BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Speaker Sensitivity and Amplifier Power

John Siau writes: Speaker sensitivity is a measure of how loud a speaker will play at a given input power or at a given input voltage. Sensitivity is normally measured with a 1 watt power input or a 2.83 Vrms voltage input. The acoustic output is normally measured in an anechoic space at a distance […]

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EMMINENT TECHNOLOGY: Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Bruce Thigpen – Eminent Technology

Hello Bruce. You are I believe not only the conceptualiser but the senior engineer, team leader and public face of the company. Have I got that right? Yes that’s right, I wear a lot of hats and frequently have reservations about my qualifications. Are you by training and/or an electronic expert, mechanical engineer, acoustician or […]

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BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Balanced vs. Unbalanced Analog Interfaces

John Siau writes: If you look at the back of any Benchmark product, you will find balanced XLR analog-audio connectors. As a convenience, we also provide unbalanced RCA connectors on many of our products. In all cases, the balanced interfaces will provide better performance. We build our unbalanced interfaces to the same high standards as […]

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CAUTION: This is the same technique used by a magician trying to trick you

Originally published 2016 In a recent post I apparently gave out a bad link to this fellow’s video so here’s another.   In the video, when you get a chance to watch it, you’ll probably pickup quite a few valuable tidbits of information and get a good view of how an engineer might tend to look […]

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BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Laboratory Use of the Benchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier

John Siau writes: SEAS driver test system uses Benchmark AHB2 SEAS, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality loudspeakers, selected the Benchmark AHB2 as a key component for use in testing loudspeakers. They created an innovative test system that measures loudspeaker motor strength and moving mass with higher accuracy than previous methods. This new measurement system was […]

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SPICA: John Bau interview – Interstellar Overdrive

John Atkinson (Stereophile) writes ….. Elsewhere in this issue, I review the new Spica Angelus loudspeaker, only the fourth product to appear from this Santa Fe-based manufacturer since it started operations at the end of the 1970s. You will have to read the review to learn what I thought of the speaker, a distinctively styled […]

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BENCHMARK: Audio application notes – Laboratory Use of the Benchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier

John Siau writes: SEAS driver test system uses Benchmark AHB2 SEAS, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality loudspeakers, selected the Benchmark AHB2 as a key component for use in testing loudspeakers. They created an innovative test system that measures loudspeaker motor strength and moving mass with higher accuracy than previous methods. This new measurement system was […]

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CHORD COMPANY: This is what Chord’s digital designer Rob Watts had to say about power cables

Rob Watts writes ….. In the ’80s, there was a buzz going around that mains cables made a big difference to the sound, so I tried experimenting. Yes you could hear a difference, even under blind conditions. And this was with one of my pre-amps that had 3 stages of regulation – 210dB of rejection […]

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TRANSPARENT CABLE: An Interview Josh Clark

Jacob Heilbrun writes: Transparent Cable, one of the most storied names in the audio business, has released a new line of cables called Generation 5. What follows below is a recent conversation I had with Transparent designer Josh Clark. Jacob Heilbrunn: Some audiophiles swear by cables. Others swear at them. What’s your take? Josh Clark: […]

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KEF: Jack Oclee-Brown on Making Affordable Speakers

Back in the early summer of 2017, Jack Oclee-Brown, KEF’s Head of Acoustics, visited John Atkinson to set up the KEF Reference 5 loudspeakers in his listening room. JA’s review of the Ref 5 was published in October 2017, and during Jack’s visit JA talked to him about the design of that speaker. But they […]

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FRENCH HI-FI: Ms. Nathalie Fougues, senior designer at newly emergent French audio maker Why Not

Hello Nathalie. How did your interest in music reproduction start? My interest in music is natural; I am as thrilled by the music of nature as I am the sounds of people and their music. From birdsong and wind to industrial rhythms; all sounds interesting me. For a few years I studied music theory and […]

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MARK LEVINSON: His Milestone Year

This piece originally appeared in Stereophile in May 2002: Mark Levinson, born December 11, 1946, celebrates an important anniversary in 2002. Exactly 30 years ago he jogged onto the playing field of high-end audio, so early in the game that fans, then few and far between, could count the players on their fingers. The high-fidelity […]

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So if less is more – and it is in audio – then how do we move away from these intrusive rolled sandwiches of goo, metal and plastic to couple our audio kit to the outside world?

Paul McGowan If we have a choice in our designs we’d prefer to have as little in the signal path as we can – the proverbial straight wire with gain would be ideal – but of course that’s just a myth. It’s been pointed out that perhaps this idea of minimal obstructions in the music’s […]

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BEL CANTO: Audiophile interview: John Stronczer – Bel Canto

Steve Lees: John Stronczer is the owner and product designer at Bel Canto. Starting out designing tube based amplifiers, John has moved his company firmly to the forefront of audio with a range of digital control centers (DACs) and Class D amplification. In this interview I ask John about that progression. SL: How did you […]

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PS AUDIO: It’s fundamental

Paul McGowan writes: I’ll get back to analog output stages soon enough but I got waylaid on our Community Forums area by an article posted by one of our Community Leaders, Gordon.  The article is about how the ear works and, if you’re interested, you can read it here. I find all this interesting because […]

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NELSON PASS: The Patents Of Pass

Brian Damkroger ….. If high-end audio were to carve its own Mt. Rushmore, whose faces would appear there—besides that of Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt, of course? It’s likely that no two audiophiles would ever come up with identical lists of subjects, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they could agree on at least one […]

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PIERRE LURNE: Interview

Geoff Husband (TNT-Audio ezine) writes: One of the joys of doing my series of turntable tests has been discovering the enthusiasm that seems universal with anyone connected with vinyl. One person stands out and that is Pierre Lurné of Audiomeca. This man has been deeply involved in vinyl reproduction for well over 30 years now […]

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TecSArt: Amando Fontana of TecSArt; an audiophile company of some repute in mainland Europe and probably unknown in the UK

Editor’s note: Howard discovered http://tecsart.com/en/ and we thought that instead of our usual approach of sending a set of questions and then printing those with the answers, we’d do it a bit differently this time. I asked Howard to write to them with an invitation to write up to 1,000 words on the French audiophile […]

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