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Sound - share your views on music and sound

We love a badly produced album

Much as we love a well-recorded album, occasionally nothing can beat a really dirty production. When you listen to the Ramones first album, you are not listening for transparency and clarity, you’re listening for amphetamine-fuelled rake-thin teenagers playing in a garage band. In fact that’s... Read more

Peter Gregson’s Real World recording blog

It’s fast becoming my generations stock explanation – “it happened on Twitter”. Let me explain. I was in Boston performing a concert of solo cello and interactive electronics music back in March 2009, when @bowers_wilkins started following me and we started talking. I remember it... Read more

Exclusive high-quality format of Peter Gabriel’s new album

Peter Gabriel has chosen to make his new album, Scratch My Back, available as a 24-bit FLAC download exclusively through Society of Sound from March 2nd. He has always been a passionate advocate for sound quality and felt that offering a high-quality version of his... Read more

Nick Cave to remaster Bad Seeds albums in 5.1

The second batch of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums set for remastering in 5.1 Surround Sound are: Tender Prey, The Good Son and Henry’s Dream. The band pledged to re-release their entire back catalogue last summer. The first albums to be reissued were... Read more

Quality of recordings vs quality of equipment -which side are you on?

We recently invited B&W customers to ask us  questions.  We’ve had an overwhelming response and we’ve tried to answer as many as we can. Several of the questions will be answered in depth and posted in the Lab area of SoS later on this year... Read more

Nick Cave 3D audio spatial mix anyone?

Nick Cave’s new novel, The Death of Bunny Munroe, is being released as an audiobook this week. Not so interesting as news in itself,  but it’s being released via Apple’s app store. Clearly no ordinary audio book. As well as a soundtrack composed by Mr.... Read more

CD remasters – what’s been your most disappointing – and your best?

We at Bowers & Wilkins in the London office have a certain love affair with the retail institution that is Fopp. It may have disappeared from many city centres throughout the UK, but the central London store remains, along with a few select others. They... Read more

New album available as 24-bit download – as requested

This month’s album, In Session, is a collaboration between the extraordinary Mauritanian musician DabyTouré and old-school bluesman Skip McDonald. Clearly Music Club members are very discerning as we’ve had a number of people asking whether we would supply the music as 24-bit FLAC files. We’re... Read more

A class in sonic appreciation

I blogged earlier about the Deep Listening roundtable conference in New York. You can now watch it here. Chaired by Greg Calbi, the mastering engineer at legendary Sterling Sound, NY whose 70’s output alone includes classic albums by Springsteen (Born to Run), Lennon (Walls and... Read more

Equal rights for Audiophiles!

Audiophiles get a bad press. Even the word conjures up images of old men in tweed, listening to LPs of train sound effects on turntables that pre-date the invention of the compact disc via valve amps and speakers the size of the average inner-city bedsit.... Read more