Hello Neil. Can you suggest a practical, intelligent and understandable explanation of the pros and cons of biwiring please? Thanks. AK Happy to help you Mr.K. I sniffed about a bit and below, written by Paul McGowan is the best I have found so far. Just when you thought I had abandoned everything high-end and […]
Paul McGowan
Found 626 results
Paul McGowan writes: Just for grins I pulled out a 30 year old preamplifier from PS Audio and gave it a listen. I was stunned at just how good it sounded. At first I was depressed because it immediately said to me that we can’t have made much progress over the last three decades. But […]
Paul McGowan writes: I struggled with how to write this because the subject’s rather complicated and in the end decided to keep it simple. Heck, it’s Sunday after all and we’re supposed to be taking a day off. Yesterday we covered analog volume controls and how they, by virtue of adding something into the signal […]
Paul McGowan writes: Last night we’re walking by a hotel and through an open window I hear the sound of a live piano. The folks I am with hear the same thing and comment on the fact it’s live. How is it we can tell something is live vs. recorded and reproduced from a distance […]
Paul McGowan: I am always fascinated by macro views – those all encompassing views of complex interactions we tend to think of as simple and explainable when in reality they are terribly complicated and intertwined. Let me give you some examples. Ever stop and wonder what the rules and mechanisms of automobile traffic patterns might […]
Paul McGowan writes: Have you ever noticed how much better your car runs after you wash it? Or how about how much better your audio system sounds after you’ve cleaned, dusted, and taken some time to groom the room? Maybe I am the only one on this planet that feels this, but I suspect not. […]
Paul McGowan writes: A while back I mentioned John Atkinson’s name and several of my readers were horrified–said they could not trust him–because he had heard a difference on a process that intellectually offended them. Rubbish. Let’s examine this notion. The offending item is the demagnetizing of CDs. I may be thrown out of the […]
Paul McGowan writes: All power amplifiers share something in common: they are big valves connecting the amp’s power supply to the loudspeaker. How they do this is really all that differs between topologies in output stages: traditional amps use a variable valve that never reaches the maximum supply and class D amps use an on/off […]
Paul McGowan writes: I was reminded by one of our commenters to these posts about an era in audio I think of as the flavor of the month. It was a period of time in the 1970′s and early 1980′s that found loudspeaker and audio electronic manufacturers designing products that were not especially true to […]
Boy, that sounds like a no-win claim. 🙂 In the case of a transformer, however, bigger is always better relative to what the designer is trying to accomplish from the viewpoint of power delivery at a certain frequency – at least from a sonic standpoint that’s true. Years ago we pioneered the use of oversize […]
Reader Mark Fisher writes: “those who have worked on the problem longest and are most familiar with it are often those stuck in the deepest most inescapable ruts of all they’ve dug for themselves over the better part of a lifetime. They’re the experts.” Now there’s something all of us can not only relate to […]
Paul McGowan: Have you ever considered that a turntable setup in your home is completely unique to you? Every record you listen to, every scratch, tick, pop and musical note played on your system is unlike what I hear on my system and unlike what your friends hear on theirs. Vinyl reproduction of LP’s are […]
Paul McGowan: Your watch should be accurate. So too your alarm clock. And let’s not forget how important it is for the country’s GPS system to be accurate, for without accuracy, our machines that tell us where we are and where we’re going will lead us astray. But how important is accuracy in your digital […]
Paul McGowan: Visiting audio clubs, dealers, trade shows and people’s homes is illuminating to me. I am always learning. Recently I sat in front of a dealer’s high-end demo system and was amazed at how wrong the image was. The entire presentation of the music was between my seating position and the loudspeakers: a logical […]
Which is the better interconnect for home audio systems? Balanced XLR or unbalanced RCA? Paul voices his opinion and explains the differences between the two and their reason for existence. Have a question you’d like Paul to answer for you? Go to https://www.psaudio.com/ask-paul/ and post it. Watch Now Paul McGowan
Setting up a subwoofer in a high-end system can be darned tricky. Is there an easy and quick way to get it right, first time, every time? You bet there is and leave it to Paul to explain how Watch Now Paul McGowan
Electrostats are great speakers but unforgiving at the same time. Any little misstep in recordings can sound awful on these razor sharp speakers. The good news is when they’re playing well-recorded music they are hard to beat. But badly recorded music, even a little bad… Watch Now Paul McGowan
Ever wonder about the advantages and disadvantages of horn load speakers? Here’s your chance to learn all you need to know. Watch Now Paul McGowan
We love our older gear, the ones with the big VU meters, the cool knobs and audio connectors we’ve held onto for so long. When’s the best time to consider moving it on, repairing it, restoring it, or just going with new kit? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan Engineers don’t yet know how to measure all we can hear on a resolving stereo system but we know a lot. What are the measurements that tell us what sounds good and what does not? Watch Now ▸
How can equipment with only 2-prong plugs have ground? There is no earth ground, right? Paul explains in easy to understand terms all about that mysterious subject, ground. Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan: Most recognize the difference in sound quality between tubes and transistors, but why? They both amplify, they both make music, can be used in any electronic circuit, yet perform differently. Paul does his best to explain the inner workings of tubes and differences with transistors. Watch Now ▸
Originally published in 2015 Paul McGowan: No, this post isn’t about some lame track about ‘dat bass‘, but it is about ‘dat bass’. Over dinner last night with Infinity founder Arnie Nudell and PS Audio’s Bill Leebens, the discussion turned to bass. Better put, the lack of it in today’s speakers, something I constantly harp […]
Paul McGowan: The main listening room at PS Audio is approximately 16 feet wide by 35 feet long – not a huge room but not too small either. Left bare and with nothing more than just the loudspeakers and equipment to power them in place, the room is an OK venue for sound reproduction. Add […]