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 place for […]
AUDIO The Insider
Found 438 results
Popular audiophile lore has it that a mismatch in impedance between the preamp and amplifier will result in bass loss. Yup. If the amp’s input impedance is too low weaker bass will be the result. That’s true in the same way it’s important to pump the car’s accelerator before starting it. In the days of […]
Yesterday’s post sparked a number of comments and observations and one that came to the forefront was the ability of the subwoofer to help with a sense of space – not just hitting lower bass notes. We all recognize a sub’s ability to produce the lowest notes of a piano or organ, T-Rex stomping and […]
Recently we covered one of the advantages of the higher power supply voltages afforded by tube circuits: linearity. Today we’ll jump into the second advantage of increased voltage, headroom in power amplifiers. Headroom is a funny thing. If you take a SET amplifier of perhaps 18 watts and try and get 20 watts out of […]
ETHAN WINER: This is a video version of my workshop “Lies, Damn Lies, and Audio Gear Specs” from the October 2013 AES show in New York City. Panelists are Ethan Winer, Mike Rivers, Scott Dorsey, and David Moran. This video explains how the fidelity of audio equipment is assessed and measured, and is an offshoot […]
One of our customers was upset because he loved the sound of our phono preamplifier directly into his power amplifier but then not so much when he inserted his preamp between the phono stage and his amp. His question, naturally, was this: if my preamp sounds great by itself and the phono stage sounds great […]
It was an active bass correction device that made sense – because instead of correcting the output of the speakers for bass problems in the room – it fixed the room itself and left the main speakers alone. Not sure whatever happend to it but it mirrors an idea I’ve had for years: fixing the […]
It sure is easy getting lulled into a routine and forgetting to think about those things that I know so well; but I seem to do it on a regular basis. Case in point, the difference in cables. I’ve spent literally years designing audio and power cables and trying to gain an understanding of why […]
Not until we got deeply immersed in the building of a state-of-the-art recording label, Octave Records did it occur to us just how important the recording/mixing monitors are to the final outcome. Consider that every single decision made in any recording is 100% determined by ear. No measurement arguments live here. If the guitar sounds too bright […]
Brand and pedigree set expectations. A Mundorf or REL capacitor has more good feelings associated with them than an XYZ capacitor. Yet, that XYZ capacitor might just blow the socks off either brand. The trick, then, is to avoid the manufacturer’s easy way out: choosing a recognizable brand to delight the eye of the customer […]
Whenever I am asked what I do for a living there’s a common pattern of questioning that follows. “My family owns a small company that makes HiFi equipment.” “Oh, like Sony?” “No. Our customers are audiophiles.” What follows is the inevitable eyebrow raise as the second half of the word audio-phile leaves my mouth. “An audiophile is […]
A few months back, the Daily Express took it upon themselves to review PJ Harvey’s most recent album, Let England Shake. They must have noted that it had been hailed elsewhere as not merely a good album, a highlight of an already stellar career, but an important work that underlined the matchless power wielded by […]
Dynamic range describes the difference between soft and loud. What’s not defined is how soft or how loud—only the magnitude between the two—which is a problem if the softest sounds fall below the threshold of audibility. When that happens the range of dynamics is truncated, a fact not apparent when quoting dynamic range figures. I’ll […]
Bi-wiring, bi-amplification. How does all this work and why would anyone with a pair of loudspeakers make this happen? Watch Now
Some of us are stuck with smaller sized rooms to place our 2-channel high-end audio systems. Is there a way to maximize that experience getting the most out of our system’s performance in a smaller room? Watch Now
The three pillars of reproduced music are the recording, storage, and reproduction. Which of these pillars can be improved upon? Paul suggests the recordings themselves could be. Watch Now
Howard Popeck … Launched in 1980, the maker’s claims were, on the face of it, outrageous; “True high-fidelity performance at half-speed”. Although cassette recording and play-back technology were, through outstanding engineering, approaching the theoretical limits of what could be achieved, and enthusiasm for the medium was probably at its peak, true audiophiles rarely accepted that […]
HI-FI WORLD tell us … This typical example gets the issue of Damping Factor into perspective. Amplifiers commonly have an output impedance of 0.1 Ohms. Loudspeaker cables will add 0.3 Ohms or so, and the low pas bass inductor of a loudspeaker – in this case a World Audio Design KLS9 measures 0.66 Ohms even with a […]
One of our HiFi Family members mentioned to me the other day they sometimes felt as if they were on the upgrade merry-go-round. With each new piece of gear he bought from us the system got noticeably better to the point where he realized the other components were needing an upgrade as well. I think […]
I have always been enamored with the idea of building a state-of-the-art active monitor. Yup, what a great product that would be. Only, there’s no room for customizing. One of the things we as audiophiles do is tailor our sound systems to our tastes. If I am unhappy with the top end of my system […]
The double blind test where neither the subject nor the interviewer knows what’s being tested is assumed to be the gold standard in unbiased testing. Yet, there are problems with this method when evaluating sound quality. Watch Now
Although originally published in 2012 we feel this to be a worthwhile and relevant article. You love music, but even if you consider yourself a true audiophile, the cost of high-end sound can be, frankly, a little absurd. We talked with a handful of audio experts to find out how to get audiophile-calibre sound without […]
Amps, preamps, speakers? What component has the greatest influence on sound quality in a two-channel system and why? Watch Now
Does it make sense to buy a new amplifier when all it might have taken to get better sound was an afternoon working with the system? I think these are all valid questions. In the short run, if you’ve exhausted all the avenues of tweaking then clearly it’s time to buy that new piece of […]