Paul McGowan writes …. My very first pair of high-performance loudspeakers were Magneplanars but the marriage didn’t last long. I soon found myself enamored with a different kind of panel speaker, an electrostat which was so much more revealing than the planar that I made the switch. This added window-like clarity was a result of […]
Month: September 2020
Found 41 results
that I had the talent to write like this. My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn’t write What the night pencilled in… From “The Book of Longing” by Leonard Cohen
Paul McGowan writes: it still baffles me why long balanced interconnects seemed to sound better than long speaker cables. I previously shared with you my experience at HP’s home with an Audio Research preamp. That demonstrated just the opposite. So one conclusion we can make is the equipment you’re using has a lot to do […]
Paul McGowan writes …. Many of today’s audio equipment designers are getting on in years. I am a good example as I creep towards 70. Hard to imagine because in my mind I am still about in my mid-30s. Only the occasional look in the mirror proves that thought incorrect. As we age our hearing […]
The last two weeks have been a bit of an eye opener to me and I thought I would share my experiences, however misguided they may be. I’ve been into this hobby for 20 something years and have had some rather nice kit from the likes of Rega, Naim, Densen, Linn, Sugden, Audio Note, Quad, […]
Paul McGowan writes …. Most real world home stereo systems are placed in rooms where circumstances permit, not necessarily where they sound best. The last system I had in a home the speakers were on either side of a long couch, their distance determined by the length of the furniture rather than achieving perfect tonal balance. […]
Ben Hogwood writes ….. What do you get a band for their 30th birthday? Mute Records have the answer, for they have been showering Andy Bell and Vince Clarke with gifts to celebrate their three decades together as Erasure. In that time the pair have had almost as many hit singles as you and I […]
Not to be on a nostalgia kick here but yesterday’s post about Direct to Disc recordings got a few of you to ask me why a Direct to Disc was so much more dynamic than a standard recording and the answer is simple: one less layer and vinyl has more dynamic range than does tape. […]
Opinions differ, of course Take a look HERE
Is end of side distorsion something inherent to vinyl due to arm geometry etc. and the difference in velocity of the tip as it tracks relative to ever dwindling spirals ? Read more HERE
When is it time to upgrade? Add another component like a Power Plant, a new cable, a better DAC? I get asked this question a lot. Just recently the question put to me was a tough one to answer. If the system is limited by the setup possibilities: speakers shoved up against the wall, a […]
Paul McGowan It’s tough being on the cutting edge of new product design. One slip and that edge might just slice you right open. Yet it’s pretty boring just nosing along the fringes and worse trudging through middle ground. I think what floats the boats of most forward-thinking designers is to be somewhere just beyond […]
There a few fora where blind testing has a fervent or even fanatical following. Some people seem to be quite rigorous about this whereas others only seem to ask for it where they don’t believe differences exist. Personally I see it as a hassle and indeed there’s no one else in my household who would […]
Audiophile terminology helps the initiated communicate what they’re hearing: a means of describing with words sounds that we hear. One of my favorites is transparency—see through sound. I love this term because it makes no sense until you’ve actually heard it. Sound is the movement of air at wave frequencies too low for our eyes […]
The Los Angeles Times: There sits the late George Martin, behind the wheel of a vintage Cadillac convertible, cruising through Los Angeles and talking about the city’s import as a studio town. In the clip, taken from the 1997 BBC documentary “The Rhythm of Life,” Martin’s got a destination in mind as he rolls down […]
“I have a issue around my system sounding different on different days. I live near a industrial estate and suspect the issue may arise from the estate. My systems nearly always sounds very good sometimes it sounds freaking awesome but betwen once a week to once every two weeks the sound becomes slightly muffled. Ideally […]