Keith Howard

Keith Howard | Apr 01, 2020 | 0 comments

Keith Howard takes a look at the role capacitors play in audio circuits and explains how they influence sound

Was there a better time to be a hi-fi enthusiast than the late 1970s and early 1980s? It's hard to argue against it because there was so much going on, what with the development of digital audio on one hand and the rise of subjectivism on the other. Suddenly turntables and amplifiers were no longer judged by wow and flutter, rumble and price tag or power output, total harmonic distortion and price tag, but by listening to them. Shock, horror!

Investigation

Room Treatments

Keith Howard | Jan 07, 2020 | 0 comments

Should you invest in good acoustics? Keith Howard has some sage advice

Most of us will have asked ourselves at some point whether our next upgrade should be not to our hi-fi system but rather to the room we use it in. Could £1000 spent on absorbents and diffusers make a more profound difference to sound quality than spending the same amount on, say, a cable upgrade or a new pick-up cartridge?

Headphones Investigation

To the ends of the earth

Keith Howard | Dec 04, 2019 | Published: Jul 01, 2016 | 0 comments

Keith Howard revisits the question of headphone headband resonance

Shortly after my first Investigation into headphone headband resonance was published [see HFN Jun '14], Owen Jones – he who designed THX's Achromatic Audio Amplifier circuit – pointed out to me that I could have done a better job of it.

Headphones Investigation

Ringing on the ears...

Keith Howard | Dec 03, 2019 | Published: Jun 01, 2014 | 0 comments

Do headphone headbands carry unwanted sound? Keith Howard finds out

Imagine that instead of each of your stereo loudspeakers sitting in splendid isolation, optimally aligned with respect to the listening seat, there was a large band of metal or plastic curving between them, joining the two cabinets. If you know anything of loudspeaker design and the efforts taken to quell structural resonances, you'd immediately suspect this structure of colouring the sound and – by carrying vibrations from one speaker to the another – of messing with the stereo image.

Headphones Investigation

Better Headphone Testing

Keith Howard | Oct 15, 2019 | 0 comments

Keith Howard explains how and why HFN has expanded its test regime

Time flies when you're having fun. I bought the equipment to measure headphones for Hi-Fi News as long ago as May 2007, since when I've tested around 115 different models for the magazine. These have included circumaural (over-ear) designs, supra-aural (on-ear) and insert, active and passive, priced from under £100 to almost £5000.

Investigation

Know Your Transformers

Keith Howard | Aug 07, 2019 | 0 comments

They're crucial to hi-fi, but how do they work? Keith Howard explains all...

There isn't much in a modern hi-fi system that would be familiar to the great 19th century English physicist Michael Faraday. But a time-travelling Faraday – bemused by radio frequency communication, lasers and sound reproduction in general – would find something reassuringly familiar in the transformer. For it was he who first demonstrated that electromagnetic induction can be used to link one electrical circuit to another.

Investigation

Get Your Sub Singing!

Keith Howard | Apr 08, 2019 | 0 comments

Want the best bass from your subwoofer? Keith Howard has the answers

Is it my imagination or has the subwoofer faded from audiophile affections? In the 1990s a generation of audio lovers discovered that subwoofers could do unexpected things: not just add low-bass heft, but also improve midrange sound quality and the spaciousness of the stereo image.

Loudspeakers

Teufel Ultima 40 (£349)

Keith Howard | Dec 16, 2011 | 0 comments

These floorstanders from direct retail giants Teufel are strong value for money It’s not so long ago that I asked, rhetorically, in these pages how JBL could sell a four-driver, three-way floorstander (the Studio 190) for a mere £480 a pair [HFN May ’11]. Well, JBL eat your heart out: the Teufel Ultima 40 is also a four-driver, three-way floorstander and it sells for just £349 a pair, plus a delivery charge of £20. During the review period, in fact, it was on special offer for even less: a barely credible £299 at one point. How does Teufel do it? A significant part of the answer is that it sells direct to the customer, cutting out the middleman.

Loudspeakers

Elac Fs 189 (£2000)

Keith Howard | Dec 16, 2011 | 0 comments

An aesthetically attractive and somically capable loudspeaker Surely the most impressive-looking speaker of this group, the Elac FS 189 is a five-driver three-and-a-half-way sporting three 175mm bass drivers, a 140mm midrange unit and Elac’s vaunted JET tweeter, whose pleated diaphragm identifies it as a development of Oskar Heil’s famous Air Motion Transformer. The lower two bass drivers are rolled off at 180Hz, leaving the upper bass unit to crossover to the midrange driver at 500Hz and it to the tweeter at 2. 8kHz. Like the FS 247 Sapphire [HFN July ’11], reflex bass loading is accomplished via two ports, one located near the top of the back panel and the other in the cabinet base, where it vents to the outside via the gap between the cabinet and integral plinth.

Loudspeakers

Dali Lektor 8 (£1150)

Keith Howard | Dec 16, 2011 | 0 comments

Larger than average drivers give the Dali a performance edge Compared to the other speakers in this test the Lektor 8 – largest of Dali’s five-model Lektor range, not including the centre speaker and sub – looks almost old-fashioned. It isn’t size zero thin, for a start, because it uses twin 8in (200mm) bass drivers rather than the ~170mm units of the Quadral, Elac and Paradigm. Moreover, those drivers – along with the 5in midrange – don’t boast hi-tech- looking metal diaphragms but Dali’s familiar wood fibre reinforced coated paper cones, which are a dull brown colour. It’s a lot of speaker for the price, though, and those unmodishly large bass drivers – reflex loaded by ports front and rear – promise to move plenty of air.

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Keith Howard

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