Paul McGowan: If you’re serious about building a high-performance audio system you have to pay attention to the AC power. It’s a constant theme with me because power is the foundation of our systems. There aren’t many great structures standing on weak foundations. Power Plants solve many problems but they need a head start. One […]
AUDIO: DIY / Technical
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PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan As humans, we all know what it feels like to get older and experience wear and tear over time. We may find ourselves slowing down, experiencing aches and pains, and needing more rest than we did in our youth. Is it any different for our stereo systems? Does metal, silicon, […]
Can I use other tubes than the EL34s on the Marantz 9s? The amps themselves and the manuals are marked with those specific tubes. So I don’t know if tube rolling would create problems. If you feel it’s technically possible and advantageous, what would you recommend in connection with the Quads? Also, a phase issue […]
Paul McGowan … Perhaps the single biggest reason to use a switch mode power supply (SMPS) on a power amplifier is that the output of a properly designed one is more like perfect DC than that of a conventional supply; and not just by a little bit. Conventional supplies switch back and fourth between plus […]
Mr. Vronsky … have you experienced your system sounding different, in the same room, at different times of the day and indeed at weekends and week days? Oh very much so, yes. One of the crushing things that you feel when you need to calm you and encourage you in life for music and you […]
Originally published 2014 John … in the audiophile world Benchmark Media have entered quickly and built a terrific reputation from scratch. Very impressive. However from your perspective, how do you see the differences between studio buyers and audiophile end users? The short answer is that audiophiles talk more. Audiophiles are passionate about their love for […]
I often speak in terms that make a few people nervous. Take for example the notion that speaker cables damage sound quality. To me, this is a fairly obvious notion. Since cables are passive they cannot addanything, but they sure can subtract. When a conduit of sound subtracts from that which was intended to be delivered […]
Following my post about cable damage, it occurs to me that there is an opportunity for an interesting experiment. We’ve all seen the techno-wizard’s proof that cables make zero difference. They routinely put a cable on the AP and under real world conditions show that what goes in comes out the other end. I am certain their […]
There are very few systems that are truly full range. The shortcomings of rooms and speakers often preclude simple setups from delivering all there is on a disc. Take Music Room Three at PS Audio. The spot in the room where the FR30s disappear and one finds themselves totally immersed in the music happens to […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Things happen whether we accept them or not, like the old question about trees making noise when they fall. What would happen if we framed the age-old question of measurements vs. subjectivity differently? Instead of stating what we cannot do—if you can’t measure it it doesn’t exist—why not ask—what can […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan On a good day, the limits of human hearing are said to be 20kHz. As we age, that goes down in frequency. So why, you might ask, do we expect our electronics and loudspeakers to produce frequencies well above our ability to hear them? In the case of PS Audio […]
Capacitors are interesting components. They serve as frequency dividers, energy storage units, and DC blockers (among other things). I’ve written before about my experience so many years ago learning about capacitor bypassing—adding a smaller capacitor in parallel with a bigger one to improve the sound quality of an amp or preamp. Why is that better […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan In 1897 a former patient of Dr. John Kellog, Charles “C.W.” Post, mixed a batter of wheat and barley together then baked it in his oven. What came out was a hard brown sheet of material with a slightly sweet and nutty taste. Post then broke apart the sheet and […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan I have yet to meet anyone that hasn’t been able to hear the benefits of playing music on a high-end audio system like that in Music Room II. Time and again, people unaware of what high-end audio has to offer are jaw-dropping surprised at how much better a proper high-end […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan One of our readers emailed me asking about proximity to his speakers. It was an interesting question. “As I move around the room I find the sweet spot to be 2 feet in front of my 8 foot separated speakers. Am I too close?” First, let me say I admire […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Gosh, people struggle so hard to understand that which does not make sense to them. It’s a rare person that can leap from faith. On our YouTube channel, I do my best to share with folks my experiences with what I hear, with what we hear, as a company. It’s not made […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan How many among us have true dedicated listening rooms? I’ll bet fewer than 1% of a fairly big audience. No, I think most people have their home audio systems in their shared living space. Part of the home decor, to be enjoyed by all who live in the house. In […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan For many years, the only reference I had to a shorting plug was the handmade kind we built in engineering. Here, we took an RCA connector and to its body, we soldered a wire tying its center pin to the outer shell. We made similar versions for XLR connectors. We […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan One of the most common questions I cannot answer is about matching power amps to Power Plants. It seems such an obvious question and you’d think the answer would be straight forward. But, you’d be incorrect. The problem with matching power amps to Power Plants happens because we don’t have […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan One of our readers emailed me asking about proximity to his speakers. It was an interesting question. “As I move around the room I find the sweet spot to be 2 feet in front of my 8 foot separated speakers. Am I too close?” First, let me say I admire […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Things happen whether we accept them or not, like the old question about trees making noise when they fall. What would happen if we framed the age-old question of measurements vs. subjectivity differently? Instead of stating what we cannot do—if you can’t measure it it doesn’t exist—why not ask—what can […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan My friend, Keith Howard, wrote me a wonderfully insightful note that I will share with you. END
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan There are a lot of parameters audio design engineers must consider when crafting a new amplification circuit. Chief among them is the dynamic ability of a circuit to properly reproduce transients. Transient response in an audio system refers to how quickly and accurately the system responds to changes in the […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Their excitement comes from understanding the challenge of making an air piston (which is what a speaker driver is) that can start and stop in perfect synch with the instructions from your power amplifier. To accomplish that feat one would prefer a cone (the piston part) that had zero mass […]