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Behind the Sound Jack Oclee-Brown & Dipin Sehdev Dive Deeper into KEF’s Principles and Design By Thomas Bender We had the opportunity to speak with Jack Oclee-Brown, Head of Acoustics at KEF’s UK headquarters and manufacturing facility, and Dipin Sehdev, Brand Relations with KEF America. They took us through KEF’s history, their design philosophy, and where they see the future of audio and the KEF brand. TB > Tell me about KEF’S history. DS > Our founder, Raymond Cook, was a BBC engineer. There was a BBC monitor called the LS35A, and what the BBC required for this monitor was a very specific type of specification that needed to be met by all their speakers, and Raymond Cook was the only one allowed to build the parts for the LS35A. That’s how we came about - building the parts of these [loudspeakers for the BBC]. And from there, doing our own research and creating loudspeakers. There is a lot that comes with KEF, it's just not the actual speaker, but it’s all the history and lineage and everything we've been doing for 55 years. TB > So Jack, your team is the same team that does the Muo and the Muon and the full range of KEF products. How do you get into the different mind sets and determine what technology you can bring across those product lines given the different target customers (and budgets) for those types of speakers? JOB > I was having a conversation last week and saying "is there anywhere else where this kind of thing exists? Where you get the Muo for about £300, and then you've got something like the Muon which is over £100,000. This kind of massive range of products. But it’s the same physics, which is the key thing. The sound, itself, behaves in the same way. Our goal with all of our products is to make sure that they deliver the KEF sound, which is, for me, best described as a very natural sound. Very clear, very natural. We try and deliver things in the right proportions so that it’s not hyper reality. TB > Throughout your range of products, there is this consistent balance, fair, and natural sound palette to all of them. Why are a lot of speaker companies emphasizing different parts of the music more than what was intended or was recorded? DS > It's just the way that the American market listens. JOB > The headphones thing - it is kind of clever, because if you study what people really grab hold of when they listen to music, bass is the main thing. If you get the bass wrong, then people won't forgive your product. [But] that's not the only thing that makes good sound, so we try and focus as much effort on all aspects of the sound, because that initial “Wow” kind of goes, and you want something that you can listen to for a long time, on all different genres of music, and really get the most out of your purchase. TB > For me, the Q200 is a perfect use of that KEF sound palette - having all the dialogue pumped through that speaker - because it sounds so much more crisp and clean as intended. JOB > The Q200 is probably the best demonstration of the Uni-Q that you could have. If you take the grills off, you'll see the driver that's doing most