sealed, weatherproof enclosure, designed to deliver the same calibrated performance outdoors that Steinway Lyngdorf is known for indoors.

The driver array is genuinely ambitious for an outdoor speaker: two 8-inch woofers on the front baffle, two further 10-inch passive radiators on the rear of the cabinet for extended low-frequency output, a dedicated 5-inch midrange driver, and Steinway Lyngdorf’s signature Air Motion Transformer tweeter for clean, detailed high frequencies even at the higher volume levels an open-air environment demands. The enclosure is sealed aluminium, IP65 rated, with every driver protected by a weatherproof mesh — built to withstand salt water, spray, splash and the general punishment of life at sea, without any compromise to the sound quality inside.

Customisation — bespoke RAL colour and matching subwoofers. The standard Marine Speaker finish is a white lacquer cabinet with 18-carat PVD gold trim, designed to sit naturally against a yacht’s exterior or a pool terrace. For clients who want the speaker to match a specific deck colour, hull finish or design scheme exactly, Steinway Lyngdorf offer the Marine Speaker in bespoke RAL colours and full custom lacquer finishes — the cabinet can be specified to match almost any colour a client or yacht designer requires, rather than being limited to the standard white and gold. Just as significantly, bespoke subwoofers are available built into the identical cabinet footprint as the standard Marine Speaker — meaning a matched subwoofer can be specified without introducing a visually different unit onto the deck or terrace. The subwoofer sits alongside the main speakers as part of a coherent, identically finished set, rather than as an obviously mismatched bass box.

Steinway Lyngdorf have also developed a genuinely distinctive deployment option for superyachts in partnership with Future Automation: a servo-driven mechanism that hinges the Marine Speaker out from the deck when needed and folds it away flush when not in use — fully concealed, protected from the elements, and engineered to bear weight so the deck remains entirely usable when the speakers are stowed. It is the same philosophy Custom Controls applies throughout our installations on land: technology that disappears when it isn’t needed, and performs at a reference standard when it is.

As with every product in the Steinway Lyngdorf range, Marine Speakers are calibrated using RoomPerfect — in this context tuned to the specific acoustic challenge of an open-air or part-enclosed outdoor space, where there are no walls or ceiling to reflect sound and where wind and ambient noise both work against clarity. Multiple Marine Speakers can be arranged and calibrated together across a deck or terrace to deliver consistent coverage rather than isolated pools of sound.

Best for: superyacht decks, pool areas, terraces and any outdoor entertaining space where the brief is genuine high-end sound quality outdoors, not simply a weatherproof speaker that survives the conditions. The natural extension of an indoor Steinway Lyngdorf system onto a property’s outdoor or marine spaces.

Which System for Which Room — A Summary

Dedicated home cinema: Model S in-wall. The correct specification for the majority of residential cinema rooms. Discreet, powerful, room-corrected, integrates with Crestron and Lutron.

Large-format cinema with multiple rows: Model LS. Line source coverage across a large audience area, consistent performance from front row to back.

Living room or media room, speakers invisible: Model S in-wall or Model S Soundbar. The soundbar for single-unit elegance; in-wall S-15 for surround performance without speaker visibility.

Music listening room, compact: Model C. The entry point into reference Steinway Lyngdorf performance for music listening; expandable for cinema.

Music listening room, no compromise: Model D. The reference standard.

Yacht deck, pool or outdoor terrace: Marine Speaker. Full-range, weatherproof, available in bespoke RAL colours with matching subwoofers built into the same cabinet — the only choice for genuine high-end sound outdoors.

The Role of RoomPerfect Across the Range

Every model in the Steinway Lyngdorf range includes RoomPerfect room correction — and every installation we complete is calibrated using the full RoomPerfect process. As RoomPerfect Certified Professionals, our team has completed Steinway Lyngdorf’s in-depth certification programme, giving us formal recognition and direct access to Steinway Lyngdorf’s own calibration experts for complex installations.

If you are considering a Steinway Lyngdorf system and would like to discuss which model is right for your room and your brief, contact us for a free consultation. We are happy to discuss the full range, arrange a demonstration and provide an honest recommendation based on what your project actually requires.

Read more about our Steinway Lyngdorf dealer and installer service → · Read more about our calibration service →

Frequently Asked Questions — Steinway Lyngdorf Marine Speakers

Can Steinway Lyngdorf Marine Speakers be matched to a yacht’s exact colour scheme?
Yes. Beyond the standard white lacquer and gold trim finish, the Marine Speaker is available in bespoke RAL colours and custom lacquer finishes, allowing the cabinet to be matched precisely to a yacht’s deck, hull or design scheme rather than being limited to the standard finish.

Can a matching subwoofer be added to a Marine Speaker installation?
Yes. Steinway Lyngdorf offer bespoke subwoofers built into the identical cabinet footprint as the standard Marine Speaker, so a matched subwoofer can be added to the set without introducing a visually mismatched unit onto the deck or terrace.

Are Marine Speakers genuinely weatherproof?
Yes. The Marine Speaker uses a sealed aluminium enclosure rated IP65, with every driver protected by a weatherproof mesh, built to withstand salt water, spray, splash and general outdoor exposure without compromising sound quality.

Can Marine Speakers be hidden away when not in use?
On superyacht installations, Steinway Lyngdorf and Future Automation offer a servo-driven mechanism that hinges the speaker out from the deck when needed and folds it away flush when not in use, fully concealed and able to bear weight so the deck remains usable.