My little riff on power amplifiers and how I could tell I had a winner really sparked off a lot of comments and questions of where to buy or when it’s going to be available. One of you even scolded me about being a tease without offering anything in return. Let me just suggest my […]
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Wikipedia describes Confirmation Bias as this: The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The […]
The shape of a room can be modelled using echoes produced from sound, new research has found. Like bats who emit sounds in order to navigate, researchers can now plug sounds into a computer algorithm to map a room. The team were able to build a full 3D image of a room using four microphones […]
If your room isn’t good enough then investing in a wonderful pair of speakers is a waste of resources. Kind of like the idea that if you’re not a gourmet you cannot appreciate fine food. Poppycock. Of course it is true our rooms play a huge role in helping and hurting our HiFi system’s performance. […]
MQA has everyone talking but what exactly is it? What’s its goals and how does it sound? Some suggest it’s the devil incarnate while others believe it’s a gift from heaven. What’s the truth? Watch Now Paul McGowan
First off, what do we mean by the term efficiency? It refers to the production of heat vs. the production of sound. Think of it in the same way you might think of fuel efficiency. How many miles per gallon does a car get? The more efficient the car, the more miles per gallon. The […]
Paul McGowan writes: Dipoles are unique. Sound comes out of both sides of the speaker. How close to the rear wall should the dipole be placed? Watch Now
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 ▸
There is a fundamental difference between projects worked in parallel or in series yet both have their merits. In the former, multiple tasks and projects are tackled at the same time while with the latter, every step follows the next. Each of us operates at different levels with respect to how we handle projects. Some […]
One of the easier ways to get on the wrong path is to build an understanding based on piecing together little-understood terms. A good example of this problem might be explained in my earlier post about dynamic range. Relying only on the measured numbers to achieve a more dynamic recording can easily lead to the opposite. […]
A few years ago when we were researching the PS Audio PowerBase product I spent a few weeks digging into the sonic impacts of vibration control. What I discovered is how much of a difference a solid rack or other means of damping and controlling vibrations in our electronics makes. It’s a big deal. It’s […]
In any endeavor, rules, standards, and procedures are essential. They exist to help us wade through often complex tasks. Learning a new system or technique I find myself following carefully the rules that others have established. Once mastered it’s time to start questioning those rules. This approach certainly does not work for everyone. In fact, […]
It has been multiple decades—in fact, most of our adult lives—that neither Terri nor I have consumed meat or fish. To many Americans we encounter we are an anomaly, a curiosity to be poked and prodded to see if we are real. We both giggle when we get that knowing wink of disbelief from a […]
No doubt you’ve heard terms like class A, push pull, , SET, full complimentary, single ended etc. These terms all refer to how we use an amplification device rather than the amplification device itself (like a tube or transistor). Many of us have also heard that tubes produce a warmer sound due to the fact […]
AC power is a complicated subject if quality is to be considered. The number of problems needing attention includes regulation, removal of noise, guarding against surges and spikes, lowering of impedance, isolation, restoring missing energy, attaining the correct level, uncontaminated grounds, ensuring there is enough current (both dynamic and steady state) for the job. What […]
The goal of psychoacoustics is to understand how people perceive and experience sound. This can be at a low level; for example, we might want to understand how accurately you can locate a sound source, or we might want to measure the smallest change in sound level you can detect. We can also work at […]
It’s somewhat of a mystery why vinyl can sound more dynamic when in fact it is more compressed. Much has to do with the technical measurement versus the perceived measurement. The meaning of dynamic range is the difference between the loudest and softest sounds. The bigger the gap between loud and soft determines the technical dynamic range number of a recording […]
Seems to me the more complex the system the more I tend to approach its operation as if it had a mind of its own. I often think of equipment as being somewhat temperamental which causes me to approach with caution. As devices get “smarter” anthropomorphizing them seems a natural consequence. For the briefest of […]
Paul McGowan: When it comes to the recording industry there are no standards. There are, however, personal standards for each company. Take Octave Records for example. Working with DSD is always going to be a challenge with compromises, but so too is analog. In fact, the only analog process I know of without compromise is […]
When done correctly mastering, recording, and mixing are more art than technique. Just ask our own Gus Skinas. And the art is in the listening (perhaps nothing too surprising to us audiophiles). Another master of the arts is our good friend Cookie Marenco of Blue Coast. She, like Gus, and everyone at Octave Records relies upon […]
We’ve all heard of film caps costing upwards of a hundred dollars and gold plated connectors more expensive than diamond rings. Why don’t manufacturers use them more? Are they simply hocukm or real? Watch Now
Describing what we hear as having a texture is an interesting Audiophile term. What’s the texture of a violin or a tuba? Do these instruments even have a texture? Not really, this is yet another term used to describe something we hear in a manner that is easier for us to relate to. Cloth has […]
As we wound up our series on power supplies several of you mentioned what would seem to be the best power supply of them all: a battery. Indeed, a battery delivers perfect DC without any ripple or noise and is completely independent on the quality of the incoming AC. It would seem to be the […]