Jana Dagdagan

KEF's Jack Oclee-Brown Talks Loudspeakers

Jana Dagdagan  |  Sep 6, 2017

Last May, Jack Oclee-Brown, KEF's Head of Acoustics, visited John Atkinson's listening room to drop off and set up the KEF Reference 5 loudspeakers ($19,000/pair). (JA's review appears in the October Stereophile, which will hit newsstands and mailboxes later this week.) In this video, they discuss Jack's origins and the challenges of speaker design, as well as the genesis of the Reference 5, KEF's Uni-Q drive-unit, and why, to perform quasi-anechoic speaker measurements, it's best to use a chamber as large as a true anechoic chamber.

If you are a fan of feline audiophiles, speaker design, and British accents, you will find this conversation quite enjoyable.

COMMENTS
Axiom05's picture
Submitted by Axiom05 on September 6, 2017 - 5:03pm

Great interview, I really enjoyed it. However, I am wondering if the benefits of the Uni-Q co-axial driver are really worth all of the development efforts over the years. After over 30 iterations, have all of the problems finally been solved? Seems like just a trade-off for a different set of issues. I guess the proof will be in the listening. I am looking forward to your review JA, I just hope that my issue of Stereophile arrives in the mail.

georgehifi's picture
Submitted by georgehifi on September 6, 2017 - 6:39pm

It knows what's what.

Cheers George

volvic's picture
Submitted by volvic on September 7, 2017 - 6:33am

The weight of those records behind Mr. Brown are about to become a problem.

mns3dhm's picture
Submitted by mns3dhm on September 8, 2017 - 12:10pm

The interviews with designers are great

Axiom05's picture
Submitted by Axiom05 on September 15, 2017 - 1:34pm

Hello JA. How come the speakers in this video are different from the ones reviewed in the October issue? (Despite Hurricane Irma, I actually received my October issue on time!)

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 16, 2017 - 4:13am
Axiom05 wrote:
How come the speakers in this video are different from the ones reviewed in the October issue?

They are the same speakers that I reviewed. The photographs in the review, supplied by KEF, are of a different sample.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

auralenhancer's picture
Submitted by auralenhancer on November 6, 2017 - 9:13pm

I love hearing this information and geeking out on speaker construction. It really helps to know speaker design in my profession of home theater installation, especially when faced with trying to get hi fidelity from in wall or in ceiling speakers. I have a few design tricks up my sleeve.
Thank You
Will

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