By Frans de Rond, Senior Engineer at Sound Liaison
The last day of HEM 2025 in Munich started quietly for me, just the way I like it. I found myself in the Linkwitz room, surrounded by people who care deeply about sound, listening intently to recordings that told stories without a single word.
One of the first things that stood out was a binaural jazz recording made with a Jecklin Disk. I haven’t heard that technique used in quite a while, and it brought back memories. The Jecklin Disk, created by Swiss engineer Jürg Jecklin, places two omni mics on either side of a disk roughly the size of a human head. Simple, clever, and when done right, the stereo image is remarkably lifelike. It gives you that rare feeling that you’re not just listening to music, you’re in the room with it.
This kind of spatial realism is something we work hard to capture at Sound Liaison. We’ve always been drawn to recording approaches that preserve air, depth, and honesty, whether it’s with a single microphone or a minimalist stereo setup.
Another standout moment was a track recorded by Doug Fearn, using the AEA R88 stereo ribbon mic. That mic has a personality all its own, smooth, rich, and unforced. I’ve used it many times when I want to preserve the natural balance of an acoustic instrument. Ribbon mics like the R88 don’t flatter the source; they reveal it. They also demand the right preamp, high gain and low noise, and Doug knows that better than most. His tube gear (famous in the studio world) has a kind of musicality that’s hard to find elsewhere.
Doug’s recording played beautifully through the Linkwitz system, full of space, nuance, and soul. It reminded me of why we do what we do at Sound Liaison: to make recordings that sound alive, where you can hear the room, the breath, the tension between the notes.
After the listening sessions, I caught up with a few familiar faces, fellow engineers, musicians, and music lovers. We talked about and mostly just enjoyed the shared obsession with getting sound right. That, to me, is what makes these gatherings worthwhile.
By than it was time for the train back to Hilversum. I was taking home new ideas, fresh ears, and a reminder of the power of simplicity in both recording and playback.
If you’re someone who values real acoustic sound, carefully captured and honestly presented, I invite you to explore what we’re doing at Sound Liaison. We put everything we have into every recording, because the music deserves it, and so do the listeners.