HELIUS DESIGNS: in conversation with Howard Popeck – part two

Geoffrey ….. When it comes to listening to what you’ve designed, do you worry that you can find yourself liking something which is actually wrong? How do you keep yourself on track? In the context of tonearms it’s difficult to imagine what I could do to make it sound ‘wrong’. This part of the system […]

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MORSIANI: Carlo Morsiani – italian builder of precision Morsiani tonearms and turntables interviewed

Carlo Morsiani (TNT-Audio) writes: Could You explain to our readers when and how You started your interest about hi-fi and turntables building? CM > I started my interest in the sixties end, when in Italy the only review with a section dedicated to hi-fi was “Discoteca hi-fi”. In 1971 I visited the first Italian hi-fi […]

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HELIUS: Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Geoffrey Owen, main-man at Helius Designs

Hello Geoff, and thank you agreeing to be interviewed about social media in our shrinking audiophile world. So …. my first question; what’s your perception of the importance or irrelevance of Facebook in reaching out to potential audiophile buyers? Ah. Hmm. Howard, I suspect that you’re interviewing the wrong person. When I started writing novels […]

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HELIUS DESIGNS: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it…

Geoffrey Owen: Thus wrote Shakespeare as his opening line of Twelfth Night… More than simply a line from a play, it’s a reflection of my life. I come from a musical family – my Grandfather sang opera and operetta in the 1930’s and my second son is a blindingly good guitarist. As for me, I’m […]

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PIERRE LURNE: Design Philosophy For Turntables – a paper from Pierre Lurne Of Audiomeca

Enjoy The Music write ….. For those who are unfamiliar with his name, Pierre Lurne has been an integral part of cutting edge turntable design since the late 1960’s. Pierre designed his first arm design in 1968. He later was commissioned to do design work for a then major player in the audiophile turntable market. […]

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HELIUS DESIGNS: Magic Pebbles, an explanation of tonearm bias and …

In my first article, I wrote about those wizened beings who occasionally materialise from the ether, intent on stretching the boundaries of plausibility with their over-active imaginations. These people would have us believe that a generous sprinkling of their particular flavour of fairy dust on your hi-fi will transport it to the realms of godliness. […]

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HELIUS DESIGNS: Geoffrey Owen, founder, owner and senior design engineer writes about the 1983 Orion tone arm

The trouble with being an engineer is that one is born with a natural tendency to look at the world through critical eyes and consider how differently you might have designed the things around you had been have been given the job. But then, if ever you feel inclined to prompt such a discussion, most […]

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KINGREX: Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Audiophile maker and design-house KingRex makers of the T20, DDC, UC 384 USB DDC and the JB3

Regarding the inventor. How did their interest in music reproduction start? During my high school days, pop music industry was rapidly booming and I was, like other teenagers, very obsessed with it. Yes, it was eighties. The first thing I did when I returned from school was to turn on the radio and listen to […]

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Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Mr Phillipe Bernard, the driving force behind French audio maker Atelier de Synergie Acoustique

Hello Philippe. How did your interest in music reproduction start? It started when I was very young! First, listening to my father’s big valve radio and then to his mono record player (I lightened the phono cartridge…) In 1970, I bought a turntable, the Braun PS500 – the best in Europe! It cost me four […]

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ARGENTUN: Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Mr. Richard Szafraniec of newly emergent Polish audiophile company Argentum

Preliminary note: We’ve been both amazed and delighted by our readership’s positive response to our series of interviews with innovative small, intellectually agile makers from outside of the traditional countries associated with state-of-the-art audio / stereo. In particular our series on newly emergent French makers. Today we turn our attention to Polish organisations you might […]

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NELSON PASS: The Patents Of Pass

Brian Damkoroger: If high-end audio were to carve its own Mt. Rushmore, whose faces would appear there—besides that of Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt, of course? It’s likely that no two audiophiles would ever come up with identical lists of subjects, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they could agree on at least one name: […]

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BENCHMARK AUDIO: Application notes – Rules of Thumb for Music and Audio

