The 300B amp that I am using has a magical euphoric (not euphonic) realism and I am looking for a linestage and phonostage with the same qualities. The amp is not euphonic, romantic, ‘golden’, ‘vintage,’ soft, fuzzy, or veiled. It is immediate, transparent and fast, yet beautiful, ‘human,’ and emotionally communicative. I have tried the […]
Month: October 2020
Found 31 results
Are some high-profile retailers as independent as they make out, or are they covertly owned by their suppliers? And why should it matter? MORE
Admittedly, on a subject we know little about and in fact care even less about – but we respect the enthusiasm of others regarding the matter and so we’ll pass it on in that spirit. MORE
I’ve been looking hard and fast at my collection of 2000+ CD’s and 1200 vinyl albums with a view to stripping out what I don’t really need or want. If I purely focus on the items I really couldn’t live without under any circumstances, I’m down to 150 albums and 250 CD’s. Whilst I don’t […]
Editor’s note 09/05/19: Hello colleague members ….. Although the link nudges towards an ‘old’ thread, I did find it interesting and hopefully some of you will find it useful too having just checked it for relevance. =================== This might seem like a strange question, but why do people seem to prefer to buy a home […]
Ever hook up some components where you’re expecting the results to be dreck and instead you’re pleasantly surprised by the results? I’ll share mine; Klipsch loudspeakers and naim. In the store naim (olive series) always leaned on the more forward and (to be fair with out nasty power and 120v operation) bright-ish. Klipsch of course […]
Seems like a rhetorical question, but I’m curious what other folks think is “ok, now that’s loud” For me, if something’s hitting 100dB as measured from where I’m seated while listening, and not just for a brief moments, but with some regularity, that’s loud. I used to listen at higher average volume than I […]
I currently own a CEC TL-1 transport, along with a dcs Delius and Purcell upsampler…..what one box CD player out there can deliver dynamics, transpareny, smoothness and inner detail that will outperform my current set up. Meridian 808….???? Please let me know your thoughts…. MORE
Paul McGowan writes: All DACs are not equal yet many of today’s most popular digital to analog converters are based on the same off-the-shelf chipset like those from ESS, Cirrus Logic, or Analog Devices. Yet those DACs using identical chips often sound as if cut from very different cloth. What makes them different? We might get […]
Paul McGowan writes: Most people refer to their physical copies of music as collections, for that is what they typically are. Very few large collections of music are well organized. Take my own, for example. In Music Room One I have 6 shelves of vinyl and 30 of CDs and SACDs. Vinyl is organized by the […]
Paul McGowan writes: Sometimes it’s the little things that make something special. A smile, just at the right moment, or perhaps a helping hand when one wasn’t expected. When I think about what makes a piece of audio equipment special it’s often the little unnoticed touches that, together, make a product worth owning. Take for […]
Paul McGowan writes: Stan Warren and I started PS Audio more than 40 years ago. Two enterprising young guys hell-bent to change the world. Stan moved on to other pastures. I’ve been at it ever since. I think what has always driven the PS team remains the same: using technology in clever ways to move […]
Paul McGowan writes: My friend Andy sent me this link to the new Samsung 2TB solid state drive that’s smaller than a business card, launched this morning at CES. That’s amazing. A sold state drive capable of storing well over 2000 complete albums–and it’s smaller than a business card. Bit banging. It’s a term used […]
Paul McGowan writes: Satisfaction? Don’t feel badly, the Stones apparently couldn’t either. But is satisfaction the end game? And what happens after you achieve it? Are you ready for more? Something better? I don’t know about you, but I tend to categorize my achievements into three groups. The first is short, repetitive tasks with known outcomes, […]
VPI was the only mainstream manufacturer for years, now we have 12 inch arms from Kuzma, Schroder, SME, Consonance, Brinkman to name a few. Why is this?? fad or long term. Would a 12ich Grahham, Triplaner or Basis be a better sounding product? 128 opinions HERE
Paul McGowan writes: It’s easy to ignore–often criticize–the hard won victories of creative people designing leading edge technology. In fact, it’s one of the double edged swords of our abundantly-connected society that empowers readers with just enough information to miss the bigger picture. And this is part of the problem I find in helping unravel the […]
Paul McGowan writes: Turning a good idea into a company is not easy. The devil, they say, is in the details; something Stan and I found to be true. In this video, Part II of the History of PS Audio, we learn how two wild-eyed hippie audiophiles turned a phono preamplifier into a business that today […]
Interesting responses HERE
Sometimes subwoofers are so intrusive it feels like we should be adjusting them for each and every track of music. How do we get around that desire and achieve a proper setup in our home audio systems? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan: Dave Paananen, who directs our engineering, and I were in Music Room One auditioning a couple of changes to circuitry recently. We were trying to figure out which, of several types of op amps, were more musically correct. Of course we do this by simply gain matching and then listening to the same […]