The William Ralston Music Listening Library is located on the second floor of duPont Library at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. The Ralston Library boasts an expansive collection of physical format recordings—LPs and CDs—that seeks to be representative of the standard repertoire of Western art music.
The centerpiece of the Ralston Library is the Carlson Listening Room, a loudspeaker room that was designed to bring a stunning, life-changing sonic and aesthetic experience to every visitor. The Carlson Room is considered by many reviewers and audiophiles to be the best publicly-available audio playback space in the world.

The Ralston Library’s mission is to encourage appreciation for—and the study of—great music by offering access to both an outstanding reference collection and carefully maintained audio playback spaces for all of our patrons.

The William Ralston Listening Library and Archive is primarily funded by individual donations. We are grateful to the friends and music lovers who financially support the best listening experience possible for our students, faculty, and guests.

Every gift made helps support our program.

I can see music everywhere

By Wilson Audio Specialties

This is a story of friendship, tradition, and the power of shared music. How did an experience listening to classical music in a professor's living room at the University of the South in Sewanee Tennessee change a young student's life? An experience so indelible that forty years later it galvanized him to spearhead the creation of a campus listening library with 40,000 recordings, showcased in a million-dollar room with state-of-the-art audio. What impact does this unique academic facility have on the lives of the current "ear-bud generation" of students?

Watch video