The audio world is in mourning at the passing of Steve Stanley Hewlett, an engineer of multiple disciplines and audio reproduction expert, particularly in the field of loudspeakers and their continued development. Born in June 1949, Mr Hewlett died on 17 June 2018 following a 10-year battle with cancer at age 69.
Inspired by an interest in sound quality that spawned as a teenager, Mr Hewlett’s career would start at Rola Celestion as a development engineer. From there, he would move to Yorkshire to take up the post of technical director at Fane Acoustics, which resided first under the Audio Fidelity Group umbrella, then Wharfedale International following various acquisitions and director changes.
Mr Hewlett would take his career to SG Acoustics, the founding British company of the Sanecore Group, as technical manager. Within a year of Mr Hewlett joining, the company became IAG (International Audio Group) upon the acquisitions of various brands such as Quad, Mission and Castle, as well as Mr Hewlett’s previous employer, Wharfedale. While continuing to serve as technical manager, Mr Hewlett would also acted as operations manager and then as director of engineering in China. Shenzhen became his adopted hometown and he learnt enough Chinese to live and work without the assistance of a translator.
In 2005, Mr Hewlett was credited as the head of engineering who had ‘created a masterpiece’ by Wharfedale in its brochure for the Airedale Heritage and Airedale Neo. He was also a regular fixture at trade shows and exhibitions around the world, travelling extensively, especially throughout the northern hemisphere.
When diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2008, Mr Hewlett refused surgery that would have impeded upon his quality of life, and instead, took early retirement to travel the world as much as he could before the illness prevented him from doing so. He is survived by his son, Lee and daughter Eve, and his grandson Gabriel.