Is there such thing as ‘British hi-fi sound’?

It is said that if an optimist sees a glass is half full and a pessimist sees it as half empty, then an engineer will tell you that the glass is twice as large as it needs to be. We are reminded of this old adage when we asked some of the best engineers of the British hi-fi industry whether or not there is a distinctly British sound.

“Accurate, faithful and true,” says Nick Clarke, director of engineering at Arcam, when we ask him about a British sound. “I don’t associate it with a sound as such, the equipment should get out of the way of the music. If it doesn’t, it hasn’t been designed correctly,” he adds.

“Understated, genuine and faithful reproduction throughout the entire bandwidth,” says Craig Milnes, co-owner and design director of Wilson Benesch. “Precise, natural, accurately reproducing the original recording,” says Matt Bartlett, Chord Electronics’ managing director.

So, just as the job of the glass is