John Siau writes: As an engineer I like to use “rules of thumb” to make quick estimates that help explain what can be expected from the physical world around me. These rules of thumb are easy-to-remember approximations that eliminate the need for complicated and needlessly precise calculations. If you learn a few key rules of […]

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BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Intersample Overs in CD Recordings

John Siau writes: We have frequently used Steely Dan’s Gaslighting Abbie from Two Against Nature in our listening tests. This is a spectacular CD recording with lots of dynamics and a low noise floor. Nevertheless, in a little over 5 minutes, this track has 559 intersample overs on the left track and 570 on the right track for a total […]

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TECHNICAL: Popping noise on turn off

Q: Hello Colin. The unit in question is a Lafayette 4 channel decoder. When turning off my system, there is a popping noise from the rear speakers unless I turn the volume down on the decoder first (I’m only using the rear outputs). I’d like to eliminate the problem. I’ve searched bypass capacitor and coupling […]

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BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Interpreting THD Measurements – Think dB not Percent!

John Siau writes: Distortion measurements (THD, THD+N and IMD) are traditionally expressed in terms of percent. But what do 1%, 0.1%, 0.01% or 0.001% mean in terms of loudness or audibility? If you are like most people you just know that 0.001% is the best of the three numbers listed above. If you are a well-trained […]

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MAINS TRANSFORMERS: Step-down transformers with unchanged mains frequency?

Hi Colin, Pls can you help me? Can I safely run a USA spec amp designed for 110v 60Hz in the UK on 240v 50Hz, with a step down transformer (but it will still be 50Hz). So many conflicting views across the web. I think a lot of people believe it can work ok the […]

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WELL-TEMPERED: The Bill Firebaugh interview

J. Gordon Holt writes …..  Bill Firebaugh’s first product, the outrageous-looking Well-Tempered (tone) Arm, established him as one of audio’s most innovative designers. At the 1985 Winter CES, he showed a prototype companion product—the Well-Tempered Turntable—and was producing production units by January 1987. He discusses here the WTT’s unusual design features. (Readers should note that, […]

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OUTPUT TRANSISTORS: What is it that causes them to blow?

Dear Colin, Generally speaking, what is it that causes output transistors to blow? Do they tend to die a natural death? Bad drivers? Emitters? Problems with the rectifier circuit? Assuming there wasn’t shorted speaker wires or excessive moisture. The amp bias and the +/-77 voltage was fine before they blew. It happened on power up. […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

TONE ARM EFFECTIVE MASS: A cogent, scientifically based and rational explanation

Howard Popeck asked Geoffrey Owen, the driving force behind Helius Designs if he could and indeed would find the time to explain the reality behind effective mass and – in so doing – confound the misinformation, disinformation and scientific ignorance that clouds so many discussions of this topic. As an aside and somewhat mischievously, Howard […]

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STAR EARTHING: What is it and what’s the point?

Hello Howard. Can you ask Colin please what is star earthing and does he / will he using it in his new designs? Ta muchly J.N Peterson {Colin} Dear J.N.Peterson star earthing should be used in all analog designs, that is a single zero or earth for every component on the circuit board and normally […]

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ALL-TUBE ANALOG

Originally published July 2010 Stereophile write: It is a widely held belief that musicians do not assess hi-fi equipment in the same way as “audiophiles.” I remember the British conductor Norman Del Mar—an underrated conductor if ever there was one—still being perfectly satisfied in 1981 with his 78 player, never having felt the need to […]

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THE ESSENCE OF SOUND: An interview with an audiophile

From the archives: Audiophiles are a fastidious bunch.  They’re audio perfectionists who are constantly on the prowl for the latest gear to appease their ears.  What sounds “fine” to one person, sounds like fingernails down chalkboards to an audiophile. But there are few audiophiles who could claim they have a way to enjoy high quality […]

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BOB HEIL: The Master of Game-Changing Microphone Technology, interviewed

Marty Paule writes:  Highly opinionated and fiercely independent in his views about pro sound, Bob Heil builds mics and possesses a professional resume to back up his often out-of-the-box attitude. And speaking of boxes, it was Bob who invented one of the most memorable guitar effects of all time: the Heil Talk Box that made […]

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