The Mother of the MP3, Or, How A Great Song Helped Up-End the Music Business's Apple Cart

Fifteen years ago or so, as a point of marketing, it was not the quality of the music you could now carry around with you, it was the amount of music you could carry around with you. So, here we are now still using a format that was a cutting edge technology at the time it was developed, even though that format (and the storage capacities of the devices we now use) has long ago been surpassed with other compression codecs that don't mess up our music so much. 

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Several Hundred Words About Timbre, Or, Did You Know the LS50 Is Also Available As A Center Channel?

One of the more elusive terms in the audio world (and in music in general) is the word timbre. First of all, if someone starts explaining TIM-bur to you and they are not speaking exclusively about a forest or a logging operation, run away and leap unabashedly into the arms of your nearest audio expert who knows the word is pronounced TAM-bra (it's a French word).

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KEF's Custom Install Speaker Placement Tool

To help make it even easier to use KEF's Custom Install products in your next project, our engineers have developed a software tool that allows you to easily enter your room dimensions, listening habits and desired sound level in order to calculate what type of speaker – and how many of each you – should use for the best quality sound.

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Dolby Atmos and Unbroken

Hopefully you've experienced Dolby Atmos in a theater, at a demo at your local audio/video dealer, or maybe even in a home installation. If you haven't experienced it yet, make it a point to do so because it really is spectacular.

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Why The "Record Store" Is Going To Be Sorely Missed If We Let Them All Die

I have an iTunes account. I hate myself for it. I also eat at [insert horrible fast food restaurant here] every once in a while. I hate myself for that too, but I still do it. When I'm in a rush or just filled with self-loathing I fill myself with content at [insert horrible fast food restaurant here] and then a few days later when I feel better I vow to never do it again.

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The Reference: Designing the Crossovers and Voicing the Loudspeakers

With the release of the new Reference Series last year, we raised the bar on our already lofty standards of audio reproduction. I know that sounds like marketing jibber-jabber, but the truth is, we're all very proud of how amazing The Reference line sounds. This was accomplished a number of different ways, not the least of which was the painstaking method we selected crossover components and voiced the loudspeakers themselves.

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Front-to-Back Album Friday: Rodrigo y Gabriela - 9 Dead Alive

2014 was a banner year for me musically – I bought more complete albums in 2014 than I did in probably the previous five years combined. There was just a lot of really good music released last year. If I was inclined to rate the albums I was exposed to last year (I'm not), 9 Dead Alive would certainly be in the top three. 

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KEF Ambassador Johan Coorg & Geekbeat at CES2015

Check out KEF Brand Ambassador Johan Coorg with GeekBeat.TV at CES 2015.

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Dolby Atmos For Your Home Theater: Some FAQs

By now you've heard about Dolby Atmos, a cinema audio format that is going to revolutionize how we listen to movies in the theater and at home. In this reprint from the good folks at Dolby Laboratories, here's the straight skinny on just exactly what Dolby Atmos is and what it can do for you.

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Dolby Atmos: Hacking You Hearing To Create Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers

This fall, KEF released our R50 Dolby Atmos Enabled Speaker, and with the kind permission from the folks at Dolby we're going to re-print some selected Dolby Atmos-related articles to help everyone get acquainted with this really exciting new home theater technology.

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Front-to-Back Album Friday: Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel

Somewhere, on some highway, there's a place like the Grievous Angel. I'm absolutely sure I had a chicken sandwich and a glass of water there just outside of Tucumcari on the way from Amarillo to Albuquerue one day many years ago. That may or may not have actually happened, but I'm pretty sure in our collective American musical conscience it did (for all of us at one time or another).

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A Look At the Vinyl Resurgence From A Human Point-Of-View

This year will be the best year for vinyl sales in a long, long time. Total vinyl sales in 1993 were around 250,000 units (in the US), and will top out a little over 6 million this year. In other news, even though most people assume the CD is dead, CD sales were 165 million units against 118 million for digital album sales. Digital retailers really want you to believe the CD is dead, but so far, it's only just slightly wounded.

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Taylor Swift Vs. Spotify. Without All The Cute Taylor Swift Song References

For the last twenty-four hours, every too-clever-for-their-own-good snarky journalist in America is laying claim to headlines that read something like "Taylor Swift Breaks Up With Spotify" or "Taylor Swift And Spotify Are Never, Ever, Ever, Getting Back Together." 

Lame Taylor Swift song references aside, there's an actual story beyond the silliness music lovers should be aware of. 

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Front-to-Back Album Friday: Lake Street Dive

First of all I would like to ask a question of the people who take it upon themselves to label music: I see this album come up listed as 'Country' more than I see it come up listed under any other genre. Why? Is it because they use an acoustic bass, or is it because the music on this album confounds you so much you don't know what to make of it?

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Why You Think Today's Music Sucks...It Comes Down to Neurochemistry

If you're reading this chances are you're a music fan. You may have very particular or very broad tastes; you may love the way it makes you feel or you may not even really care why you love music. But there's no getting around the fact that to varying degrees, you and every person you have ever met has a deep, personal relationship with music. There's a scientific reason for this.

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Tangerine Waveguide: It Does Way More Than You Think

The latest KEF Tech installment takes a somehwat in-depth look at KEF's Tangerine Waveguide technology - a technology that improves high-frequency sensitivity, fidelity and dispersion.

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Front-to-Back Album Friday: Donald Fagen - The Nightfly

I arrived on the planet at the very tail end of the Baby Boom. Through my childhood in the 60s we were promised, no we expected, to be adults in a cool world filled with all kinds of fun scientific innovations. It was all lies. I had eggs for breakfast this morning and they were cooked on a pan. On a stove. I might as well have eaten breakfast like a caveman. No space pack liquid eggs infused with lots of niacin and other science-y things. In short, my life (and yours') is one giant disappointment.

There are no jetpacks. 

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Show Report: KEF and Fort Collins Audio at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

Make the jump for a quick show report from Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and Fort Collins Audio.

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Approximately Ten Questions With Audio Engineer Ed Spear

"I have this crazy notion that we're in the wild west right now and you can make a crazy and interesting recording that might just stick out in the crowd. I see that most bands are more worried about getting a sync license rather than showing their grandkids their record in 50 years time. Be bold!"

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Approximately Ten Questions With Timm Kummer From Kummer Vintage Instruments

From the song-writer, to the musician, to the recording engineer right on through the amplifier manufacturer the "signal chain" of good music is a lengthy and complicated one that eventually ends with the loudpseakers you listen to your music on. We've got the loudspeaker end of the chain – and the technology of listening – covered, but it's fun from time-to-time to take a look at some of the other people involved in the musical signal chain.

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