Author: Phil Ward

Designer of speakers, player of basses, writer of words.
Written by Phil Ward

Secrets of The Neumann KH150

My work reviewing nearfield monitors for Sound On Sound occasionally provokes thoughts that are perhaps a little too far off-piste for the relatively simple needs of a magazine review, and my recent review of the newly introduced Neumann KH150 was prime example. I gave the KH150 a very positive review in the magazine, but having […]

Written by Phil Ward

A Visit to Kii Audio

Kii Audio, manufacturer of the Kii Three/BXT monitors that I reviewed in Sound On Sound here and here, has recently moved from its original home in Apeldoorn, Netherlands to a new base just over the border in rural western Germany. I was lucky enough to be invited to an open house event at the new […]

Written by Phil Ward

That LS3/5A Phenomenon

Now, I appreciate that I’m describing a niche category within a niche category, but among audiophiles, the BBC LS3/5A is perhaps the most widely celebrated loudspeaker. And now I’m about to perpetuate the hullabaloo by blogging about it for a second time (my first Music & Miscellany post was entitled, Not The LS3/5A – you […]

Written by Phil Ward

A Most Remarkable Read

A couple of my favourite bands over the last decade have been Shearwater and Loma, and both have Jonathan Meiburg at their core. But Jonathan is more than just a unique and gifted songwriter and musician, because along with his career in music he’s very active in the field of evolutionary zoology, with a particular […]

Written by Phil Ward

Music Month – January (Indifference)

The third curious piece of music to arise from my attempt to create a piece each month is even later than the second. But better late than cliché, eh? This piece is entitled, ‘January (indifference)’ and the name reveals firstly that I began working on the piece some four months ago, and secondly that, in […]

Written by Phil Ward

Music Month – November

Yes, I know it’s February, but I was remiss late last year in not posting the second instalment of my Music Month project to compose and record a finished piece of curious music every month. So here is November, in, err February. November is based on a double-bass melody (if that’s not too ambitious a […]

Written by Phil Ward

Music Month – October

For years, well decades really, I’ve occasionally spent time in metaphorically darkened rooms trying to come up with curious pieces of music. The pieces have invariably remained unfinished (partly because, with the almost unlimited opportunities provided by contemporary music tech, believing something to be finished is all but impossible). And, along with never finishing a […]

Written by Phil Ward

Why I Love

Sound On Sound, the audio magazine that I regularly write for, includes a monthly column called, ‘Why I Love….’ and back in August 2019 I wrote a piece for the column entitled, “Why I Love…Fretless Bass’. The piece resulted in quite a bit of feedback and comment at the time, but as I know not […]

Written by Phil Ward

Monitoring On the Cheap: Part 3

In my, ‘Monitoring On The Cheap: Part 2’ post of October 2019 I described refurbishing a pair of 1980s Bowers & Wilkins DM550 hi-fi speakers. That pair of speakers has since been loaned out to a musician/recording engineer friend who uses them regularly for secondary monitoring duties. I purchased the DM550s following some eBay browsing […]