BECOMING A SHREWDER HI-FI BUYER: Part 4

Those of you who know me personally probably know that I’m fascinated by the psychologies (or in simpler terms the brain processes) which guide people to make decisions in general and buying decisions in particular. Having made many seriously flawed commercial decisions (the demise of Subjective Audio being a case in point) I strive to […]

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MERIDIAN AUDIO: 101b / 104 Tuner/ M1 Active Speakers

A article we found particularly interesting; we read it start to finish! Meridian Audio was established in 1977 by the designers Bob Stuart and Allen Boothroyd who had made their name with the Lecson ( http://www.lecson.co.uk/faq.html, http://www.thevintageknob.org/THEVAULT2/LECSON/LECSON.html 1974) and Orpheus (1975) range of amplifiers. Bob Stuart has a background of psychoacoustics and electronic engineering while […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

BECOMING A SHREWDER HI-FI BUYER: Part 8

Is this topic relevant to you? This series will focus on how to help a buyer or potential buyer of audio /hifi equipment / stereos make better quality decisions. I’ll come on to ‘quality’ decisions shortly. However I need to clarify who might find this series irrelevant. Easy – anyone who is a stereo equipment […]

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NAIM: Julian Vereker – the interview

This piece was originally published in Stereophile in 1998: One of the big industry stories of 1985 was the split, both personal and commercial, between the British Linn and Naim companies. Led by Ivor Tiefenbrun and Julian Vereker (footnote 1) respectively, both companies had started up in the early 1970s. Both men held similar views, […]

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HELIUS DESIGNS: in conversation with Howard Popeck – part one

Geoffrey ….. why is there such diversity between audiophile values and the audio engineering establishment’s values? I’m not sure there is – indeed, I would argue that, more often than not, audio engineers are just audiophiles who have taken their interest to the next level and gone pro. Perhaps I should start by suggesting that […]

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HELIUS DESIGNS: VTA – “As a starting point, when people refer to Vertical Tracking Angle, VTA -they usually mean Stylus Rake Angle, SRA – in other words, the perpendicularity of the stylus with respect to the groove”

Geoffrey Owen: Somewhat like Terry Wogan and his listener, I feel my first article secured one noble reader. My hope now is to double that number in this follow-up. In my last piece, I suggested the audio industry was populated by three distinct stereotypes, these being gods, gurus and mystics; the first two I’ve covered […]

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