Lab - thoughts on music, sound quality. Plus discuss sonics with other people

‘Binaural’ simply means ‘relating to two ears’, and it’s only an accident of history that we don’t use the word instead of ‘stereo’ (which actually means ‘solid’). As it is, binaural recordings are basically recordings made specifically for listening to on headphones rather than loudspeakers.... Read more

Since its launch in October 2001, the Apple iPod has been responsible for a revolution in the way we enjoy music – and that’s not hyperbole. Where our portable music was once limited by how many CDs, cassettes or MiniDiscs we could carry around with,... Read more

What with all the attention give to high-definition and 3D in 2010, it’d be easy to underestimate the role of great sound in the film experience. But think about it: what was it that made the shark attack in Jaws so scary? Why did the... Read more

The Opera of the Future group is an MIT Media Lab Research Group led by Society of Sound Fellow Tod Machover. It explores concepts and techniques to help advance the future of musical composition, performance, learning, and expression. Through the design of new interfaces for... Read more

Headphones have enjoyed a diverse technological history, Paul Rigby looks at their past, present and future. Headphones are one of the most personal items in anyone’s hi-fi. They generate some of the most intense, passionate and, sometimes, vitriolic fervour you’re likely to hear. We love... Read more

Seemingly moribund with the onset of CD, vinyl, especially audiophile vinyl, is now enjoying, says Paul Rigby, both a cultural and marketing renaissance. Vinyl was supposed to be finished. As a mass medium, that much was true. However, like any mature industry which has experienced... Read more

An insightful and exclusive interview with Allan Rouse, project co-ordinator of the Beatles remastered boxsets... Read more

High resolution downloads are changing the way we enjoy music, opening up possibilities undreamed of back in digital’s early days… It’s hard to understate the impact that Compact Disc made, upon its introduction back in 1982. At the time, the music world was very different,... Read more

Sparked on by a love of classic record producers such as Phil Spector, Joe Meek, and Sam Phillips, Bowers & Wilkins got together a panel of musical experts to see what they had to tell us about music and sound reproduction. Producers, musicians, and people... Read more

Continuing on our mission as sound evangelists we invited a group of journalists to a Sound Tasting at Abbey Road Studios. The aim was to give them an insight into how a speaker engineer (in this case, B&W Senior Development Engineer Dr John Dibb), goes... Read more